Are You Writing Serious Fantasy?

[Belin]

Coleridge!

I haven't been following this topic that closely, but I was scanning Daily Topics and came across the name of STC and was instantly drawn in.

Let me admit that I haven't read all of the Biographia Literaria (yet), but I did read an exerpt that sounds very much like it might be the one you're referring to, lmp. If this is the case, you're slightly mistaken, as the word he used is "imagination." He made a distinction between primary imagination, which is basically perception (and seeing perception as a kind of imagination is a wonderful insight and one I very much enjoy)--Tolkien refers to this usage in "On Fairy-tales," though he doesn't mention Coleridge's name --, secondary imagination, which implies the creation of something entirely new, and fancy, which was no more than a mixture of things that didn't ordinarily belong together (think griffins). Subcreation as secondary imagination is a very interesting connection, I think. Secondary imagination, to my mind, is described in a very similar way to secondary belief. Subcreation..hm. In any case, I would certainly be very interested in knowing how Tolkien reacted to Coleridge, if he borrowed some of his ideas, etc. They were both introducing fantasy into an enviornment where it hadn't existed much... You'll hear more from me on this when I get around to reading STC's whole book.

I don't know if this is helpful at all, but I'll certainly be watching to see whether anything comes of it.

Back to your regularly scheduled thread...

--Belin Ibaimendi

[ September 18, 2002: Message edited by: Belin ]