Newest paper for School ... in the raw.

Note: This was finished and handed in last night.   Over-all I think it went well considering that it was supposed be around 1000 words long.   Ended up being like 1070 or something.   We'll see how it gets marked.   I always feel a little tense until I get the mark.

The Literary Circle

When we discuss the nature of fairy-stories in relation to Tolkien and C.S. Lewis and their thoughts put on paper, there can be no doubt as to their love for these narratives and prose, but also the importance with which they see fairy-stories play in human literary development. This is especially true in the account of how the term fairy-story is perceived particularly in the western-world, and the impression which that term evokes in society, categorizing it as 'nursery stories or rhymes', denoting that it is something that is to be confined to early childhood ideas and notions. Tolkien referred to the 'association of children and fairy-stories is an accident of our domestic history,' and this is as true today, as when 'Tree and Leaf' were published in the late 1930's. Like some who have a tendency to raise their voice by a few octaves when talking to young child, there is a tendency to also write fanciful work which has no lasting structure due to our profound mis-understanding that firstly, a child will have no understanding what is written, or secondly, that what is written will only be read by those young of age. It is because of this reasoning that we have literature that has the consistency of soft tissue during a rain-storm, and a lasting impact of the same. One of the critical aspects that both Lewis and Tolkien wrote about was the literary lifestyle. If that is nurtured, then the obvious outcome C.S. Lewis writes that 'No book is really worth reading at the age of ten, which is not equally (and often far more) worth reading at the age of fifty' and Tolkien was adamant about the quality of a written narrative, in that a book or novel should grow with the child, in the same way as the clothes of a child that allow for growth. The growth which stimulates the young mind through fairy stories should ignite the desire to find out what is below the surface of the proverbial iceberg. That is the task of a good fairy-story, one that will 'provoke desire, satisfying it while often whetting it unbearably.'

It is this whetting of desire that was 'quickened' in Tolkien during wartime. The notion that escapism through literature or imagination is confined to the first ten years of our life, in many ways is unhealthy for us as individuals and stigmatic in ability to analyze the primary world we live in while negating the pleasure of the same world. In reviewing Kenneth Graham's book involving a talking toad, he writes that the 'book's a specimen of the most scandalous escapism: it paints a happiness under incompatible conditions' he goes on to say that despite the preposterous notion of talking animals and all ...'This excursion into the preposterous sends us back with renewed pleasure to the actual.' This is in part why I think Tolkien's desire was quickened. Delving into the fä erie was a coping mechanism for the stress and devastation of warfare. Tolkien touches on the aspect of escapism in Fairy-stories, and our desire as human beings for the 'happy ending'. He calls this the 'Eucatastrophe', that despite all of the 'dyscatastrophe' the sorrow and failure, we can have hope and joy beyond death. What society tends to relegate to childish stories in a sense help us to see beyond the next step in our own life's journey. Whether it is, as another Tolkien example, a prisoner longing for the day when he isn't behind bars; or perhaps it is the idea of being cancer free, or even finding a job. By not stagnating the concept of Fairy-stories beyond childhood, there is a greater richness for the Primary world we live in. Lewis spoke of a similar idea of 'Daydreaming' but he was like an outsider looking into the sub creation. He wrote that children can 'feign a whole world and people it and remain outside it. But when the stage is reached, something more than mere reverie has come into action: construction, invention, in a word fiction, is proceeding. Unlike the regression of the what some may suggest fairy-stories promote, it is quite the opposite, and promotes emotional growth and critical thinking.

Analysis paralysis is what both Lewis and Tolkien were fighting against when it came to good Fairy-story narrative, and the lack of these narratives are the reason why many perceive the idea of Fairy-stories as child-fare. But a good story lasts beyond childhood, that will challenge us to dig deeper than the tip of the iceberg, but down into what lies beneath the literary waves. Lewis stayed away from this from a mythical stand-point, but in fantasy, both he and Tolkien questioned the world of the sub-creation as critics. There is a uniqueness to fantasy stories which demand greater detail of both the reader and the composer of work because simply enough, it diverges from the primary world. Everything from the texture, the coloring, atmosphere, the history, its characters demands for there to be consistency in form, texture and history... as Tolkien says 'the undissected bones of the plot' Tolkien mentions the cost of not doing this 'The moment disbelief arises the spell is broken; the magic or rather art, has failed. You are then out in the primary world again, looking at the little abortive secondary world from outside ...' Lewis critized the Three Musketeers because it lacked 'atmosphere' and loved ‘The Hobbit‘ because it slowly draws you ‘into the world of epic‘. Recognizing that the dependance on the tangiblility of the fantastic as both Lewis and Tokien did, from Beowulf to Oedipus allows the creation of the Secondary world allows their own world to be worth escaping too.

This is the idea of the literary lifestyle: from becoming a literary, to experiential, to analytical. As a process, not only is our love for the fairy-story growing, but like any living thing, it also propagates itself. Lewis and Tolkien may of had differences in their field, but first and foremost they were professors who loved the written word, and that echoes in their desire to see more well-done fairy stories produced in the future. Stories that do not tear under the rain of scrutiny, but that stand up to the test of time. It is why they formed the inklings and formed their craft, and it is why our literary world, both Primary and Secondary becomes all the more richer for it.