The Monstrous Fantastic Conference Paper Abstracts - International ...

The Concept of Soul Divisibility in Myth and Fantasy: An Archetypal EventBen MelnykVancouver Island UniversityThis paper argues that the occurrence of either a division or joining of souls is a common enough event within myth and fantasy that it shouldbe considered an archetypal event related to, yet separate from, Carl Jung’s concept of the Shadow Self. To this effect, it explores the writingsof Aristotle, specifically his concept of the “wax soul” as being inseparable from and having a direct impact on the nature of the body, and Jung,with a focus on his ideas of the Collective Unconscious and the cross-cultural development of the Universal Archetypes, particularly theShadow. The paper also draws examples of the above theory from the belief systems of Christianity, Islam, and Taoism. Respectively theseinclude: the account of Jesus at The Last Supper and his subsequent crucifixion; an exploration of the Sufist branch of Islam and its concept ofunifying five souls; and Taoism’s focus on the importance of balance vs. the dangers of imbalance. These examples are then compared to arange of fantasy authors including J.R.R. Tolkien, Ursula K. Le Guin, and J.K. Rowling, among others. Using examples of Sauron’s relationship tothe One Ring in The Lord of the Rings, Ged’s split from and reunification with his Shadow in A Wizard of Earthsea, and the dramatic effectsresulting from Voldemort’s creation of the horcruxes in the Harry Potter series, along with several others, this paper argues the ubiquitouspresence of the idea of the divisible soul and its central importance to fantasy literature.Monsters and the Monstrous in Gene Wolfe’s The Wizard KnightEdgar L. ChapmanBradley UniversityFantasy is a realm where the imagination should have license to create any manner of monsters, and as J. R. R. Tolkien argued in his famousessay on Beowulf, “The Monsters and the Critics,” scholars have often displayed a tendency to ignore monsters that are vividly placed beforethem. This tendency can also apply to the general reader of fantasy, who often seems to wish to evade the presence of moral evil in both thecharacters and the grotesque of fantasy. There is a place for fantasy like Winnie the Pooh and The Wind in the Willows, set in worlds of nearlypure innocence; but epic fantasy or “high fantasy,” whether it’s Paradise Lost or The Well at the World’s End should and must occur in a realmwhich is in some respects an analogue to our world and it should project images and symbols of evil that arouse serious contemplation.Unfortunately, much contemporary fantasy seems to take a different approach. Dragons become friendly airborne steeds, or even chattysidekicks of the hero, whether male or female. Giants are bungling oafs to be easily outwitted, not the fearsome, nightmarish figure who is not“enchanting to Jack,” to quote W. H. Auden’s ironic line. Witches may also be humanized into likable crones. And so on. However, as GeneWolfe has remarked in conversation with me (September, 2011), he found this trend exasperating, and decided to counter it in the compositionof his signature epic fantasy, The Wizard Knight, comprised of two long novels, The Wizard and The Knight. This heroic saga, related by anAmerican lad transplanted to a fantasy realm, created out of materials from Norse and Arthurian mythology, contains its share of traditionalmonsters: including giants and dragons. The giants are genuine monsters who provide menace through the tyranny of size. Wolfe’s hero, whoearns a position as a knight, under the name of Sir Able of the High Heart, is given the task of escorting a human emissary and his daughter tothe land of the giants. Aside from the fact that the giants enslave most humans who fall into their power, blinding the males and makingservants of the females, they seem genuinely dangerous adversaries in combat, although they lack the speed and subtlety of human warriors inthe handling of medieval weapons. Wolfe constantly emphasizes the much greater size of the giants in his kingdom, although his heroinedutifully follows her pledge to wed the king of the giants. No reader who cares about the fate of Wolfe’s hero and heroine can feel comfortableabout things while they sojourn among the giants. In the outcome of this section of the novels, Wolfe’s characters escape because of intrigueand disloyalty among the royal courtiers of the giants’ monarch, rather than from superior skill in combat. With regard to the epic’s dragon, theoutcome is somewhat different. Sir Able does battle the dragon and the epic combat takes him into other realms of being, a descent into theunderworld comparable in some ways to Gandalf’s battle with the balrog in The Lord of the Rings. Sir Able emerges from the conflict reborn andstronger, but the experience is not a pleasant one, as Wolfe describes it. Here again Wolfe offers a counter to the contemporary practice ofpresenting dragons as pleasant, chatty papier mache figures. Throughout Wolfe’s fiction, the author has not taken evil lightly (except perhapsin his parodies of Sherlock Holmes), and his treatment of conventional monsters has sometimes offered revisionary transformations (as in theearly story, “'The Hero As Werwolf,” where the werewolf of the tale is a human predator who practices cannibalism in an amoral city of thenear future. But The Wizard Knight succeeds in restoring awe and menace to conventional iconic figures of fantasy derived from medievalEuropean mythology.