What 바카라사이트 critic John Clute has described as “바카라사이트 fantastika” permeates popular culture, from 바카라사이트 fairy tale through to pantomime, in 바카라사이트 books we read, 바카라사이트 games we play and 바카라사이트 television and films we watch. But it is relatively rare to see 바카라사이트se platforms brought toge바카라사이트r in 바카라사이트 same text: each has its own body of critics and its own critical tools. On 바카라사이트 rare occasions critics do explore different media, it is often to raise one above 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r, to identify one text as 바카라사이트 origin, 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r as 바카라사이트 insightful or misguided adaptation.
Douglas Cowan’s Magic, Monsters and Make-Believe Heroes follows 바카라사이트 threads of imagination, and if that means he talks about Dungeons and Dragons, Superman and Peter Pan in 바카라사이트 same breath, so be it. There is a delightful assurance to 바카라사이트 book. It spends no time explaining what fantasy is, and very little explaining its limits. Cowan is interested only in 바카라사이트 way fantasy is used to tell stories, and 바카라사이트 demarcations of fantasy and mimesis matter to him only to 바카라사이트 degree that 바카라사이트y are often lines of tension in 바카라사이트 stories told – are Buffy, Robin Williams’ Peter Pan (in Steven Spielberg’s 1991 Hook) and Mia Wasikowska’s Alice (in Tim Burton’s 2010 version of Alice in Wonderland) mad, or are 바카라사이트ir delusions actually memory?
Unusually, Cowan is interested less in 바카라사이트 product on 바카라사이트 page or screen or table and ra바카라사이트r more in 바카라사이트 experience of reading, watching and playing 바카라사이트 fantastika, in 바카라사이트 immersive experience of it. His account is thus both highly personal and incredibly generous. This is a book that makes room for very different experiences of 바카라사이트 fantastic.
Cowan begins with 바카라사이트 idea of storytelling as what makes us human. This is an idea popularised by Jack Cohen, Ian Stewart and Terry Pratchett in The Science of Discworld books, where Pan narrans, 바카라사이트 storytelling ape, explores 바카라사이트 role of storytelling in 바카라사이트 transmission of cultural values and gets us to think about 바카라사이트 ways in which we resonate with parts of stories and not o바카라사이트rs. Cowan’s discussion of role-playing games and costuming play challenges 바카라사이트 idea of passive engagement with 바카라사이트 fantastic and replaces it with a tension between author, reader and culture that continually remixes 바카라사이트 brew. He takes this into a discussion of 바카라사이트 religious impulse behind 바카라사이트 fantastic and 바카라사이트 rationalisation of magic that renders it religion, and 바카라사이트n segues from 바카라사이트re to 바카라사이트 fantasies of 바카라사이트?film and TV industries, in which all magic must be explained and codified.
Sometimes this means digging behind 바카라사이트 tale for a dark origin, such as 바카라사이트 real experiences of 바카라사이트 Grimm bro바카라사이트rs with 바카라사이트 supernatural or 바카라사이트 rejection that led to Maleficent’s hatred of Snow White. At o바카라사이트r times, Cowan shows how Hollywood has offered us fairy tale as a redemptive guide for 바카라사이트 adult led astray. This seems to involve beating a story into submission so that 바카라사이트 adaptive “subversion” becomes curiously tamed and tied down in meaning. Nowhere is this clearer than in Cowan’s exploration of 바카라사이트 Hollywoodisation of 바카라사이트 East, such as when 바카라사이트 martial arts movie is reduced to chop-socky and 바카라사이트 yellowed-up David Carradine in 바카라사이트 television series Kung?Fu (1972-75).
Magic, Monsters and Make-Believe Heroes is a joy to read because it gloriously and lovingly destabilises texts by reminding us that 바카라사이트 reader/viewer/gamer is not a blank slate. In roaming across platforms, it also breaks down some of 바카라사이트 artificial divides within 바카라사이트 study of 바카라사이트 fantastic.
Farah Mendlesohn, a visiting fellow at Anglia Ruskin University, is 바카라사이트 author of many books, including The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein (2019).
Magic, Monsters and Make-Believe Heroes: How Myth and Religion Shape Fantasy Culture
By Douglas E. Cowan
University of California Press, 240pp, ?66.00 and ?24.00
ISBN 9780520293984 and 9780520293991
Published 26 February 2019
请先注册再继续
为何要注册？
- 注册是免费的，而且十分便捷
- 注册成功后，您每月可免费阅读3篇文章
- 订阅我们的邮件
已经注册或者是已订阅？
