Reflections on the Fantastic. Selected Essays from the Fourth International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts ed. by Michael R. Collings (review)

B o o k R e v ie w s Christian. What is one to make of an arena of critical discourse in which one is free to con­ nect Kubrick’s The Shining to Heidegger’s concept of Lichtungl The power generated by this series of essays comes from the bringing together of realms normally kept separate: the application of a prestigious academic discourse to a type of literature previously noncanonical reveals the inherent interest of the fantastic as well as its multifarious relationship to the tradition. Every essay in the collection is interesting from a theoretical perspective because each, by its participation in this volume, brings into question the meaning and function of genre, theme, and critical discourse itself. The variety of critical methods in the volume often creates satisfying resonances: William Schuyler’s analysis of the possible moral valuations of magical practices, in “ The Ethical Status of Magic,” is given a socio-historical foundation in “ The Disenchantment of Magic,” by Jules Zanger and Robert G. Wolf. Zanger and Wolf explain the shift from the archetype of the evil sorcerer to the modern, more American, stereotype of the adept manipulator of a value-neutral force as due to a shift in the social meaning of technology, in turn due to a general shift from a humanistic culture to a technocratic one: “ the writing community today comes from and writes for a class in which literary culture is . . . nurtured and maintained by scientific culture, rather than threatened by it.” But they strike a note of caution: if the earlier Everyman hero of fantastic fiction has been replaced by a specialist, is this not “ an expression of our loss of faith in the ability of everyday men and women to confront the evil we face” ? O f interest for the student of French literature is Raymond G. Lepage’s “ Marc Chagall’s Fantastic Vision of La Fontaine’s Fables,” although this reader found his appreciative tone sometimes cloying (“ Chagall, more than any other artist, has truly cap­ tured the genius of La Fontaine” ). O f perhaps greater interest is David J. Bond’s “ The Function of Eroticism and Fantasy in the Fiction of André Pieyre de M andiargues.” Bond’s analysis of the relationship between these two elements in the œuvre of this rela­ tively unknown writer reveals the central function of both: to allow the ego to lose itself in the boundless freedom of the eternal present. By allowing the irruption of the erotic and the fantastic into his texts, Pieyre de Mandiargues penetrates to “ a longing that possesses all men at one time,” thus rehabilitating the marginal. This breakdown of official boun­ daries that allows one thing to flow into its opposite: is it not a paradigm for the power of this entire volume? R o b e r t S t e e l e The Ohio State University Michael R. Collings, ed. R e f l e c t i o n s o n t h e F a n t a s t i c . S e l e c t e d E s s a y s f r o m t h e F o u r t h I n t e r n a t i o n a l C o n f e r e n c e o n t h e F a n t a s t i c in t h e A r t s . New York; West­ port, C t .; London: Greenwood Press, 1986. The present volume is number 24 in the ongoing series, Contributions to the Study o f Science Fiction and Fantasy, published by Greenwood Press. As the editor states in the Preface, these essays do not represent the broad scope covered by earlier conference pro­ ceedings. Thus, the title, Reflections on the Fantastic, is an accurate mirror of the contents, which are not in-depth studies but short considerations of varied topics and writers. The articles have not been expanded from the original oral conference presentations, which makes them concise, but also superficial at times. I would have welcomed longer treatments in several cases. In three sections, the...