Post 1 // Prompt 1

I recently read J.R.R Tolkien’s essay “On Faerie Stories”, where he discusses the idea of ‘escapism’, especially in regards to Faerie/Fantasy stories not entirely dissimilar to the Harry Potter books. He talks about the way that all Fantasy is indeed ‘escapism’, but attempts to remove the word from the derogatory connotation it’s usually associated with. These stories allow us a certain ‘escape’, not in the sense that we run away from our problems or from the (sometimes uncomfortable) truth, but in the sense in which a prisoner ‘escapes’ in dreaming of the comforts of his own home, his wife, the warmth of his bed. Stories that deal with the extraordinary and the supernatural are tapping into some essential human desire for transcendence – for that which is beyond the material – ‘home’ or whatever you want to call it. In this sense, reading and writing ‘Faerie’ is a sort of spiritual exercise. This is linked, of course, to Iser’s idea of the breaking down of the subject/object division. Part of the point of all literature, all art, I think, is to allow us this liberty to jump over the wall of Self and inhabit the Other, another life, another world. The Harry Potter narrative is a great example of this, as Rowling’s artful crafting allows us as readers to be completely enveloped in the wizarding world in the act of reading – there’s enough realism to make the story believable (and communicative to us, being limited to our experiences/perceptions), but enough extraordinariness to give us a glimpse beyond, or above. I can jump into Harry’s, Ron’s, or Hermione’s consciousness and get a clearer vision of my own; I can jump into the wizarding world and get a better understanding of the one I inhabit.