L. Jagi Lamplighter's Blog, page 10
January 10, 2017
On Fairy Stories and Why They Matter!
An essay is by British professor, Bruce G Charlton, who maintains a blog inspired by Tolkien’s The Notion Club Papers
Fantasy Fiction Is More Important Than ‘Real Life’: completing the argument of JRR Tolkien’s essay On Fairy Stories
JRR Tolkien
JRR Tolkien’s most famous and influential essay, and indeed by far the most famous and influential essay on the subject, was On Fairy Stories. This was originally a lecture delivered in 1939 at the University of St Andrew’s, Scotland; it was published in a revised and expanded form in Essays Presented to Charles Williams, 1947 and reprinted in other volumes many times since.
The crux of the essay, and the reason for its large influence, is a defence of the value of Fairy Stories for an intended adult audience; and as such On Fairy Stories has, since it became well known as the first part of Tree and Leaf (published along with the short story Leaf by Niggle). In this incarnation the essay became, pretty much, the standard explanation of, and rationale for, the genre of Fantasy Fiction which has now become a large and significant phenomenon in modern publishing
Tolkien’s basic argument is that the author of Fantasy is creating a Secondary World with features that are both wonderful (typically magical) and internally-consistent. And this Secondary world potentially offers a sympathetic reader the triple benefits of Recovery, Escape and Consolation.
Tolkien presents a strong case that Escape and Consolation are legitimate wishes; but at the end of the day these are (merely) psychological justifications – ways of saying that Fanasy makes us ‘feel better’ in legitimate ways.
As such, On Fairy Stories serves to justify the Fantasy genre; but on the other hand it does implicitly consign Fantasy to Secondary status as contrasted with the Primary world.
I believe that Tolkien’s argument can legitimately be intended to be understood in a stronger sense which offers a ‘primary’ status to Fantasy fiction when understood in the context of the modern, mainstream world of public discourse.
More specifically, I believe that Tolkien’s argument about Recovery contains the seeds of a much more powerful explanation of Fantasy as being (at its best) more real than (so-called) ‘real life’.
That Fantasy is (in some important respects) more real than real life I will take as an assumption rather than trying to argue; because it is a something that all we serious Fantasy readers already know to be true from our personal experience (and it is, of course, why we continue to read Fantasy). But what is so-far lacking, and what Tolkien may be seen to imply, is an explanation for why and how it is true.
I think an explanation is valuable, and perhaps necessary, if fantasy, as a genre, is to be regarded (whether by ourselves, or more generally) as more than just a pleasing pastime – as something that is of potentially great cultural importance.
Tolkien’s argument about Recovery is that Fairy Stories (or Fantasy) is that the material of magic, wonder, the fantastic – and the imaginative inhabiting of a different and complex but internally-consistent world – are what allow a refreshment of our appreciation. So that we come to appreciate the basics of this (primary) world, now refreshed because we have come across bread, stone, trees in a new and unfamiliar context; and we also appreciate Men anew because we have met elves, dwarves and hobbits.
This is true but I think it underestimates the profundity of what Fantasy can do; especially when it is contrasted with the modern world. The key to the value of Fantasy – here and now – is its contrast with the modern world: Modern ‘reality’ is most deficient in the most important aspects of Life. And this is because modern reality is, mostly and ever-increasingly, a mass media-generated ‘virtual’ kind of reality.
Thus modern ‘Primary’ reality is deficient in terms of lacking destiny, meaning and purpose for Life; in its ignorance, denial, or blind terror of ageing and death; in terms of regarding the Human Condition as a mixture of mechanical determinism and random chaos; in its regarding of the major virtues of Love and Courage as mere products of social-conditioning and evolution; and its understanding that Tolkien’s joyful ‘eucatastrophe’ – the unexpected ‘turn’ of events in a Fairy Story that snatches the Happy Ending from apparently-inevitable defeat – as merely statistical coincidence…
The above list is not exhaustive – in particular the modern lack of a living and over-arching religion; and indeed lack of any spiritual reality and depth to experience – is another vital deficiency of the Primary world as we experience it in The West. But this list suffices to illustrate why, in our kind of world, Fantasy may be much more than just a pleasure or a preference. And why Fantasy does not simply Recovery of appreciation for the basic essentials of Life – Fantasy may indeed be our only sustained experience in which these real-realities are encountered.
