 Fantasy: March 04, 2020 Issue [#10049] |
  Fantasy
This week: Wonderland: Nonsense and Fantasy? Edited by: eyestar~*  
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  Hello Fantastic Folks! I am thrilled to be your guest editor.
This week I have Wonderland on the brain as I am participating in an activity here at WDC: "Wonderland" ! Technically Alice In Wonderland is in three categories, Fantasy, Children"s Fantasy and Literary Nonsense! As a creative other worldly work, I will share it and its author right here.
 Have you read Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll?
Is it on your Fantasy shelf or Nonsense?
Did you know the work has never been out of print and has been translated into 97 languages! 
 How many movies, games, paintings, arts, songs etc have spun off his stories and been interpreted each generation who reads it?
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When Lewis Carroll told his story of Alice was really no defining fantasy genre as we know it today. Yet he came at a time when the root of the modern fantasy was beginning. In fact a mentor of his, George Macdonald's book "Phantastes" is cited as one of the first adult type fantasy, which later influenced many of our well known fantasy authors like J. M Barrie, Tolkein, C.S Lewis and others. He was the one who encouraged Lewis Carroll to publish Alice in Wonderland, when his many children adored the work. Macdonald was a Scottish , poet, writer and also a minister and is said to be a pioneer in the field of modern fantasy.
 Lewis Carroll was born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, in January 27, 1832, in Cheshire, England,. He was a brilliant mathematician, who took on holy orders as his father had, and later became known as an English logician, novelist, photographer. He wrote comic fantasies and humorous verse that was often very childlike. In his time he wrote 11 books on mathematics and 12 works of literary fiction. the most famous and beloved to this day were Alice in Wonderland (1865} and Alice Through the Looking Glass (1872}.
He first kept his writing life separate from his career so he uses a pseudonym for his writing.
By definition, fantasy is of the imagination and can have magic and paranormal aspects. Fairy tales and myth have been part of the genre since early times but were not structured or complex as the genre now.
The High Fantasy of today usually has these elements:
 set in a secondary world
features the maturation of the young hero
the presence of a teacher or mentor figure
the hero faces a Dark Lord
a battle between good and evil
So let's look at Alice, in the beginning of the start of a new genre.
It involved a girl trying to understand the adult world with its apparent polarities. She meets strange creatures, eats food in the underworld that have strange effects. Is that magic? Certainly eating something in fairydom used to have consequences in myth stories.
There is no real kingdom or hero or what we would call magic. Yet is has a magical kind of land out of the ordinary with anthro characters that talk. There is not really a mentor, and Alice remains age 7 and doesn't really change much. There is not really a strong good and evil element, though the emotions and actions of some characters are up and down.
It certainly has nonsensical qualities and often confusing to we readers, let alone Alice.
It has no quest, though she has adventures trying to get back home. It ends up being a dream, and yet dreams can be fantastical.
Some later generations have even questioned if it is a child's book and yet he told it to children. Even Tolkien's books were for children at his time. Interesting how it and Wonderland captured adults hearts and imaginations as well. Its narration, structure, use of logics, characters and imagery have made it popular through time.
There are symbols one might have recognized in the day. Perhaps the Mad Hatter represented the mental condition of mercury in felt hats causing madness as was the case with hat makers of the day.
Some now could say thinking of the hookah smoking caterpillar as a reference to opium and it was a medicine of the day even for children in a Godfrey's Coridal or Mother's Friend formula with water, opium and treacle(a syrup). But most references say not. He wrote it to entertain and enchant.
Apparently even Queen Victoria read it and was impressed so she wanted his next book to be dedicated to her. His next one was a Mathematical book!  He was known for his brilliance here as well.
Added to the fantastical elements, the use of logic, word play and math and the nonsensical tones make it quite original and appealing even to adults. So it is also cited as one of the fine examples of Literary nonsense.
So maybe it has its own category!
What do you think?
From down the rabbit hole,
eyestar 
Some cool links:
Interesting interpretations from Later views: One could see the correlations, and we writers see things that show up in stories without a conscious meaning or knowing we do it?
https://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~hcht/blog/de-stigmatizing-mental-illness-early-role...
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Time to read a bit of Fantasy!
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Dragon poem for children. For DreamTime Dragon's Poem Contest, February, 2020. 3rd place.
#2214414 by Beholden   |
March contests:
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Soooo... have you read Alice's Adventures? What did you think? Have you written a fantasy that is a bit odd with nonsensical elements? Can you write a nonsensical fantasy poem? Share! Share! 
 Thank you so much for your comments on my last newsletter: "Fantasy Newsletter (April 3, 2019)"
deemac 
" Thank you for featuring the 'legendary' C S Lewis in your Newsletter and for your mention of his birthplace, my own home city of Belfast in Northern Ireland. Though many overseas Lewis devotees visiting the UK include his adult home near Oxford in their itineraries, more and more tourists - especially those enjoying European cruises - are also becoming aware of the varied and stimulating C S Lewis Trail which has been developed in Belfast over the last few years. I would specially recommend this to all our American friends who are already flocking to Belfast's iconic Titanic Heritage centre. There's a lot of especially good solid information about the Lewis Trail here at the US Bookriot website https://bookriot.com/2017/11/26/literary-tourism-off-c-s-lewis-trail-belfast/
Many thanks again for the insight your piece gives to such a fascinating author, and best regards from over here in Ireland! 
Burning Thoughts 
Truly enjoyed the gentle introduction to C. S. Lewis's biography.
Thanks, eyestar~*
Bob
Goblin Slayer
'To be completely honest, I started writing when I was in the 4th grade so I have no idea what my muse was. I remember the name of my first story, but not what it was about: "Banana brain and fruit head" Then I had a story about a vampire rabbit where I coined the phrase; "I don't give a flying rats pajamas" My muse was very active back then and has somewhat calmed down, It always does that after I begin a good project."
Fyn 
"My Alyndoria series was born of childhood imaginings up on our mountain and fueled by scrolls my grandmother would hide all around the mountain, never knowing if or when I'd find them!
I devoured the Narnia tales as a child and read them to my children when they were younger and all three have since reread them many times. The Dawn Treader was always my favorite! Although, I must confess, I have an antique wardrobe in my bedroom. Noth a lion and a dragon stand guard atop it!
Fantastic newsletter!"
BIG BAD WOLF is Howling 
"My journey started with Don Bluth's "Rock-a-Doodle", which inspired me to start writing back in kindergarten, almost 24 years ago, and I've yet to stop." |
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