For Tuesday: Lord Dunsany, Tales of Fantasy and Reality

For Tuesday: Lord Dunsany, In The Land of Time

Read the stories in Part IV. Fantasy and Reality: “The Wonderful Window,” “The Coronation of Mr. Thomas Shap,” “The City on Mallington Moor,” “The Bureau d’Echnage de Maux,” “The Exile’s Club,” “Thirteen at Table,” and “The Last Dream of Bwona Khubla” (pp.219-259)

Answer 2 of the 4 questions...

1. Many of these stories seem to cross numerous genre boundaries, from ghost stories to mysteries and folk legends.  Given this diversity, why might we consider each one part of the larger genre of “fantasy” literature?  What definition of the genre (or of Lord Dunsany’s art) helps characterize these stories as part of the fantasy tradition that we’ve seen with White and Coleridge? 

2. The horror/fantasy writer, H.P. Lovecraft, who was a great admirer of Dunsany, wrote of these stories, “Instead of remaining what the true fantaisiste must be—a child in a child’s world of dream—he became anxious to show that he was really an adult good-naturedly pretending to be a child in a child’s world” (Joshi, xiv).  Based on this, do you see these stories as a revision of his former philosophy in The Gods of Pegāna?  Is he being a more "adult" writer here?  Or are they cut from the same cloth, despite their more modern setting?  Discuss a specific story or moment that illustrates your view. 

3. In the story, “The Coronation of Mr. Thomas Shap,” the title character began to “care less and less for the things we care about, for the affairs of Shap, a business-man in London.  He began to despise the man with a royal contempt” (227).  Based on this, how might we read many of these stories as a satire on modern life, the life of business and accounts and respectability?  Where else can we see Dunsany mocking the pretensions of London society which are so easily cast aside by his dreamers and visionaries?

4. Most of these stories are about invisible worlds that most people cannot see, and whose existence rests on the veracity of a single narrator.  Are we meant to view these narrators as “unreliable” and question the very nature of their eyewitness accounts?  In other words, are they making fun of the people telling the stories...or does Dunsany fully expect us to believe their tales of wonder?  How can we tell?

The Intersection of Myth and the Mundane: Building Around the Elves in Iceland

Here's an interesting article from The Guardian about the necessity to accommodate the presence of the elves and other supernatural creatures while obtaining building permits in Iceland.  Around 80% of Icelanders believe in--or refuse to deny the existence of--elves and fairies (basically, all the stuff Lord Dunsany and Tolkein write about).  Might be a nice counterpoint to the dismissal of fantasy literature as not grounded in "reality."

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/mar/25/iceland-construction-respect-elves-or-else

For Thursday: Lord Dunsany and the Gods of Pegana

For Thursday: Lord Dunsany, “The Gods of Pegāna” (pp.4-48)

Answer 2 of the following questions…

1. Joseph Campbell wrote that “No, mythology is not a lie, mythology is poetry, it is metaphorical.  It has been well said that mythology is the penultimate truth—penultimate because the ultimate cannot be put into words.”  How might we look at Lord Dunsany’s mythology as a poem that tries to translate some abstract element about life (or death) into the visible terms of gods or legends?  Discuss one of the mini-chapters as a way of illustrating this. 

2. In “The Sayings of Imbaun,” the great prophet Imbaun claims that “I only know that I and men know naught concerning the gods or aught concerning men” (42).  What does this say about the role of knowledge in Pegāna?  What ultimately separates the wisdom of gods and men?  What does one know that the other doesn’t?  How is Imbaun initiated into this secret knowledge by the High Prophets? 

3. Why couldn’t this collection of myths and legends work as a unified religion?  How does Lord Dunsany make sure we don’t misinterpret is as literal fact (the way we might an organized religion), but instead, as a collection of poetic puzzles that remind us, “Their nature is your nature, and all of these wonderful poetic images of mythology are referring to something in you”? 

4. Discuss the god of Death (Mung) in these works.  He is the most recurring character of the divine pantheon, though in THE END, even he cannot escape his own demise.  How does Lord Dunsany envision him and his relationship to mere mortals?  Why does he write that, “between Pegāna and the Earth flutter ten thousand thousand prayers that beat their wings against the face of Death, and never for one of them hath the hand of the Striker been strayed, nor yet tarried the feet of the Reletnless One” (14).  What kind of god is he?  

