Contemporary (Modern) Fantasy

Compared with “Science Fiction,” fantasy literature is fairly easy to define. Like with the genres of westerns, buddy-cop movies, and hospital drama, we recognize something as "fantasy" according to its stock characters, situation and plots:

Knights, squires, peasants... Wizards, sorcerers, and witches... Kings (often King Arthur), queens, princes,Hermits, damsels in distress

Presented by Brent Daigle, Ph.D. (ABD)

fairies, elves... Dragons, princesses... The Middle Ages, Middle Earth... Magic swords, shields, spells, books...

Presented by Brent Daigle, Ph.D. (ABD)

The most important of these is "magic," which must be clearly shown in the story not to be "miracles," as this then becomes a religious story, not a fantasy.The magic must also have no science-based explanation, or the story is science-fiction.

Presented by Brent Daigle, Ph.D. (ABD)

Ultimately, you really have to have those traditional elements of wizards (or at least witches), and maybe a dragon or castle or king, for people to feel comfortable calling it "fantasy."

Presented by Brent Daigle, Ph.D. (ABD)

The more magical, the more distant and fantastic dragons and wizards and knights in shining armor seem to us, the more they seem to speak to us, to represent our lives as they are and as we'd like them to be -- or, more accurately, as we perceive them, and as we think we'd like them to be. Presented by Brent Daigle, Ph.D. (ABD)

I'm pretty sure that most of us, if really forced to go on a long journey into the woods and then kill a huge flying creature that breathes fire, would wish at some point to be safe at home.

Presented by Brent Daigle, Ph.D. (ABD)

The magic must have no science-based explanation, or the story is science-fiction.

Presented by Brent Daigle, Ph.D. (ABD)

Magic itself is the key here, for all sorts of stories have journeys and royalty and creatures and things in them. Magic provides those elements of uncertainty, of danger, of great reward that cause fantasy stories to resonate not just with our lives, but with the most important parts of our lives.

Presented by Brent Daigle, Ph.D. (ABD)

A story of magic can touch our deepest fears and greatest hopes, because the highest and lowest points of our lives feel magical: beyond our control, sent from above (or below), beyond our abilities to deal with, out of our realm of understanding. Presented by Brent Daigle, Ph.D. (ABD)

There may be a fantasy story out there somewhere that doesn't have a journey, but I have yet to see it. The movement into/across/out of new lands is essential to the establishment of the tale as a symbol for our lives.

Presented by Brent Daigle, Ph.D. (ABD)

Even for creatures already living in magical lands, the challenge is to go into deeper (and usually darker) magic. The only characters moving away from magic are either those for whom the task is over, the general peasantry who are being saved, or the story's villains.

Presented by Brent Daigle, Ph.D. (ABD)

Knights, squires, peasants...

...are us, of course: the heroes and main characters. While such characters may own and wield magical things, they are not themselves magical, and usually know little of magic. The wise ones, in fact, have a healthy respect, even apprehension, regarding magic. The foolish ones grab a magic thing and throw it around, often with disastrous results. The brave ones face up to the horrors of magic, and the triumphant ones reap magic's rewards.

Presented by Brent Daigle, Ph.D. (ABD)

Wizards, mages, sorcerers, witches... These are the experts in magic, the people who guide us, but whom we do not completely trust. They are powerful for their knowledge, but tainted by their association with the unknown. They live in danger of succumbing to the power of the ring, the evil of the dark side.

Presented by Brent Daigle, Ph.D. (ABD)

Kings, queens, princes... ...authority figures, large and small, present and future.

Presented by Brent Daigle, Ph.D. (ABD)

Hermits, damsels in distress, gatekeepers, crones, fairies, elves...

...the people our heroes meet on the journey, as varied and odd as the people we meet in our own lives. Presented by Brent Daigle, Ph.D. (ABD)

...our tools, the things we use in our "magic" world, and that are used against us.

Magic swords, shields, armor, spells, books...

Presented by Brent Daigle, Ph.D. (ABD)

Dragons, princesses...

...our challenges and the rewards.

Princess Máxima of the Netherlands

Presented by Brent Daigle, Ph.D. (ABD)

Why are dragons still the key thing to

hunt and slay and conquer? Why haven't ogres or trolls had their time at the top of the fight chain?Presented by Brent Daigle, Ph.D. (ABD)

They tap into our basic, healthy dislike of reptiles.

Perhaps most importantly, however, they are strong and they fly. Unlike actual flying creatures -- birds -- they present a genuine threat to man as well as the greatest quality to conquer. They are magical instruments of death and a possible avenue to the skyPresented by Brent Daigle, Ph.D. (ABD)

The Middle Ages, Middle Earth...

This is fantasy's version of the single greatest and most frequent historical myth: The Golden Age. There has never been a time recorded when people did not complain that things were better in the past.

Presented by Brent Daigle, Ph.D. (ABD)

The Middle Ages, Middle Earth...

Everything looks simpler, better, purer, and easier when you're looking back on it, in great part because we are combining the historical past with our own past, when we were younger, simpler, less spoiled, and stronger. Fantasy calls us back to the time when all things were possible (because we had yet to learn any better), when giants ruled the land, when everything is life or death, love or hate, good or evil.

Presented by Brent Daigle, Ph.D. (ABD)

The End

Presented by Brent Daigle, Ph.D. (ABD)