And the staleness and superficiality of modern life is a consequence of the way in which modern reality is the product of modern theories – the ‘ideologies’ that arise from science, law, politics, sociology etc. but which we mainly learn from the mass media; and to a lesser extent from a corrupted system of formal education, corporate advertising and official propaganda.
But how is it that Fantasy may be able to supply what the Primary word so horribly lacks? Well, Tolkien said it – the creation of another internally consistent world of wonders provides us with stimuli, with perceptions, that do not automatically get plugged-into the subversive and inverting theories of modernism.
The magic and wonders of Fantasy quite naturally and spontaneously attach themselves to our built-in, universal concepts – the mythic understandings and interpretations of the ‘collective unconscious’, or our shared divine-endowments. And it is these universal concepts which enable us to apprehend and share reality.
So the fictional experiences of Fantasy are not just apparently but literally more real than everyday Life in the modern world. They are real because they are understood by means of the eternal, the Human, the God-given – whereas the Primary world is perceived, but not understood, merely by the manipulative and dishonest and ever-changing abstract theoretical ideologies of our time and place – ideologies such as the dreary incoherence of Leftist ‘identity’ politics, antiracism, feminism, economic hypotheses, anti-colonialism, and the ever-mutating lies and inversions of sexuality and the sexual revolution.
In sum; Fantasy fiction (Fairy Stories) may currently be the only source of sustained and convincing ‘good metaphysics’ available to many people in The West: our only access to the eternal truths of real reality – as contrasted with the despair-inducing, hope-less, meaningless, purposeless fake-realities of modern life.
Seventy years after Tolkien’s essay was first conceived, we are in a situation that Fairy Stories have become something close to a necessity for those who want to experience Life as it could and should be experienced… even more, a necessity for those who want to live in the real world; rather than the hellish-yet-addictive media-Matrix of alternating distractions, intoxications, lust and fear which is the world of mainstream public discourse.
Consequently our demonic overlords hate, hate, hate real Fantasy (and Tolkien above all) and do their best to ignore or mock it – or else they reinterpret and subvert it in terms of the incoherent tendentiousness of modern ideologies (such as those deadly meditations on racism and sexism in The Lord of the Rings…) – or else they create fake-Fantasy which incorporates exactly those false ideologies to which Fantasy offers us a Real Life alternative. Instead of wonder and magic, we get parables of multiculturalism or gender-bending… just like modern, mainstream, bureaucratic ‘real life’.
I would therefore suggest that we should now drop Tolkien’s idea of Fantasy being a Secondary reality, in favour of a recognition that – at its best – Fantasy is now the Primary world. Fantasy fiction is therefore a way in which we may potentially (albeit partially and intermittently) escape The Matrix imposed upon us to our detriment; and begin living from true, universal and vital concepts: living real lives from the solid ground of universal metaphysics.
*
For more by the erudite and fascinating Professor Charlton, visit his blog: Tolkien’s The Notion Club Papers:
http://notionclubpapers.blogspot.co.uk
January 4, 2017
FORBIDDEN THOUGHTS! — Do not dare read this book!
Wow…it is so exciting to see something go from a glimmer of an idea to reality! And then see it fly off the shelves (electronically). Here's how it happened:
About two years ago, a friend of mine wanted to put together a charity anthology for the Charlie Hebdo artists. She said, "Send me the most controversial thing you've ever written!"
Well, I don't normally do controversial per se. But I sat down and prayed a bit to see what would come to me. I had just read Face-to-Face with Jesus by Samaa Habib, one of the best books I've ever read, and my mind was full of thoughts about her experience. So, I sat down and wrote the. most. controversial. story I was capable of conceiving.
