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The triangle of reactions to the fantastic event described here embodies one of the
issues in the contemporary debate about the moment ofhesitation posited as central to
the fantastic by Todorov. They point beyond Todorov's idea of hesitation: that the
protagonist/reader should never be able to decide between an 'uncanny' interpretation,
and a marvellous one. In the uncanny interpretation the strange is reincorporated into
the subject's rational understanding of previously established natural laws, whose
application was simply not immediately visible, and the marvellous interpretation
pushes the subject into a 'marvellous' world, no longer adherent to those laws shared
by the reader. He writes that 'the fantastic is that hesitation experienced by a person
who knows only the laws of nature, confronting an apparently supernatural evil'
(Todorov, p.25). The conviction that the supernatural must be evil seems outdated, but
it does explain why Todorov only dares to consider 'hesitation' as a razor edge of
indecision between two states (evil demands solutions), rather than a 'profonda
costemazione' as a state ofmind in its own right.
A primary point of opposition to the Todorovian view is in the choice of the
axis uncanny/ marvellous. Goggi argues that Todorov does not justify the choice of
the axis natural/supernatural over other possible pairs of oppositions within the
fantastic such as 'veglia/sonno, sanita/pazzia, realta/allucinazione, realta/apparenza.' 70
In fact Goggi sees the only possible opposition as existing rather between the natural
and the unknown (incognito) '(naturale .> x ).'71The notion of binary is seen as
increasingly eroded within the fantastic, as the Capriolo quotation would suggest,
perhaps in tandem with a development towards what Calvino describes as the
'fantastico quotidiano'