| Well, first and foremost, why do we do anything | | | | Why can't the past just die?and, |
| we do? How often do we really know what we | | | | Dreaming of you won't help me to do |
| do? That mischievous imp (or fairy) that led you | | | | The things that you dreamed I would |
| to do A instead of B and cause all that trouble | | | | The phantom is revealed, and in that graveyard, |
| last Thursday was probably inspired by some idea | | | | whilst she struggles with her feelings, the young |
| or feeling that you've picked up from your family | | | | man who is her peer, her equal, challenges and |
| or your national culture and have never really | | | | fights the phantom. Eventually, she comes to |
| analysed to the point where you are aware of it. | | | | terms with the 'phantom' - of course, he turns |
| Perhaps you were rude to someone and only | | | | out to be the outcast, the child who was shamed |
| realised later that they reminded you of a teacher | | | | and driven into hiding at the start. She comes to |
| who once bullied you - that's the revenge fairy. | | | | terms with him, but makes her life with the |
| Wouldn't it be nice if we were aware of - and so | | | | young man. |
| in control of - these influences lurking within us! | | | | It takes no more than a brief knowledge of |
| If you believe in those kind of fairies, that's all you | | | | psychology to see that this fight goes on in every |
| need to believe in to get involved in fantasy. It | | | | young woman's head. - Can I tell the difference |
| was difficulty with such entities that led me to | | | | between a father and a life-partner? Can I see |
| read, and become very fond of, C G Jung all | | | | the difference between a relationship of equals |
| those years ago. His work is based on the idea of | | | | and a flight into the false security of being |
| a 'race' or 'collective' memory. He does not insist | | | | controlled by another? |
| on the existence of anything magical but says | | | | But why go to all the bother of visiting the West |
| human beings function 'as if' they are born with a | | | | End and paying for a theatre ticket? Why not just |
| template of 'archetype' characters. In other | | | | use your intellect and learn to avoid Svengalis? |
| words, we know how a mother, daughter, son, | | | | Firstly because not everyone has that kind of |
| lover, wise old man etc should behave; we know | | | | intellect. You can learn the lessons of The |
| what we mean by impish, dragonish etc, and we | | | | Phantom without having to analyse the plot. And |
| use this knowledge as shorthand to explain each | | | | secondly, the intellect deals only with ideas. You |
| other to ourselves. We have a set of common | | | | also need to deal with the emotions - the songs |
| symbols that we use in art and literature to | | | | and the drama of The Phantom do that for you. |
| represent the moods and events around these | | | | Any woman who has the bruises of a failed |
| characters - the sea is the pool of the | | | | relationship to deal with knows instinctively that it |
| unconscious, the stormier the sea, the more | | | | takes more than one listening to those songs to |
| issues you have boiling away under the surface. | | | | sort out the bruises. You keep listening until they |
| Flight is the imagination, the higher amongst the | | | | don't bring tears any more. |
| clouds you are, the nearer to a godly intellect you | | | | Another Case Study - The Earthsea novels of |
| are trying to reach. A castle stands for old | | | | Ursula le Guin |
| power, usually patriarchal, a little cottage in the | | | | Sci-fi and fantasy writer and social commentator |
| wood for matriarchal goings on etc. | | | | Ursula le Guin is one of my heroes. She is a |
| In fairy stories and fantasy games, we see | | | | socialist and a feminist - she is intelligent and |
| children using these symbols to learn the | | | | gentle, and she is a poet. Those things don't often |
| shorthand of our society. What you may not | | | | go together so sweetly! |
| have noticed (although if you are an artist or a | | | | There are not many women writing science |
| fiction writer you probably have) is that we | | | | fiction. The driving force of sci-fi is the 'what if...' |
| continue to use this language all our lives in our | | | | genre. Novels which try out theories of where we |
| dreams, our choices of music and theatre, in the | | | | might be going, and when Le Guin started out on |
| way we choose and decorate our homes - the | | | | her writing career it had largely been taken over |
| list is endless, and as we go through life we add | | | | by people trying out scientific theories - especially |
| more and more detail to our inner templates | | | | those of advanced weaponry and empire-building. |
| according to our personal experience and | | | | But le Guin builds imagined future worlds in order |
| relationships. | | | | to try out theories of social and psychological |
| The literature of early cultures tends to be pure | | | | developments. Ever wondered if anarchy could |
| fantasy - that which has been handed down to us | | | | work? Read 'The Dispossessed'. Ever wondered |
| is known as a culture's 'defining mythology'. In | | | | what it would be like to live without the influence |
| Britain we have King Arthur, Robin Goodfellow, | | | | of gender? Read 'The Left Hand of Darkness'. |
| The Mabinogion. In France they have Melusine and | | | | Some of le Guin's sci-fi and fantasy novels work |
| the lost city of Is. Greece has its Olympian stories | | | | better than others. That is, I believe, because she |
| which have been passed all around the western | | | | is always working at the edge of her |
| world ... Fantasy defines and creates the | | | | understanding, always trying out new ideas. The |
| community. In time, most cultures start | | | | reason a lot of people write off fantasy as boring |
| experimenting more with individualist (realist) | | | | and adolescent is the reams and reams of 'magic |