The story is called "The Test of the Prophet".
At first, I thought I'd done quite well. My mom immediately worried that it would get my shot, and my atheist Liberal friend called it hateful. But, my Muslim friend loved it and took it home to Pakistan to show her parents. (Life can be strange sometimes!)
By this time, however, I realized that the first anthology wasn't going to fly. But I REALLY wanted to do something with my story. It was the best thing I had ever written.
But what can you do with a super controversial story in this age of safe spaces and trigger warnings?
Then, in the midst of the Sad Puppy fervor, I caught a glimmer of an answer. Jason Rennie, editor of Sci Phi Journal and the brilliant mind behind SuperverisveSF, suggested in the midst of a flurry of Sad Puppy emails, that the authors involved get together and do an anthology of anti-PC stories, kind of a modern Dangerous Visions–putting into story form all those thoughts that the SJWs don't want people to think. Basically, doing what SF is supposed to do, posing difficult questions.
Those of us on the email chain decided on the title: Forbidden Thoughts.
I LOVED this idea. Here was my answer to what to do with my controversial story.
So, I kept on Jason about this, and I kept on the other authors. When a few were too busy to be able to fit writing a new short story into their schedule, I convinced them to submit incendiary blog posts.
So we now had a volume with stories by, among others, John, Nick Cole, Brian Niemeyer, Josh Young, Brad Torgersen, Sarah Hoyt, Ben Zwyxky, and, a particularly delightful surprise for me, our young Marine fan friend, Pierce Oka. Plus, non fiction by Tom Kratman and Larry Correia submitted some of his original Sad Puppy posts–the thing that started it all!
But we still needed a Foreword.
Last winter, during one of our SuperversiveSF chats, we had invited the one reporter who reported truthfully on Sad Puppies, an amusing and irreverent fellow named Milo Yiannopoulos. Just as the chat was scheduled to begin, Milo was informed that he had been deverified on Twitter. This made it so that he was never able to attend our chat. He made it clear that he regretted this and kind of owed us.
So, I asked Jason to see if Milo would let us cash in our favor in the form of him writing the Foreword.
He did!
Milo wrote an excellent Foreword. We put the stories in order and voila! A delightfully thought-provoking volume that reminds me of the daring stories one found the pages of Science Fiction volumes in my youth.
There is one other delightful story that goes with this volume. Last summer, as we often do, we spent a week in Chincoteague. Our teen writer fan (some of you may have seen the victory dance she did when John won Dragon Award), asked if she and her family could join us, so we and the Freeman family spent a wonderful week together.
As I arrived on Chincoteague, I got an email from Jason informing me that he had read a submission by April, and it was really chilling. He thought it would work for Forbidden Thoughts. So, when April walked into the house we were renting for the week, I got to inform her that her first published piece would be in an anthology with John and I!
She was so stunned that she had to call me the next morning and ask me to explain it all again. Lol It was a delightful moment.
Now Forbidden thoughts is live! There will be an official Launch party with a live chat on Inauguration Day.
So, Politically-Correct friends, you might want to avoid this, but the rest of you, come join in the fun!!!
You are not supposed to read this book.
You are not supposed to think about reading this book.
In fact, just plain thinking at all is unacceptable.
You have been warned….
(Print version coming. Probably by next week.)
December 18, 2016
Secret Kings launch! (Book Three in the Soul Cycle)
Book three in the Soul Cycle launches today. I have the honor of being the editor for this series, so I am delighted to see Book Three reach its eagerly-awaiting readers.
Campbell Award finalist Brian Niemeier’s highly acclaimed Soul Cycle speeds toward its climax in the thrilling sequel to Dragon Award winner Souldancer and to Nethereal, The Secret Kings.
The god of the Void is free. Aided by a Night Gen fleet, Shaiel’s fanatical Lawbringers spread his Will throughout the Middle Stratum and beyond.
