High Fantasy Lays Down the Law and Low
Fantasy Doesn’t Care.
By Shreya Shanker
Campbell’s model of “The Hero’s Journey” is the basis of most fantasy
works. In fact, it’s easy to see its use when looking at the mainstream popular
books in speculative fiction today. Harry Potter gets a clear Call To Adventure
in the form of his Hogwarts letter. Katniss Everdeen seems hell-bent on
embodying the Refusal Of The Quest, a trait that annoys many readers (...or
maybe that’s just me). And Supernatural Aid, whether it comes in the form of
Gandalf or Uncle Iroh, isn’t that hard to find.
To be clear, there are hundreds of different manifestations of “The
Hero’s Journey”. However, I think there’s definitely a way to separate these
varieties into two categories. In high fantasy, “The Hero’s Journey” is
generally followed without fail. On the other hand, heroes in low fantasy seem
more keen – and more able – to break the rules.
Let’s take a look at The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley, for
example. Harry receives her Call To Adventure by literally being kidnapped and
forced along on the journey. She experiences her fleeting notion of being
unhappy with the circumstances, checking Refusal Of The Quest off of her list,
and proceeds to accept her fate as she’s brought into the Darian lands she’s
never seen before. Accepting The Call and Entering The Unknown are done with,
and she’s free to accept her Supernatural Aid from Corlath and Mathin as she
faces Tests And The Supreme Ordeal. By the end of the book, she’s truly the Master
Of Both Worlds.
So if the book is so cliché, a simple expansion of an overused model,
why does it have a rating of almost five stars on Amazon? Why is The Blue
Sword a Newberry Honor Roll novel? (http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Sword-Newbery-Honor-Roll/dp/014130975X)
Because the model works. To
readers, the comfort of knowing what’s coming next is infinitely preferable to
the uncertainty of day-to-day life. The protagonist will save everyone, and
their friends might even survive in the process! We can be sure that our main
characters will win – we can’t say the same about whether or not we’ll get a
promotion in the future, or get an A in a class.
Which, of course, brings up another question. If the model works, then
why do low fantasy books sell? They don’t follow the rules all the time: Neil
Gaiman’s Neverwhere barely follows the rules at all. Richard Mayhew
spends a majority of the book stumbling around in the phase Refusal Of The
Quest. Even halfway through the book, he’s still insisting that there can’t possibly be a British Museum Station
(page 169). By that time, any well-behaving high fantasy protagonist would’ve
accepted their fate and began to prepare for their Tests. Richard Mayhew doesn’t
even complete his Supreme Ordeal, letting a sixteen-year-old girl save the day
instead. Richard Mayhew is so incompetent at everything, including following
“The Hero’s Journey”, that I can’t help but wonder if Door is the real hero of Neverwhere. But if
that’s the case, Gaiman still breaks rules – Door’s Call to Adventure happens
before the book begins, and is seen only as a flashback. And it is Richard,
rather than her, who becomes the Master Of Two Worlds (in some sense).
All of this seems to indicate that low fantasy would be a failure due
to their inability to follow Campbell’s model. And yet, we see that low fantasy
does appeal. After all, Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is the fourth most highly grossing
movie in the world, beaten only by Avatar, Titanic, and Marvel’s
The Avengers. (http://boxofficemojo.com/alltime/world/)
The model does work – I won’t turn around and deny that now. But it’s
not the only thing that works. What appeals to us in low fantasy is the
accessibility of the story. There really could be an alternate universe where
London Below exists. How can anyone prove that there isn’t? The dash of credulity
that low fantasy authors add to their works spices up their stories, making
them more tangible – and therefore, more enjoyable – to the readers.
In the end, these two types of fantasy do share something – escape.
Fantasy is beloved in general because it offers an outlet to readers, where
they are free to forget about their own lives in favor of immersing themselves
in new worlds. Whether the stories that follow are model perfect or a chaotic
sequence of events, they all fulfill the basic desire of wanting to be someone
else, live somewhere else, and escape from the monotony of daily life.
I confess that I had never looked at _Neverwhere's_ version of the Hero's Journey with the same critical edge you have -- or, rather, with a critical edge that says "this isn't following the pattern." There's most certainly a kind of shared heroic space in the novel, which arguably shows a certain growth arc in two characters (Richard and Door) and possibly a third (De Carabas), something stories like _The Blue Sword_, more keenly devoted to the exploits of a single character from zero to hero, generally don't have.
ReplyDeleteI wish you'd provided the actual visuals you wanted to share with your readers, rather than just these links!