| fiction and art. That progression seems to be | | | | sword' stuff that has been produced, all of which |
| saying, 'okay, now we know who 'we' are so, | | | | is limited to the idea, I seem to have this big hard |
| within that, who am I? Who are you?' But realist | | | | thing. It has a life of its own, what shall I do with |
| fiction depends on a base of sound fantasy. Look | | | | it? Those stories have their uses if you happen to |
| at the contributions of the weather and the | | | | be a 13 year old boy - and there is such a |
| landscape to the plots of fiction writers like E M | | | | demand for them that they are produced in their |
| Forster and Thomas Hardy. Look at the subtle | | | | millions but there's no virtue in being a mature |
| statements made by landscape and architecture | | | | male and endlessly producing new magic sword |
| in Ishiguro novels. Realist fiction is not an escape | | | | stories. Some of us have other rows to hoe, and |
| from, but an intellectual working in, fantasy. That's | | | | our work won't be so slick because we haven't |
| why I'm of the opinion that an understanding of | | | | set up camp on such well-known territory. |
| fantasy is an advantage no writer should be | | | | Some years ago now, le Guin completed her |
| without. | | | | 'Earthsea trilogy': A set of fantasies about an |
| 'But it's basic, it's generic, an educated person | | | | inquisitive young man who ripped a hole in the veil |
| should bypass that with intellectual understanding,' | | | | between the known and the unknown. Something |
| - said one of my recent arguees. My answer | | | | scary got through and followed him through all |
| would be, 'is our society perfect yet?' Only if you | | | | three books. He trained at a school for magicians |
| are sure the answer is yes, may we dump the | | | | and learned the way to power which is in naming |
| fantasy. | | | | things. Eventually, he learned that the name of the |
| 'But I don't believe in fairies,' said another. My | | | | dark thing that followed him - it was a revelation |
| answer is, 'are all the people in our society at | | | | indeed. |
| peace with their history and their feelings yet? If | | | | The series was flawed though. I got to the end |
| not, do you think we can arrange for everyone | | | | of it feeling a lack of hope, a lack of direction. It |
| to take on full-time psychoanalysis?' Only if you | | | | worried me. The hero's dealings with the country |
| are sure the answer is yes, can we dump the | | | | of the dead were particularly depressing. A few |
| fairies. | | | | years back, I was fascinated to learn that le Guin |
| A more sensible answer might be, a thing doesn't | | | | had written a fourth book which, she said, |
| have to exist to be believable - in fact, there is no | | | | resolved some issues in the previous ones. It is a |
| point in believing in something that exists. Has | | | | wise and satisfying novel and whilst reading it, I |
| anyone ever rang your doorbell, waved a holy | | | | realised that the earlier Earthsea books were |
| book at you and tried to persuade you to believe | | | | disturbing because le Guin had written them |
| in tables or lamp posts? Not necessary is it, cos | | | | before she herself had come to terms with the |
| they exist - we know they do. So belief is for | | | | facts of mortality and suffering. The added book |
| things we need although they may not exist. | | | | solved the issues gracefully. |
| A Case Study - The Phantom of the Opera (the | | | | Flawed fantasy is inevitable. If it is pure, high |
| stage musical) | | | | fantasy the writer must be writing at the limits of |
| It's romantic, simplistic, populist, sensational, a | | | | their understanding - and provoking others who |
| money spinner: Proud academics and intellectuals | | | | have the same issues to deal with. Tolkien's Middle |
| enjoy sniffing at West End Hits. And yet a large | | | | Earth is a good example. The cloistered, |
| proportion of us - especially women - have seen | | | | misogynistic Mr Tolkien had huge gaps in his ability |
| the show, bought the CD, been to the film more | | | | to deal with human relationships. The fact that his |
| than once... because women are silly and romantic, | | | | work was recently made into such a successful |
| or because they are gaining something useful | | | | film showed beautifully the progress we have |
| from it? | | | | (and in some cases haven't) made - For example, |
| The plot is archetypal fantasy - it's a portrait of | | | | it was necessary to give more of the action to |
| the female psyche. A boy-child is rejected, | | | | the female characters to make the film |
| shamed, brutalised. A young girl who is being | | | | acceptable to modern viewers. And there was |
| trained to be a beautiful, elegant dancer rescues | | | | much discussion about how the orcs - the |
| and hides him. | | | | irredeemable baddies - should look: Big black |
| A young woman loses her father. She | | | | guys?? Stupid, loveable rogues? - in reviewing and |
| remembers his promise of an 'Angel of Music' to | | | | discussing those issues, the state of our racism, |
| save her. She has to compete with an aging | | | | speciesism and gender attitudes were brought out |
| prima donna in order to establish herself. | | | | and assessed in a very promising way. |
| She is seduced by a mysterious, older man who | | | | I have a fancy to make a law that anyone who |
| claims the role her father promised - he sets | | | | wishes to be a politician or hold a position of |
| himself up as the Angel of Music. As the story | | | | power in our society should first write and publish |
| reaches its climax, she visits a graveyard, trying | | | | a few fantasy novels. Let us see, as HG Wells let |
| to separate in her mind the memories of her | | | | us see, what their dreams are really made of. Let |
| father from the problems of today. She sings, | | | | them show us their fantasies, before they ask |
| Too many years fighting back tears | | | | for permission to build real worlds. |