Teg Cross, whose mercenary career took him to hell and back, finds the old world replaced by a new order on the brink of total war. A fateful meeting with a friend from his past sets him on a crusade to defy Shaiel’s rule.
Meanwhile, Nakvin strives to muster a last-ditch resistance in Avalon. But can worldly kings and queens stand against divine wrath?
December 5, 2016
Stoke the Flames Higher! — New Maxwell book by Peter Grant!
New book by the amazing and forthright Peter Grant!
Two planets, torn apart by the same fanatics – and Lancastrian forces are caught in the middle!
Major Brooks Shelby must keep the peace, on a world where radical terrorists want submission or death. Lieutenant-Commander Steve Maxwell must trace the source of their fighters and funding, deal with diplomats, and fend off a nosy journalist.
The marines are up against smuggled explosives and suicidal martyrs, while a suborned bureaucracy stymies the investigation. Brooks and Steve must find a way to stop their enemies at all costs, before the fanatics unleash their own version of Armageddon!
Stoke the Flames Higher on Amazon
December 2, 2016
Swan Knight’s Sword by John C. Wright!
The third Green Knight's Squire book is live!
This series is among my favorites of everything John has written. Ruff the dog makes the whole thing tripply fun!
The publisher writes:
Christmas has come early for John C. Wright fans, with the publication of the third and final book in THE GREEN KNIGHT'S SQUIRE trilogy, SWAN KNIGHT'S SWORD.
Gilberic Parzival Moth is a strange and lonely boy who has grown up without a father, raised by a single mother who moves from town to town in fear of something she will not name. His only friends are animals, with whom he has always been able to speak. And after surviving his bewildering encounter with the two kings of Elfland and their many strange and wonderful and terrible subjects, as chronicled in FEAST OF THE ELFS, Gilberic finds himself honor-bound to travel to a house of living death called the Green Chapel.
Accompanied only by his faithful dog and following the directions of a talking horse, Gilberic must go against his beloved mother's wishes and go in search of the Green Knight, the mysterious giant who is said to dwell in the chapel, and whom he had previously beheaded. SWAN KNIGHT'S SWORD is the third and final book of THE GREEN KNIGHT'S SQUIRE, the first volume of MOTH & COBWEB, an astonishing new series about magical worlds of Day, Night, and Twilight by John C. Wright.
John C. Wright is one of the living grandmasters of science fiction and the author of THE GOLDEN AGE, AWAKE IN THE NIGHT LAND, and IRON CHAMBER OF MEMORY, to name just three of his exceptional books. He has been nominated for the Nebula Award, for the Hugo Award, and his novel SOMEWHITHER won the 2016 Dragon Award for Best Science Fiction Novel at Dragoncon.
SWAN KNIGHT'S SWORD is now available on Amazon for $4.99. It is 180 pages and DRM-free. It is old-school fantasy of the very best kind, more in the mode of Lord Dunsany, C.S. Lewis, and Lloyd Alexander than JRR Tolkien and GRR Martin.
THE GREEN KNIGHT'S SQUIRE trilogy is now complete.
SWAN KNIGHT'S SON
FEAST OF THE ELFS
SWAN KNIGHT'S SWORD
The next trilogy will begin with the first book in the DARK AVENGER'S SIDEKICK, the fourth in the Moth & Cobweb series, DAUGHTER OF DANGER. THE GREEN KNIGHT'S SQUIRE will be available in omnibus paperback, hardcover, and audio editions next year.
November 27, 2016
Cyber Monday Deal!
Signal Boosting for a friend:
The Dragon Award Nominated Honor at Stake is now available, for Cyber Monday only, for $.99 on Kindle.
This Catholic Vampire novel managed to … um … stake … its claim for originality by using Catholic theology and natural law philosophy in the development of its vampire lore (with some microbiology thrown in for fun).
As the description says…
One is a heartless, blood thirsty monster. The other is a vampire.
College freshman, Amanda Colt knows few people and wants to know fewer still. She enjoys fencing and prefers facing a challenge every once in a while. She is beautiful, smart, and possibly the most interesting person on campus…and most people stop after the first adjective.
