[Belin]

I think The Last Unicorn, mentioned by Birdie, is an extremely interesting example, and one that tests much of what has been said here. One of the most moving moments in it, for me (and one that evoked wonder), was Molly's speech to the Lady Amalthea late in the book, in which she defends Schmendrick's acting as the king's jester. The things she points out are entirely counter to many of the expectations of fantasy: once you get to the enchanted castle, you have to peel onions, wash dishes, and humiliate yourself before the evil king, and the prizes that the prince brings home are nothing more than sad severed heads. Molly touches on all of this when she points out that all these efforts are for the sake of the unicorn, and this (for me) is where the wonder comes in.
So I'm trying to analyze my "wondered" reaction. Is it because these mundane chores are seen as unworthy of them, and fantasy is serving as a reassurance that this is not all there is? Is it because they're given a purpose? Does it have to do with the element of redemption Naaramare has mentioned--a moment in which we see that the rather flawed and ineffectual Schmendrick does indeed love the unicorn?
On the other hand, this moment has additional meaning because the novel is dealing with this very issue, the stifling of wonder by the mundane as the unicorn becomes more and more like a human woman, and the details in Molly's speech are all the more significant because they are the enemy and we have already understood that.
So, um, yes, I'd say that I consider context very important. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that wonder depends not so much on which details are used as on the story's relationship to its details. But then again, that's approximately what's been said so far, isn't it?

I love all the ideas about the mediation provided by the hobbits. It is indeed their awkwardness that provides the readers with a relationship to the larger doings, and the ability (also important to creating the effect of wonder, I think) to pull away from wonder at times. The use of backstory in LotR very much reminds me of a phrase in "Leaf by Niggle" about the distant Forest that you could approach and even enter without it losing that particular charm. (I think those are the words used; my copy is unfortunately far from me at the moment.) You aren't asked to be like the Noble Elves; you are allowed a glimpse of them for which I find that I feel grateful. But the whole book isn't about glimpsing the far-off and wonderous... that would be exhausting, and, in the end, not very entertaining. We're drawn back in toward Pippin's weariness, or Sam's cooking, and a little later, the wonderous emerges again. I think that to attempt to sustain wonder throughout an entire novel is probably to lose it, and the reader's belief. It happens in small flashes.

--Belin Ibaimendi,
hoping this makes some sense. It all sounded so much better in my head......

[ August 07, 2002: Message edited by: Belin ]