According to Tolkien (1964), fairy is equivalent to elf, but fairy-story is not a story about fairies or elves, but a story about Faerie which contains their being, for example, dwarfs, witches, trolls, giants, or dragons, and these creatures hold the seas, the sun, the moon, the sky and the earth. And all things, that possibly exist in a real world, are in fairy-story such as tree and bird, water and stone, wine and bread, and human being. So fairy-story is truly about the nature of Faerie, which is in fact indescribable. Fairy-stories were clearly not a matter of real possibility but a matter of desirability. So as long as fairy-stories contain the element of desire, for example, chase dreams, adventures, and look for buried treasures, they can be called successful fairy-stories. Tolkien claims that Magic may possibly be an equivalent word for Faerie. In other words, faerie has a magic sense to it. Faerie is not a dream but a desire of human being to hold communion with other living things through a surreal world.
“An essential power of Faerie is thus the power of making immediately effective by
the will the visions of ‘fantasy’ (Tolkien, p. 25).
In fantasy, Faerie starts and Man becomes a sub-creator. Fantasy creates Other-worlds and is a centre of the desire of Faerie. Tolkien addresses that human is apt to conceive imaginations in their mind which are not actually exist in real world. To have a successful expression in fantasy, the inner consistency of reality is important. For example, different degree of imagination requires image perception, understanding and control of the implication of imaginations. And imagination generates the sub-creative Art and qualities of strangeness and wonder, which is an essential to fairy-story.
Those images are not actually present and also generally believed not to be found in real world. So Fantasy is a higher form of Art, in fact, which is the most near-pure form and potent.
Reference
Tolkien, J. (1964). On faerie stories. In Tree and Leaf. London: Unwin Hyman.
You summaried Tolkien's theory so well, so I could understand his view. In fact, it makes a sense saying that 'Fairy-stories were clearly not a matter of real possibility but a matter of desirability' and 'Faerie is not a dream but a desire of human being to hold communion with other living things through a surreal world'.So it is related to Fantasy which creates Other-worlds and is a centre of the desire of Faerie.
ReplyDeleteI doubt that Fantasy is a higher form of Art, and I think it depends on what kind of Art you are talking about. ^^;
Anyway, well done, Love.