Then she finds Marco Catalano in her fencing class. He is tall, attractive, and very intense. With a mind like a computer and manners of a medieval knight, he scares most people. Except Amanda. They both have secrets, for they are both monsters.
As they draw closer, they must find the line between how much they can trust each other, and how much they can care for each other. Each carries a secret that can destroy the other. They must come to grips with their personal drama soon, because a darkness is rising. Bodies are turning up all over New York, and an army of vampires is closing in on all sides.
They have only one hope … each other.
It has been well reviewed., and the sequel, Murphy's Law of Vampires is already out.
And Declan has two other books out for $.99 today, but he thought he'd go with the one that netted him the Dragon Nomination. Enjoy.
November 19, 2016
Where Angels Die!
New book of fiction by todays greatest living essayist: Tom Simon!
‘A demon is the spirit of a bad idea. The Taken are just its victims. If they kill you, you lose. If you kill them – you lose. The only way to win is to kill the idea itself. That’s where we come in.’
Enter Revel Enfield: paladin, exorcist, Knight of the Covenant of Justice.
Every enemy is hidden.
Every friend can be turned.
Even the Angels of Life can be killed.
This is his war.
November 14, 2016
Upcoming appearances — REDDIT and SuperversiveSF Chat
Hey folks,
I have three upcoming online events.
The first is a REDDIT AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Wednesday, November 16th at 1:30pm EST. I will post the link when it goes live, but basically, it will be here: Ask Me Anything!
Second, we have a SuperverseSF Chat this Saturday, November 19th, at 3:00pm EST. You should be able to find the link here when the time comes.
And, finally, I will be participating in a Catholic YA Authors podcast on Catholic Geek Radio, on Sunday, November 20th, at 7pm EST. (This is YA of interest to young Catholic readers–thus, they have invited me to join them.)
Cheers,
Jagi
October 31, 2016
Halloween Blast!
Two websites are carrying specal Halloween sales for the reader who enjoys a spooky tale!
The first is My Addiction Is Reading's Halloween Blast.
They also have a GIVEAWAY. click here to see all the spooky goodness!
The second is Starshipcat's Halloween post: BOOKS FOR THE ROAD
Also, RACHEL AND THE MANY-SPLENDORED DREAMLAND is on sale, today only, for 99 cents.
October 30, 2016
ON SALE for Halloween: Rachel and the Many-Splendored Dreamland
For anyone who picked up the first or second Book of Unexpected Enlightenment during the sale and liked them, this is a great time to pick up the third book, Rachel and the Many-Splendored Dreamland.
It is on sale for 99 cents — Halloween Only.
Two brief excerpts from the third Book of Unexpected Enlightenment. Rachel Griffin has persuaded her boyfriend, Gaius Valiant, to accompany her on her quest to crash the Dead Men’s Ball—a gathering of the unquiet dead along the Hudson River. To do this, they have snuck off campus after dark on Halloween night and flown by bristleless up the coast of Roanoke Island to Bannerman’s Mansion:
“I want to see what those lights are.” Rachel gazed down the shoreline at the eerie luminescence coming their way. “Shall we proceed?”
“No time like the present.”
Rachel flew her broom over the marshes. She could smell the boggy water. They moved cautiously toward the eerie gliding glow. Once closer, they saw that the iridescent white came from the gowns of a procession of young women with long flowing hair, who glided barefoot over the marshes toward the mansion. The green glow came from wild will-o-wisps—the kind that would lure a mortal to a soggy, boggy doom—hovering above the outstretched palms of the young women. The sight of the dead maidens with their ropey locks, bearing the pale light of fey wisps, sent shivers dancing up and down Rachel’s body.
“What are they?” Gaius whispered.
“Wilis.”
“Which are?”
“The spirits of maidens who died from a broken heart. Like in Giselle.”
“Which is?”
“Don’t you watch classical ballet?”
