I see among young people - and the young at heart - what seems an increasing interest in fantasy literature and entertainment. Since the mid 20th century there seems to be a growing interest in fantasy literature that has become full-blown in recent years. I've written about the popularity of Harry Potter. Now we add the movie versions of JRR Tolkien's fantasy classic, The Lord of the Rings. Just when I think those are the exceptions, I discover Phillip Pullman's young adult trilogy beginning with The Golden Compass. And from my students I hear how into all these fantasy materials they are, although it is my adult friends who first called some of these books to my attention.
Why the rage about fantasy at this point in our literary development? In studying literary movements through time it is possible to see in English literature from about the 17th century on something of a swing like a pendulum to philosophical approaches that are somewhat opposite of each other. The Age of Reason where even poetry took on a rational quality was followed by romanticism which dipped so deeply into imagination, individualism, and the love of nature. Then realism snapped us back from what some called the Pollyanna worldview of the romantic where man's plight was seen through rose-colored glasses. The late 19th and early 20th centuries dipped into the morbid and harsh reality as a reaction to romanticism and the imaginative focus of the early 1800's. Then latter 20th century seemed to search for some sort of synthesis with a variety of styles, forms, and themes. Each age and literary movement in some way seemed to compensate for the excesses of the previous age. Looking at trends in literature in this light, we might ask, for what is fantasy literature compensating.
We must remember, however, that literature does not rise out of a vacuum but from whatever our culture is experiencing. It reflects history through a lens that examines our humanity. Thus, the real question is not for what in the literary world is fantasy a compensation, but for what in our culture. As a student, in the 1960's not only of literature but also religion, I heard much of demythologizing the Bible. Our scientific and technological achievements have wiped out much in the way of superstition and have certainly changed the way in which we look at our world, the universe, and even ourselves. Our concept of awe has shifted from the natural world to man-made things and events (Awe has lost its numinous quality for us as we casually use it to describe the air campaign in the recent Iraq war.) We've punched holes in so many belief systems, which in times past put us in touch with the unseen world, that other reality where we make connection with something truly awesome, that we have created something of a vacuum. If we examine our current entertainment filled with so-called reality shows, which actually are far from everyday reality but are made up scenarios designed to bring some sense of excitement back into life, and our literature with the magnetism of fantasy, we may recognize that the attraction of both "reality" entertainment and fantasy is an attempt to fill a void. We have demythologized until we have stripped away the vehicles of the archetypal in the modern world. But the archetypes exist, and they rise from the shadows of time and come to expression in spite of our conscious efforts to be rational, scientific, analytical, and pragmatic. Our human nature draws us in some way back to what we need. We've cast aside the old myths; something has to fill the void.
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