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  • Fantasy in a Mythless Age
  • John S. Morris (bio)

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, two of the meanings of the root word from which the word "fantasy" is derived, i.e., φαντασία, are

  1. 1. appearance - often a spectral apparition, phantom; and

  2. 2. imagination.

The common present-day meaning of fantasy is "caprice, whim, fanciful invention." Both of the root meanings suggest that the word fantasy is used to represent a discontinuity with known reality:

  1. a. Appearance. That which is given to us with a vision which is "unearthly"—the spectral apparition which cannot be tested by the senses, but is 'known' to be present as that which is "unreal"—the phantom is an unreal specter that nevertheless has real power over us in its presence.

  2. b. Imagination as "the process of forming mental representations of things not present" thus also has the meaning of that which is somehow "unreal," unexpected, fanciful. It is also extravagant or visionary fancy.

The characteristic features of fantasy—invention, unreality, the unearthly, and the imaginative—show us that a distinction should be drawn between the literature of fantasy and fiction. Fiction, in its usual sense, carries with it the notion of imagination; but it is as an imaginative arrangement of that which is rooted in our everyday experience that fiction can be called imaginative. One definition of fiction is: "The action of 'feigning' or inventing imaginary incidents, existences, states of things whether for the purpose of deception or otherwise" (O.E.D.). Fiction simply suggests that it is a rearrangement of the ordinary rather than that it is the "extra-ordinary." It has about it a suggestion that it has the power to deceive us because what it deals with is so like our world. Fantasy, however, does not simply rearrange the ordinary, but presents us instead with the extraordinary. The "appearance" is an extraordinary appearance. A phantom, after all, is not simply something seen with the eyes, but is that which, by its inexplicable presence, throws us into a state of terror because it is not of this world.

A fundamental characteristic of the literature of fantasy, therefore is that it not only is imaginative but is in some way or other "not of this world." Science fiction can be classified as fantasy because much of its action takes place "outside of this world" in some other planet or galaxy. This extra-terrestial location [End Page 77] is very significant. The science fiction stories of C. S. Lewis imagine a world, quite different from ours, which is peopled by beings quite distinguishable from humans. Tolkien's novels create an even more imaginary world with its own language system, its own logic, and its own system of rewards. It is a fantastic creation, not peopled by creatures which we would immediately be comfortable with should we meet on on the street.

Literature of the occult also can be considered as fantasy because it suggests this same "other-worldliness." In Charles Williams' novels events occur in this world, but this world is taken up into a world of supernatural phenomena: the dead still walk the streets, time scales merge with each other, unearthly powers converge upon objects, and so on. These worlds are all quite fantastic.

The "other worldly" character of fantasy calls myth to mind. Myth after all, appears to us to be fantasy. Whatever else they are, myths are fantastic stories. They are stories about the birth of the gods, the first impact of the gods in the world. We call any fictitious story that we know to be fraudulent a "myth." But a "myth," as distinguished from saga or legend, while in a sense fictitious, involves "supernatural passions, actions or events." But we should remember that the man who lived in the world for whom the myth was meaningful did not see the myth as a fantastic invention. It was for him the completely normal way of living in the world. The myth for him was the story which gave shape and form to his own perception of a unified world, and which played a part in his dealing with the very real problems of his existence in this world. It pictured a...

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