Defense Paper Abstract and Announcements

No reading for Tuesday (the Tuesday after break, of course): I'll introduce the theme our next two books, Lord Dunsany's In the Land of Time and Tolkein's The Hobbit.  If you want to read ahead, feel free to read the first stories in Lord Dunsany's book about "The Gods of Pegana," which we will discuss on Thursday.  

Also, I'm posting the Abstract Assignment below, but note that it's not due for some time.  The Paper #2 is due RIGHT AFTER SPRING BREAK (see the assignment a few posts down).  Start thinking about it!  :)

The “Defense Paper” Abstract

I want everyone to finish this class by writing a significant critical paper which ties the themes and books of our class into the “big picture” of literary studies.  In this case, I want you to write a defense of fantasy/science fiction as bona fide literature, and not a subgroup of literature (such as Fantasy, Young Adult, Comic Books, etc.).  No branch of literature has been more influential in the 20th century than fantasy and science fiction, and yet almost no branch is more critically derided, tolerated only in passing when a ‘major’ writer such as Orwell or Atwood turns their attention to it.  Yet characters such as The Invisible Man, Hobbits, the Mariner, H.A.L., Merlyn, and superheroes themselves have entered the realm of mythology: they are metaphors invoked in everyday speech, and the basis for dozens of new works of literature and film.  In short, you can’t seriously study 20th century literature without contemplating the role of science fiction and fantasy in shaping its borders.

The DEFENSE PAPER will be a 10-12 page paper that consists of Three Parts: (a) A definition/defense of “science fiction and fantasy” which explains how you understand it and why this contradicts the stereotype of the form current in popular culture and/or literary studies; (b) a discussion of TWO works from class that develop your definition through example through close reading, outside sources, and (if applicable) biography; and (c) connection with a modern work of fantasy/science fiction that seems to share the same ideas, themes, or aesthetic.  This work could be another (relatively recent) book, film, video game, or album.  Remember that science fiction/fantasy is not relegated to literature alone—it crosses over into all sorts of art forms and modes of expression. 

Your ABSTRACT is a 2-3 page paper which explains the following, even though this could still be in fairly rough form: your working definition of fantasy and science fiction, which you hope to explore in your paper; the two works you want to discuss in your paper and how they seem to fit your definition; and a brief discussion of a modern work you feel also complements your definition.  An abstract doesn’t need to employ close reading or sources (though it could), but should be a general summary of your thoughts-in-process, and ambitions for doing serious research.  You do not need to include an annotated bibliography with your Abstract; all I care about for now is some specific ideas and approaches, which can be expanded and ironed out as you keep reading and writing throughout the semester.

THE ABSTRACT IS DUE FRIDAY, APRIL 3rd BY 5pm in my office (or earlier, if you can; the sooner you get on this, the sooner you can start focusing on the research/reading for the paper) 

For Thursday: The Sword in the Stone, Chs.15-23

For Thursday: White, The Sword in the Stone, Chs. 15-23 (or as close to the end as you can get)

Answer 2 of the 4 questions that follow:

1. What do you make of the scene in Chapter 15 when the Questling Beast begins to waste away when Sir Pellinore stops hunting it?  Initially, it seems like his quest is rather pointless and comical, and yet after this scene he vows to return to the Hunt forever (even though, strangely, he has already caught the Beast).  Is this scene another instance of the foolish and Quixotic nature of knighthood?  Or does this represent/reveal something else entirely? 

2. In Wart’s adventure with the Geese, he tells Lyo-lyok, “I like fighting…It is knightly.”  Her response is, simply, “Because you’re a baby” (170).  Why is the Geese adventure somewhat different from his experiences with the Fish, the Ants, and the Hawks?  Why might the perspective be different with Geese, and what ideas and concepts don’t make sense to them from the “real” world? 

3. In class today (Tuesday), I pointed out the long passage on page 183 where Merlyn explains the importance of learning to Wart: “The best thing for being sad…is to learn something.”  Why is this a just response to Wart’s initial question about growing up, “Why do people not think, when they are grown up, as I do when I am young?” (181).  What might Merlyn be trying to teach Wart about the essential difference between innocence and experience, childhood and adulthood?  Why is education the essential bridge between the two?

4. The Sword and the Stone was written right on the eve of World War II, when England’s involvement was all but inevitable.  The composition of the entire series occupied him throughout the war, and the books became progressively darker.  How cynical or hopeful do you feel this book is about human nature in a time of war?  What verdict does Merlyn—or others—deliver upon the human race?  Consider the passage, “Do you know that Homo sapiens is almost the only animal which wages war…There are the five ants, one termite that I know of, and Man” (193-194). 

