Tolkien's 'Smith of Wootton Major' & George MacDonald's 'Phantastes': A Comparison - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

littlemanpoet · 11-19-2006, 09:37 PM

You're trying to conclude a general principle out of something I've said about the particular work known as Phantastes. I'm not willing to make a general principle out of it.

And I'm not entirely sure why it doesn't work that Anodos dies in Fairy and comes to life in "real life". Dreams do work that way, except that in a dream, the moment you die, not knowing what it's like on the other side, you immediately wake up. In contrast, Anodos actually experiences being dead, making the death state a part of his imagined reality, making death a part of Faery. The reader is left wondering if he really died. We are, as readers, expected to accept Anodos' words at face value, that he actually died in Faery and came to life, and that he can actually remember what he experienced in his Faery-death. Okay, maybe that's okay in this story. But I am still left dissatisfied. I'm not sure why. I'll have to think about this some more.

11-19-2006, 09:37 PM	#14
littlemanpoet Itinerant Songster Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: The Edge of Faerie Posts: 7,066	You're trying to conclude a general principle out of something I've said about the particular work known as Phantastes. I'm not willing to make a general principle out of it. And I'm not entirely sure why it doesn't work that Anodos dies in Fairy and comes to life in "real life". Dreams do work that way, except that in a dream, the moment you die, not knowing what it's like on the other side, you immediately wake up. In contrast, Anodos actually experiences being dead, making the death state a part of his imagined reality, making death a part of Faery. The reader is left wondering if he really died. We are, as readers, expected to accept Anodos' words at face value, that he actually died in Faery and came to life, and that he can actually remember what he experienced in his Faery-death. Okay, maybe that's okay in this story. But I am still left dissatisfied. I'm not sure why. I'll have to think about this some more.