Phantastes

Thanks to everyone for coming to the dinner/discussion. The food was delicious, the company most excellent, and the discussion engaging. It was good to see that everyone enjoyed TWHF as much as I did.

The next book discussion will be held on Monday, September 8th. We’ll be reading Phantastes.

We’ll discuss the menu and where we’ll have the discussion later.

Update Fri Aug 15 11:19:08 CDT 2003: Click below to read more about Phantastes, George MacDonald, and why I want to read this book.

From everything I’ve read, Phantastes, should be an interesting read.Most people seem to think that it’s not a particularly good novel inthe sense of having a good plot (or much of any plot at all), butrather takes on a dreamlike, poetic nature full of rich, fantasticimagery. The main reason I have wanted to read more MacDonald is thathe has had such a profound influence on some of the writers I respectand love the most: Lewis, Tolkien, Carroll, L’Engle, Chesterton, etc.I’m eternally fascinated by authors who can portray truth in fantasty.

Myths, Lewis once told Tolkien, were “lies and therefore worthless, even though breathed through silver.”

“No,” Tolkien replied. “They are not lies.” Far from being lies they were the best way — sometimes the only way — of conveying truths that would otherwise remain inexpressible. We have come from God, Tolkien argued, and inevitably the myths woven by us, though they contain error, reflect a splintered fragment of the true light, the eternal truth that is with God. Myths may be misguided, but they steer however shakily toward the true harbor, whereas materialistic “progress” leads only to the abyss and the power of evil.

“In expounding this belief in the inherent truth of mythology,” wrote Tolkien’s biographer, Humphrey Carpenter, “Tolkien had laid bare the center of his philosophy as a writer, the creed that is at the heart of The Silmarillion.” It is also the creed at the heart of all his other work. His short novel, Tree and Leaf, is essentially an allegory on the concept of true myth, and his poem, “Mythopoeia,” is an exposition in verse of the same concept. (source)

It is these myths, and the idea of the True Myth, to which I am everdrawn. So, reading MacDonald, one whose writings have influenced somany fantasty authors, seems perfectly necessary to me. Next up forme, personally: The Silmarillion.

I also remember reading MacDonald as a younger child, andvaguely remember really enjoying them. So having enjoyed hischildren’s fairy tales, it’s time to read his adult fairy tales.

Here’s a bit more about MacDondald, Phantastes, and the effect on somegreat authors:

In October 1857, George MacDonald wrote what he described as “a kind offairy tale, in the hope that it will pay me better than the more evidentlyserious work.” This was Phantastes, one of MacDonald’s most importantworks; a work which so overwhelmed C. S. Lewis that a few hours after hebegan reading it he knew he “had crossed a great frontier.”

The book is about the narrator’s (Anodos) dream-like adventures infairyland, where he confronts tree-spirits and the shadow, sojourns to thepalace of the fairy queen, and searches for the spirit of the earth. Thetale is vintage MacDonald, conveying a profound sadness and a poignantlonging for death.

MacDonald’s work had a profound influence on other writer such as C.S.Lewis, W.H. Auden, Lewis Carroll, G.K. Chesterton, Madeleine L’Engle,J.R.R. Tolkien….

C.S. Lewis said that Phantastes “baptised” his imagination and changed his life and writing style.

“I have neer concealed the fact that I regarded George MacDonald as mymaster; indeed, I fancy I have never written a book in which I did notquote from him.”
- C. S. Lewis

“Surely, George MacDonald is the grandfather of us all — all of us whostruggle to come to terms with truth through fantasy.”
- Madeleine L’Engle

Further pre-reading:

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Tags: Books