Newswise — The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Peter Jackson’s much anticipated film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s original tale about hobbits, Middle Earth, and “The One Ring,” will hit theaters Friday, December 14. Following in the footsteps of Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Harry Potter films, the Chronicles of Narnia films, and the Twilight films, it will be the latest in a more than decade-long series of Hollywood blockbusters based on popular fantasy literature. And the trend will continue: already on the horizon for 2013 is Oz The Great and Powerful, a prequel to L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The last time a major Hollywood studio took us to Oz was 1985’s Return to Oz.
But fantasy is hardly a new genre. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, credited with helping to “mainstream” fantasy in the twentieth century, recently celebrated its 75th anniversary. Before it, numerous precursors date far back beyond fairy tales and Arthurian literature to ancient works such as The Epic of Gilgamesh and Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey. So why is fantasy experiencing a renaissance of sorts now?
Charles Cox, senior professorial lecturer in the Department of Literature at American University in Washington, D.C., says the answer is more complex than simply “escapism” as all entertainment provides a way to escape our day-to-day lives.
“For many viewers, I think it’s the perceived simplicity of traditional fantasy—the sorts of fantasy we’re seeing the most of in Hollywood (Tolkien-style, fairy tales, and superheroes) usually make the line between good and evil very clear and stark,” said Cox, whose academic interests include the cultural role of the popular genres fantasy and science fiction. “For some people, that sort of thinking can be very appealing in politically-charged and economically precarious times. The real world is morally murky and troublingly complex, so the black-and-white worlds of traditional fantasy can be a calming antidote to that.”
Beyond Good v. Evil
But according to Cox, if we look beyond the simple appeal of good v. evil and the amazing special effects that can make fantasy even more fantastic on the silver screen, we will discover that fantasy actually can help us better understand and deal with the complexities and challenges of reality.
“Fantasy, and related genres like science fiction, are often metaphorical,” said Cox. “The worlds of fantasy mirror our own, but in distorted ways—ways that exaggerate and estrange, making us see ourselves in a new light.”
For example, Cox explains, in The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien connects the good characters and races closely to nature, while the forces of evil are heedless of nature and often use technology to nature’s detriment. (Think Saruman destroying the forest to build what is essentially an orc factory.)
“For Tolkien, this was a way of capturing what he saw as a dying English way of life in the first half of the twentieth century,” Cox said. “Modern viewers, whether they recognize it or not, may feel echoes of current worries over environmental devastation and the dangers of unchecked industry.”
But, Cox contends, the key is that the message is communicated indirectly, so it doesn’t come across as “preachy” like it would in a realistic, contemporary story.
“Scholar Brian W. Adliss reminds us that ‘Good science fiction does not necessarily traffic in reality; but it makes reality clearer to us.’ The same applies to fantasy,” Cox said.
Balancing the Familiar and the Strange
For most, the word “fantasy” conjures up images of magic; strange, far-away lands; and mythical creatures. But Cox says there is a lot more to the fantasy genre than wizards, kings, queens, dragons, and unicorns.
“Most people are familiar with what we call ‘high’ or ‘epic’ fantasy—such as the works of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis,” Cox said. “But it’s actually a much more diverse genre than people realize, especially in print literature, where you can find dark fantasy, comic fantasy, urban fantasy, steampunk, sword-and-sorcery—just to name some of the most common forms.”
One of the hallmarks of high/epic fantasy is the stark good v. evil story line. While this is not a hallmark of all fantasy sub-genres, Cox says all commercially successful fantasy works do share one quality: balancing the familiar and the strange.
“Readers and viewers want something that gives us a sense of wonder, a glimpse at the impossible made real, sights we’d never otherwise see,” Cox said. “But we don’t want something so utterly fantastical and unfamiliar that we can’t see ourselves reflected in it. As with all fiction, we want to become engaged with the characters and on some level be able to identify with their struggles, even if it’s just metaphorical.”
Something for Everyone
Fantasy—especially high/epic fantasy—appeals to multiple generations. Parents are often as eager as their children to read the latest book or see the new movie adaptation of a popular fantasy series—the most recent examples of this being Harry Potter, Twilight, and The Hunger Games. Classics, such as The Hobbit, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Wizard of Oz, are “rediscovered” when parents share them with their children. Longevity, it seems, is built-in.
According to Cox, part of this can be attributed to the universal appeal of the good v. evil story line.
“Everyone, regardless of age, confronts challenges and feels thwarted by ‘evil,’ whether it’s the bully on the playground, the tyrannical boss or teacher, or that pile of unpaid bills,” Cox said. “High fantasy stories, with the underdog hero overcoming the evil, reassure us—if only for a few hours—that someday, some way, we will triumph. And, despite many adults’ denials, this need never goes away, really. We all need the occasional fantasy hero.”
But Cox says the longevity of the fantasy renaissance we are experiencing now is more likely made possible by the genre’s diversity.
“Right now, there are so many different popular fantastical shows, films, and novels that you can find your own niche,” Cox said. “If you don’t like hobbits and elves, there are zombies and vampires. If you’re not into superheroes, there are fairy tales. And so on. This openness to various types of stories, all fantastical but quite different in style and content, may keep the trend from burning out as quickly as other trends do.”
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