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On Fantasy
When asked how to develop intelligence in young people, Einstein answered: "Read fairy tales. Then read more fairy
tales." I can only add: Yes, and the sooner the better. Fairy tales and fantasies nourish the imagination. And imagination supports our whole intellectual and psychological economy. Not only
in literature, music, and painting spring from the seedbed of imagination; but, as well, all the sciences, mathematics, philosophies, cosmologies. Without imagination, how could we have invented
the wheel or the computer? Or toothpaste? Or nuclear weapons? Or speculate "What if—?" Or have any compassionate sense what it's like to live in another person's skin?
For me, writing fantasy for young people has surely been the most creative and liberating experience of my life. As a literary
form, fantasy has let me express my own deepest feelings and attitudes about the world we're all obliged to live in.
A paradox? Creating worlds that never existed as a way to gain some kind of insight into a world that is very real indeed? The
paradox is easily resolved. Whatever its surface ornamentation, fantasy that strives to reach the level of durable art deals with the bedrock of human emotions, conflicts, dilemmas,
relationships. That is to say: the realities of life.
As adults, we know that life is a tough piece of business. Sometimes the most heroic thing we can do is get out of bed in the
morning. I think it's just as tough for young people. On an emotional level, a child's anguish and a child's joy are as intense as our own. Young people recognize their own inner lives while they
journey through a world completely imaginary.
I don't mean to imply that works of realism haven't the same profound effect on young readers. Of course they do. More often
than not, however, realism tends to deal with material of immediate, current interest; with, to use a word much overused, what is relevant. All well and good. But there's a difference between
what is relevant and what is merely topical. The topical goes away after a while, to be replaced by the next fashionable subject; the newest literary disease of the month, as it were. The best
fantasy it seems to me, is permanently relevant. Because it deals metaphorically with basic human situations, it always has something to say to us. Also, I think that fantasy offers a certain
vividness and high spiritedness unique to itself. We shouldn't underestimate the value of sheer fun, delight, and excitement. In any art, boredom is not a virtue.
Dealing with the impossible, fantasy can show us what may be really possible. If there is grief, there is the possibility of
consolation; if hurt, the possibility of healing; and above all, the curative power of hope. If fantasy speaks to us as we are, it also speaks to us as we might be. •
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About the Author:
Lloyd Alexander has written nearly forty books. Many of his books are fantasies, and they are terrific. The High King won the 1969 Newbery Award. He says that his childhood was ordinary, but there's nothing ordinary about him. He loves music, cats, and drawing. He and his wife live in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, where Lloyd says that there is no hill, unless you count the bump in the road across from the barber shop. He writes early in the morning, and when he hits a trouble spot, he sneaks back to bed. His wife says that he is snoozing, but Lloyd says that he is "thinking horizontally."
Recent Books:
The Arkadians (Dutton 1995)
The Fortune Tellers (Dutton 1992)
The House Gobbaleen (Dutton 1995)
The Iron Ring (Dutton 1997)
The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen (Dutton 1991)
To contact this author or illustrator, please use the information for his or her publisher provided on our list of CBC member publishers.
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