“Not on a regular basis. No.” Gaius’s voice sounded tight, as if he was trying to contain his mirth.
“Aren’t you an upper school senior?” Rachel turned at the waist and frowned at him. “We’re learning about them in Freshman Music. How could you not have studied Wilis?”
“I know. I know. Shameful. But, frankly, if it doesn’t give me magical powers when I summon it up, I haven’t really paid a whole lot of attention. Unless it’s dangerous. Are Wilis deadly?”
“Only to handsome young men, whom they dance to death,” Rachel replied dryly.
Gaius’s mouth formed a silent “O”. “I will make a point to avoid those particular beauties. Luckily, I brought my own.”
Rachel blushed in the darkness and quickly turned the broom up the slope toward where the mansion stood at the top of the hill.
* * *
A little later, upon having reached the mansion where the Dead Men’s Ball is being held:
The hairs on the back of Rachel’s neck rose. She trusted in her inside-out garments. Yet, she was aware of the unnatural, potentially dangerous nature of their ghostly companions. Gaius gazed around alertly, his wand in his hand. Without being intrusive, he made certain he stayed close to Rachel, where he could protect her. Surreptitiously, he tugged on the chain around his neck that held his amulet containing a twig of broom, slipping it onto the outside of his robes.
Several ghoulish entities backed away from him.
The music had fallen quiet. The band began tuning their instruments, an eerie sound even in the best of times. Rachel shivered and stepped even closer to her boyfriend. He squeezed her hand.
A blood curdling shriek caused the two of them to clutch each other. Again, she considered bolting. Had she not seen enough?
But if she ran, she would never know what had caused that screech, and that might be worse than staying. It was a sound that could haunt a person’s nightmares for a lifetime. It was partially to keep at bay the encroaching darkness at the edges of her mind that Rachel did bold things, such as stride into a party full of the shades of the restless dead. She did not need to give the darkness any more fuel.
Refusing to give in to her fear, she looked around. The screeching came from a feminine figure in white, ghostly and pale. The moment the shade was done uttering her horrible wail, she returned to wandered listlessly through the chamber. Rachel breathed a sigh of relief. Beside her, she felt Gaius’s tense body relax slightly.
Half a dozen other women stood wringing their hands and weeping. Most wore simple pale shifts. One crying figure, however, wore ancient native garb of leather, feathers, and beads. Another glided along in a homespun wedding gown. Yet another had no form of her own but was merely a collection of mist and dried leaves blowing in the shape of a woman.
Beyond the circular chamber was the main room, which was currently serving as a ballroom, though nobody was dancing at the moment. Eerie blue-violet fire flickered in the hearth, casting all those haunting the old mansion in its indigo glow. Even the white bridal gown of the shade who drifted noiselessly across the chamber appeared a violet-blue.
At the far end of the ballroom, a ghostly dais had been erected upon which played a merry group of musicians. These shades seemed quite different from their moribund companions. They looked like perfectly ordinary Edwardian gentlemen, except that they glowed slightly, and Rachel could see through them. They laughed and chatted as they tuned their instruments, three violins, three cellos, a bass fiddle, and a piano. Rachel wondered idly how difficult it was to move a ghostly piano.
Near the door where Rachel stood was a group of specters who wore manacles or even long chains that they dragged with them. These chains made no noise, and yet Rachel heard them rattling in her head. Beside her, Gaius was singing under his breath: “We’re Marley and Marley. Whoooooo. We’re Marley and Marley. Whoooooo.”
When he noticed Rachel watching him, he said, “From the Muppet Yule Carol.”
“The what?” asked Rachel.
He tapped her on the nose affectionately. “Don’t you watch classic Muppets?”
“Not on a regular basis. No,” replied Rachel, with almost exactly the same mirth-suppressing tone of voice Gaius had used earlier.
To read more, including Rachel and Gaius's wild ride home after they stay too late: Rachel and the Many-Splendored Dreamland.
Also available: Wild Hunted Sweatshirt
