The Multidimensional Nature of Imaginative Story-Telling
The Domesticating Function of Genres and Definitions
Let’s begin by taking a brief look at the following Wikipedia definitions of imaginative genres:
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Speculative fiction is an umbrella genre encompassing narrative fiction with supernatural or futuristic elements. This includes, but is not limited to, science fiction, fantasy, superhero fiction, science fantasy, horror, utopian and dystopian fiction, supernatural fiction as well as combinations thereof.
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Science fiction (often shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction, typically dealing with imaginative concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, and extraterrestrial life. Science fiction often explores the potential consequences of scientific and other innovations, and has been called a “literature of ideas.”
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Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction set in a fictional universe, often without any locations, events, or people referencing the real world. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became literature and drama. From the twentieth century it has expanded further into various media, including film, television, graphic novels and video games.
Most fantasy uses magic or other supernatural elements as a main plot element, theme, or setting. Magic and magical creatures are common in many of these worlds.
An identifying trait of fantasy is the author’s reliance on imagination to create narrative elements that do not have to rely on history or nature to be coherent. This differs from realistic fiction in that realistic fiction has to attend to the history and natural laws of reality, where fantasy does not. An author applies his or her imagination to come up with characters, plots, and settings that are impossible in reality.
Fantasy is distinguished from science fiction by the plausibility of the narrative elements. A science fiction narrative is unlikely, though seemingly possible through logical scientific or technological extrapolation, where fantasy narratives do not need to be scientifically possible. Authors have to rely on the readers’ suspension of disbelief, an acceptance of the unbelievable or impossible for the sake of enjoyment, in order to write effective fantasies.
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Superhero fiction is a genre of speculative fiction examining the adventures, personalities and ethics of costumed crime fighters known as superheroes, who often possess superhuman powers and battle similarly powered criminals known as supervillains. The genre mainly originated in and is most common to American comic books, though it has expanded into other media through adaptations and original works.
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Utopia and dystopia are genres of speculative fiction that explore social and political structures. Utopian fiction portrays the setting that agrees with the author’s ethos, having various attributes of another reality intended to appeal to readers. Dystopian fiction (sometimes combined with, but distinct from apocalyptic literature) is the opposite: the portrayal of a setting that completely disagrees with the author’s ethos. Many novels combine both, often as a metaphor for the different directions humanity can take, depending on its choices, ending up with one of two possible futures. Both utopias and dystopias are commonly found in science fiction and other speculative fiction genres, and arguably are by definition a type of speculative fiction.
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Supernatural fiction or supernaturalist fiction is a genre of speculative fiction exploiting or requiring as plot devices or themes some contradictions of the commonplace natural world and materialist assumptions about it.
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Supernatural. The concept of the supernatural encompasses anything that is inexplicable by scientific understanding of the laws of nature but nevertheless argued by believers to exist. Examples include immaterial beings such as angels, gods and spirits, and claimed human abilities like magic, telekinesis and extrasensory perception.
Historically, supernatural entities have been invoked to explain phenomena as diverse as lightning, seasons and the human senses. Naturalists maintain that nothing beyond the physical world exists and hence maintain skeptical attitudes towards supernatural concepts.
The supernatural is featured in paranormal, occult and religious contexts, but can also feature as an explanation in more secular contexts.
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A fairy tale, wonder tale, magic tale, or Märchen is a folklore genre that takes the form of a short story. Such stories typically feature entities such as dwarfs, dragons, elves, fairies, giants, gnomes, goblins, griffins, mermaids, talking animals, trolls, unicorns, or witches, and usually magic or enchantments. Fairy tales may be distinguished from other folk narratives such as legends (which generally involve belief in the veracity of the events described) and explicit moral tales, including beast fables. The term is mainly used for stories with origins in European tradition and, at least in recent centuries, mostly relates to children’s literature.
[U]nlike legends and epics, fairy tales usually do not contain more than superficial references to religion and to actual places, people, and events; they take place “once upon a time” rather than in actual times.
So take a look at the words used in Wikipedia to describe the qualities of these tales:
- supernatural
- imaginative
- fictional
- magic
- impossible
- unbelievable
- contradictory
- inexplicable
- childish
- “once upon a time”
And compare these with the terms used to describe that which opposes the nature of this fantasy world:
- real world
- historical
- natural laws of reality
- plausible
- scientifically possible
- commonplace natural world
- materialist assumptions
- scientific understanding
- laws of nature
- skepticism
- veracity
The Red or the Blue?
Now, you might be wondering to yourself, “Yeah, so Wikipedia, like everyone else in the world, distinguishes between the make-believe world of fairy tales and the real world of really real reality. So what’s the big deal?”
But what if I, like Morpheus in the Matrix movies, were to suggest that you might be living an illusion and that, like Nero, you could choose to take the red rather than the blue pill? What if the world of fairy tales was actually the real world and what we call real is a socially-accepted fantasy? And that this might be as good a time as any to travel down that rabbit hole?
Or what if we were to take Campbell seriously and suppose that we are suffering from the illusion of separation and that even this distinction between the real world and the fantasy world—the red pill and the blue pill—is itself the ultimate illusion of the dualistic state of consciousness that prevents us from seeing the “energies of eternity” as they break through into time?
Let’s remember for a moment that Joseph Campbell said the following about myth:
“It would not be too much to say that myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestation. Religions, philosophies, arts, the social forms of primitive and historic man, prime discoveries in science and technology, the very dreams that blister sleep, boil up from the basic, magic ring of myth.”
— Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, p. 3
Oh yeah, the Domesticating Function of Genres and Definitions
What I would like to suggest here is that perhaps these generic distinctions that we use to make our way around in discussions of imaginative story-telling might not simply be realistic ways of distinguishing between two distinct realms of narrative—the real and the fictional—but might actually be ways of domesticating or taming the wild beasts of our imaginations, so that now they only ever “really” exist in the “never-never” realm of fantasy, thereby reinforcing our illusion of separation?
What if we were to say instead that that realm of “fiction”—let’s say, for the moment, “science fiction”—that we have been raised to believe is in some make-believe world beyond the hard rock of reality might really be another level of reality itself? And what if those experiences captured in what we call fantasy are in fact higher realities than those we call real?
Would any of this make a difference in how we talk about a work such as Pan’s Labyrinth? What if the so-called fairy tale level of the movie were in fact the ultimate truth, the ultimate reality that underlies the safer daily fictions that we call the real world? What if the purpose of terms such as “fantasy” and “science fiction” were to tame or domesticate the otherwise explosive and enlarging experiences of higher truths and realities?
What if Ofelia in the end really is the amnesiac princess now returned to her proper place in the underworld realm of the labyrinth, transformed into the palace of belonging?
