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littlemanpoet · 04-22-2002, 02:20 PM

I think you have quite a powerful thread started here, Rosa.

Sometimes I think from fourth grade until pretty much now I've been in a constant state of crisis. I don't know how I'd have coped without fantasy, particularly the works of Tolkien. I am thoroughly convinced from experience in Tolkien's thesis that the reason one reads fantasy is for the three-part experience of escape, recovery, and consolation. In fantasy as in nowhere else one can experience Eucatastrophe. I strongly recommend using that concept in your paper. I can do you no better service than quoting from Tolkien's Tree and Leaf: 'This "joy" which I have selected as the mark of the true fairy-story (or romance), or as the seal upon it, merits more consideration....The peculiar quality of "joy" in successful Fantasy can thus be explained as a sudden glimpse of the underlying reality or truth.'

I hope this is helpful.

04-22-2002, 02:20 PM	#4
littlemanpoet Itinerant Songster Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: The Edge of Faerie Posts: 7,066	I think you have quite a powerful thread started here, Rosa. Sometimes I think from fourth grade until pretty much now I've been in a constant state of crisis. I don't know how I'd have coped without fantasy, particularly the works of Tolkien. I am thoroughly convinced from experience in Tolkien's thesis that the reason one reads fantasy is for the three-part experience of escape, recovery, and consolation. In fantasy as in nowhere else one can experience Eucatastrophe. I strongly recommend using that concept in your paper. I can do you no better service than quoting from Tolkien's Tree and Leaf: 'This "joy" which I have selected as the mark of the true fairy-story (or romance), or as the seal upon it, merits more consideration....The peculiar quality of "joy" in successful Fantasy can thus be explained as a sudden glimpse of the underlying reality or truth.' I hope this is helpful.