December 18, 2010

The Fantasy of Surviving

Somehow, I managed to survive this week. I'm still pretty exhausted, but at least I'm done with the worst of it. One more exam on Tuesday, then three in January. That means that I can finally decrease my coke-intake!

Browsing through my latest posts, I've realized I'd abandoned writing about my creative writing class, in favour of NaNoWriMo. It's understandable, but I feel like I still should've paid more attention to it.
Nonetheless, let's continue with the next genre: Fantasy.

For my surprise, it started in Romanticism. Typical fantasy creates new mythology, or uses old mythology that is reframed by the author's mind. Mythology should be balanced in term of sex (the gender, people, what were you thinking?) and ought to include hierarchy, fight for dominance, miracles, artefacts, etc. Actions and facts (can) contradict physics.
Last time, I wrote about magical realism which has fantastic elements, too. The most outstanding difference between magical realism and fantasy / sci-fi is that while the former doesn't explain even the most unbelievable things, fantasy and sci-fi tell us why those fantastic things can occur.

But why is there fantasy? There's this thing we call 'frame of reference' which hints at mankind's common knowledge. For example, if you look around mythologies or fairytales of different cultures, you'll find some common symbols, motives and course of actions. This indicates there's something in the background which connects us through these common patterns in various cultures. Social psychology engages in this, if you're interested in it.

A couple of stories we mentioned:
Jostein Gaarder: Sofies verden (Sophie's World)

~~~ 
I'll write down the list of topics, so you can choose which one you'd like to read about next time. If nobody wants to choose, then we'll go in this order:
- Utopias and Distopias
- Historical novels (Regency novels)
- Fairytales
- Humor

I'd like to post my fairytale between Christmas and New Year - I still need to read through it, translate, then check for mistakes, before posting, though. But it won't mess with what you choose for me to write about in the next post, don't worry ;)

5 comments:

Trisha said...

Good luck with your next exam, and studying for the ones after!

I could never quite get into magic realism, though admittedly I haven't read much of it. Fantasy on the other hand, I'm an old hand at reading (and writing :))

Tika said...

Thank you! :)

Haha, I'm the same. When we talked about magic realism in class, I entertained the idea, but... found out that fantasy and sci-fi, as well are both closer to me.
And will remain so :)

poggi said...

how sure are you about this sentence? "Nonetheless, let's continue with the next gender: Fantasy."

Tika said...

I knew there was something funny going on with that sentence!
Thanks, fixed ;)

poggi said...

That funny thing? Twas probably the late Mr. Freud :P