Fantasy
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George MacDonald was profoundly influenced by German Romanticism, particularly through the Idealism and creative imagination of Novalis. Novalis sought to shift the reader’s understanding of truth from an objective “expelling” of data to a subjective “inward” understanding. MacDonald often paraphrased Novalis in his personal correspondence, writing: “The Realist is an Idealist who knows nothing of…
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Ursula Le Guin once observed of George MacDonald’s masterpiece: “A princess is a girl who behaves nobly; a girl who behaves nobly is a princess. Curdie the miner…is a prince. The king is king because he’s a good man. No other definition is allowed. This is radically moral democracy.” Le Guin’s assessment holds because MacDonald…
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In December 2001, I sat in a darkened theater and watched Peter Jackson’s The Fellowship of the Ring. I had read the books as a child, but seeing that world come alive sparked something inside me. My friend Sam and I made a pact to see every installment together. We returned for The Two Towers,…
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Jeffrey Overstreet is one of my favorite film critics. Whether he is writing for JeffreyOverstreet.com or drafting his fantasy series Auralia’s Colors, he remains uncompromising. Every year, he draws fire for critiquing “Best Picture” nominees that happen to be wildly popular. His response to the “popularity equals quality” argument is a simple, rhetorical analogy: McDonald’s…
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I’ll admit from the start: I am a little leery of qualifying anything with the word good. In our relativistic age, “good” often feels as empty as saying a building is “strong because it’s strong.” It either means nothing, or it means something entirely different to you than it does to me. G.K. Chesterton famously…
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Our modern culture is fascinated—some would say obsessed—with the fantastic. Vampires, magic wands, and mystical worlds pervade our media, often creating a “zombie-like” following. When we hear the word “fantasy,” a kaleidoscope of images pops into our heads: for the young, perhaps unicorns and Care Bears; for older audiences, the gritty werewolves of The Walking…