Double Fantasy

Of the fifteen fantasy novel covers, there seems to be an implicit standard in employing Arthurian and medieval themes among most illustrators. The heavily romanticized rendering of the fantasy story as an archetypical tale with green dragons, enchanted weapons, and gratuitous cleavage operates as a genre identifier, similar to the burly-haired lumberjacks of romance novels. While it may seem detrimental for the genre to don a homogeneous veil, the purpose of collective identity remains. When…

Stephen R. Lawhead's science fiction and fantasy series “Bright Empries” seems to be like no other. Especially since it was written by him. Unlike most of Stephen R. Lawhead's work that deals with mixing mythology and historical events, “Bright Empires” does neither. Instead, they focus on humans going to other dimensions and what it would be like to visit worlds, not just countries, that were not their own. With the release of the fifth book in the series in 2014, called “The Fatal Tree”, the…

Young children are unable to fathom the difference between fact and fantasy and there are various factors that contribute to this theory. A study published in the journal, Cognitive Science, consists of children between the ages of five and six and their ability to identify the nature of the protagonist in three different stories: reality-based, fantasy-based, and religious-based was questioned (Corriveau, Chen, & Harris, 2015). The results indicated that children exposed to religion or raised…

But this book does not offer a single page of original and unpublished work. What then is the need, now, for such a book? (Beren and Lúthien 11) That, as a Danish prince once said, is the question. There are, indeed, no words of J. R. R. Tolkien here that have not already appeared in The Silmarillion or The History of Middle-earth, and there are many which have been left out. As Christopher points out in the preface, this particular tale changed dramatically over the years, becoming more and…

As discussed in class, we looked into Tolkien's mind to observe his ideas on how fantasy stories should function in order to create a successful “world” for a reader to dive into. In an essay “On Fairy Stories,” written by Tolkien, he describes to us what he believes makes a “fairy story,” a “fairy story.” One of these rules he describes is Escape and the ways a story can connect, not only within itself but, with the reader in order to create a total immersion between the reader and book. When I…

Predecessor to the 80’s cult classic, The Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal was legendary puppeteer Jim Henson’s first attempt at creating a fantasy motion picture filmed entirely with intricate animatronics and puppets. The film is complete with heroes, villains and the other main elements of fantastical narratives as described by Russian scholar and folklorist Vladimir Propp in his breakthrough work, Morphology of the Folktale, which states that there is a sequence of 31 functions — certain actions…

Fairy Tale Analysis Essay Giants, evil stepmothers, ogres and trolls are usually found in fairy tales, but what actually is a fairy tale, why do we read them, and why are they so important. In the article “An introduction to fairy tales” Maria Tatar, a Harvard folklore professor clarifies what a fairy tale is. In her article, Tatar uses several different sources to give an effective model of what a fairy tale is and why they’re so important. Using the fairy tale Robin Hood, we will put the…

childhood dreams, to wizards, to evil spirits, the fantasy genre has taken audiences into worlds they never could have imagined. Fantasy genre films use creativity, magic, and unrealistic circumstances to take one’s mind beyond its limits. “Fantasy is a fluid genre that allows crossover with horror, science fiction, comedy, holiday films, and more” (Goodyknootz & Jacobs, 2014). The feature-length film “Big” starring Tom Hanks is a textbook example of a fantasy genre film. While using…

writer J. R. R. Tolkien is best remembered today as the author of the fantasy writer of the Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien has changed the world in his writings. Many people see him as the most famous fantasy writer. He once said, "Even the smallest person can change the course of the future". He definitely lived up to what he said. J.R.R. Tolkien was a guy who will be remembered for his amazing writing style and fantasy novels. Ever since he was little he always had a lot going…

The book “Dealing with dragons” was published in 1990 by Patricia C. Wrede. People’s childhood is creative, most of them dream about the character in the fantasy novel and defeat monsters. Wrede is an American fantasy writer from Chicago, and she had wrote a series of books about dragons and known as Enchanted Forest Chronicles series. From the 20th century to now, fiction novels are loved by teenagers, and these books become very popular. As a fiction novel, “Dealing with dragons” is one of…