Announcements!

A few notes since many of you have missed an entire week of class now:

* The Paper#2 assignment is posted below; I was planning to give this out today, but ECU opened after our class.  :(  I'll go over it again on Tuesday, but please note that it exists and note that I've pushed back the due date until after Spring Break

* The reading assignment is 2 posts down (Chs.8-14 of The Sword and the Stone).  If you  haven't posted your response to Chs.1-7 (and many of you  haven't), today (THURSDAY) is the last day to do so.  

* I'm  posting Mid-Term grades today, and they will be available for you  next week.  Right now, the grade is based only on Paper #1, your attendance, and your blog question responses.  Remember that you can revise Paper #1, so your grade can rise quickly based on revisions and/or your future paper grades.  Also try to keep on top of your blog responses, since a few of you tend to skip a week or two at a time.  Be careful--the goal of the blog responses is to make you more aware of the conversation surrounding fantasy/science fiction  literature so you can write more sophisticated papers.  

See you on Tuesday!  

Paper #2: Fantasy and Metaphor

Paper #2: Fantasy and Metaphor

“Merlin took off the sailor hat which had just appeared and held it out to the air for inspection.  “This is an anachronism,” he said severely.  “That is what it is, a beastly anachronism” (White, 91). 

For your Second Paper, I want you to explore how fantasy functions not merely as a location or a plot device, but as a metaphor.  This suggests that we not read fantasy too literally, but appreciate the wizards, kings, knights, mariners, witches, vampires, and fairies as a framework to explore larger—and more modern—ideas.  Often the way to spot this is through a book’s use of anachronism, which delineates the boundaries between fantasy and reality.  Fantasy should occasionally remind us that the story is merely a window for seeing ourselves (or our times), so we don’t make the mistake of dismissing it as “kid’s stuff” or a mere “fairy tale.” 

For this paper, choose ONE of the following ideas to develop:

Ø  The Education of the Innocent: each of the three works we’ve read concerns the ‘education’ of an innocent: the Wedding Guest in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Cristabel in the poem of the same name, and Wart in The Sword and the Stone.  How do at least two of these works use metaphors of fantasy/legend to discuss the education of a ‘modern’ human being? 

Ø  The Anachronistic Author: each work also contains within it a narrator who seems curiously out of step with the rest of the work: either the author of the glosses in The Rime, the poet/narrator of Cristabel, and the narrator of The Sword in the Stone.  Why do these works use a ‘modern’ voice to narrate ancient legends and events?  How does this change the meaning of the story and/or how we interpret it? 

Ø  The Role of the Wild: fantasy literature often employs the natural world (animals, insects, forests, icebergs) as characters within the story.  Thus we find Wart visiting the world of fish, ants, and geese in The Sword in the Stone; the Mariner killing an Albatross and being hunted by a “northern spirit”; and Cristabel meeting her double in the dark woods under a midnight moon.  How does the natural world become a metaphor for ideas within us? 

REQUIREMENTS

Ø  As before, you should find at least 2-3 sources to help you generate ideas and respond to the literary discussion of fantasy, which is many generations old. 

Ø  Be sure to properly introduce and cite quotations in your paper according to MLA format. 

Ø  The paper should be at least 4-5 pages, double spaced, but that’s a minimum; you can do more if you like. 

PAPER #2 IS DUE BY MONDAY, MARCH  23rd BY 5PM (the Monday after Spring Break) 

For Thursday (We Have Class!): The Sword in the Stone, Chs.8-14

Since my Neil Gaiman talk in Tulsa got cancelled due to winter weather, I will be here to teach class on Thursday.  And since most of you already got off on Tuesday for a trip, I don't want to lose an entire week of class if I can help it.

Today (Tuesday) we discussed the opening chapters (1-7) of The Sword in the Stone and discussed how fantasy functions as metaphor in this work and Coleridge's work.  Be sure to answer Tuesday's question no later than Thursday, since very few people turned them in.  For THURSDAY, read Chs.8-14, though there are no blog questions.  I will give you an in-class writing response when you come to class.  ALSO, I will assign Paper #2 on Thursday, so you want to show up!  

Also, for those interested, here is an except from a long article I wrote on T.H. White that will give you some background on the creation of The Sword and the Stone.  Click "read more" below to access it...