Purpose
in Fantasy
By Matthew Deng
Several
years ago, I abandoned the faith that I had been raised in. To my despair, I
soon found that religion was the only bastion between me and the malignancy of
nihilism. Like a ship floating in an empty sea, I found myself purposeless and
lost.
Is
my lack of faith to blame for this affliction? Is atheism the root of my
nihilism? I recently read an article that argued that the causes for this bleak
reality may be rooted
in society itself. The
embracement of science has created a disenchantment with the world. Events,
destines, even miracles, are no longer the result of some divine agency – they
can be explained by science and its indifferent causal processes. What
arrogance, science! To monopolize truth, to belittle concepts of morality, and
to throw away man’s God given purpose. What more is a boy to do but turn
towards nihilism?
However,
I soon discovered an odd correlation. My existential attitude began around the
same time that I stopped reading fiction for pleasure – one genre to be exact.
That genre is fantasy.
Fantasy
stories, regardless of their subgenre, celebrate the beauty of a meaningful
world.
Their universes are steeped in magic, they feature wars between factions
of good and evil, and they send heroes on important quests – purpose by
definition. Is this a nihilist’s kryptonite? Or the very opposite? Perhaps
fantasy was the medication I needed for my existential crisis.
Fantasy
offers a world without moral ambiguities or deficiencies in purpose. In this
sense, high fantasy and low fantasy share no significant distinctions. While
their respective stories may take place in varied settings, Middle Earth and
normal Earth for example, these are only the backdrop for the battle between
good and evil to be waged. The two genres’ potential divergences - their scope,
their level of character development, their incorporation of magic - are only the
subtler notes in the perfume of fantasy and are not nearly as important.
Consider
the realm of Middle Earth. In The Hobbit, an
ordinary Baggins and his posse embark on a quest to retrieve the homeland of
the dwarves. Purpose? Check. Next, it’s apparent that each race in the story
shares not only physical and psychological characteristics but moral ones as
well. These racial differences drastically limit the possibility for individual
choice, but also make moral distinctions easy to maintain. All goblins, trolls,
and wargs are inherently evil, while
all elves are good. Morality is black and white. From the very beginning, the
story has established its heroes, with Bilbo, Gandalf, and the Dwarf crew, and
its villain, the dragon Smaug. Good vs. Evil? Check. The Hobbit’s continuation, the Lord of the Rings Trilogy,
obeys this same formula, only on a bigger scale. This time around, the purpose
is saving Middle Earth, there is a more impressive fellowship of heroes, and
the primary villain, Sauron, is a Satan-like character bent on world
domination.
The
tenets of purpose and morality are equally present in low fantasy. Consider
Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere.
In this novel, ordinary Londoner Richard Mayhew becomes entangled in the dark,
magical world of Below London. He encounters a girl named Door, and, whad’ya
know, they embark on a quest. Door seeks the truth and Richard seeks home. Check!
While the benevolence of many characters are ambiguous throughout the novel,
their true natures are nevertheless set in stone. There’s Mr. Croup and Mr.
Vandemar, two sadomasochistic, ultra-violent, cannibalistic killers who happen
to be very talented at what they do. And then there’s the ex-angel, Islington, who
admits responsibility to the death of millions. And I quote, “the angel’s
serene beauty cracked; its eyes flashed; and it screamed at them […] utterly
certain in its righteousness, “they
deserved it.” Another Satan? Check.
The
elements of purpose and morality are present in high fantasy, low fantasy, and
everything in between. Harry, you have to destroy the Horcruxes and stop
Voldemort! Gregor, you’re the prophesized warrior! Eragon, Galbatorix is evil
and you’re our only hope! The creation of purpose draws readers into the pages
of these books. Their stories are straightforward and morally innocent, devoid
of the ambiguities, uncertainties, and indifference that manifests the real
world. While there may be differing characteristics between high and low
fantasy, they are not what define the genre, and are ultimately only window
dressing.
Has
fantasy healed me of my nihilism? Not necessarily. But, like Richard in Neverwhere, it has opened
doors to other worlds where things, ironically,
make more sense.
Nice work with voice and style in this post, Matt. I think R. Scott Bakker would like your reflection on whether the triumph of science and reason has shunted the moral landscape of the imagination into the realm of fantasy alone. But as you leave this course and consider your reading future, know that it actually gets to be rather murky in these waters. Fantasy is highly CONSCIOUS of its moral position. The might be the fairest statement. That's not to say that fantasy texts or authors are always make singular or definitive moral statements (see George R. R. Martin's _A Song of Ice and Fire_ series, now so overwhelmingly popular). Rather, they are conscious that they tend to exist in highly pitched moral landscapes, and the all actions are part of that landscape, even if a character's ethics or motivations are, at best, gray. Indeed, contemporary high fantasy and low fantasy seem to slide more and more into narratives that are explicitly about the tension between right and wrong, and increasingly offer us protagonists whose choices aren't clearly either.
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