I felt I
was in trouble and read up on fantasy. According to children’s
literature experts, fantasies have rules within their boundaries. The
sorcery in Harry Potter often goes wrong in the real world and could
cause Harry bad trouble with his relatives. The sorcery at the school
has a much better chance of success. I admit I liked the
juxtaposition of Harry's magical friends in the real world while the
author preferred the wizard school as her setting, establishing a
sensible rule. Mary Poppins was an odd adult who didn't get caught
and could escape if she were suspected for magic.
Creating
parallels with real life, the best authors can elevate fantasy to
philosophy. Alice is controlled. Someone who knows biology has
controlled her body and its growth. When she tries to obtain more
power over her plight in Wonderland, she runs into tyranny, a queen
who bends Wonderland rules for her own purposes.
Recently
I re-read The Wizard of Oz. The news probably nudged me. Judy
Garland's childhood home was in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, and so The Judy
Garland Museum there displayed the ruby slippers, one pair of the
four that Garland wore in the movie. But ten years ago, a thief
entered the museum and stole them. This June, one of the museum
founders followed a lead to a nearby mine. During a Wizard of Oz
festival, divers searched for the slippers but didn't find them.
Then in July, a Garland fan and donor offered a million dollars for
information that would lead to the slippers. Every dreamer goes to Oz, trying to solve this one.
Smithsonian ruby slippers photo from en.wikipedia.org |
I wanted
to re-read The Wizard of Oz to find out why it disappointed me
after I first saw the great movie. That was probably because the
dream aspect of the story was not in the book. There was no
connection between Oz characters and Kansas characters. The movie
added Miss Gulch and the circus man. Dorothy's orphan status was more
apparent. She was caught up over the rainbow, and there was
reluctance about her need to return to Kansas where it was just
Auntie Em and her uncle who revived her. She could have returned at
any time, the good witch told her.
It seems
that the imagination in a good fantasy is driven by an obsession for
answers. The world of children is full of rules that can be
questioned but can’t be changed. Children probably realize that
parents change in every generation and that the world is unique
today.
One of
my favorite juvenile fantasies is the Dark Is Rising series by
Susan Cooper, from the 1960’s. I was absolutely taken by the idea
that certain characters in her story had been reincarnated and
knew it. They were the secret society. Is there reincarnation? I’ve
often wondered.
I
finished one fantasy – The House in Windward Leaves. The
concept that ruled the book from the first was “What do you want to
be when you grow up?” I felt that children discover what they like
to do. In the fantasy, I allowed my characters to find out about an identity
they chose. The rule was that their Halloween costumes became real in
the fantasy world, but they couldn’t remember who they were. They
could magically get the hang of their new status and experience the
up and down side of it in a society of children.
My
fantasy has more humor in it than horror. I suppose my big question
was: Why are the decisions we make at eighteen so serious? Lewis
Carroll may have wondered: Can a female get any control out there in
the world if she isn’t an aristocrat or a queen? Maybe L. Frank
Baum was asking: Why is a fabulous place close in the mind when home
is drab?
After
all, it’s greener on the other side of the fence. Strangely, good
fantasies, as stories, make good sense. The human imagination, in
real life, creates locales wonderfully different from another
while the human experience is very similar. Humans gild the lily of
life.
In the
fantasy world, things can get out of control for characters who have
arrived at the site of an author's imagination. The reader shares the
dilemma: “How soon can I make sense of this?” There is
satisfaction in getting somewhere and finding that an author is
gilding that recognizable lily.
Image digitalart at FreeDigitalPhotos.net |