Dickerson, Matthew and David
O’Hara. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press. 2006. 272 pp.,
$25.00 (CAD). ISBN: 1-58743-133-5.
[1] From Homer to Harry Potter is a guide to the influences of modern Western
fantasy with a heavy focus on the significance of J.R.R Tolkien and, with less
emphasis, C.S. Lewis. Matthew Dickerson, of Middlebury College (Vermont) and
David O’Hara of Augustana College (South Dakota) draw on Tolkien’s image of
fantasy as a cauldron of soup in which various ingredients have been added. The
main ingredients of this soup, according to Dickerson and O’Hara, are Biblical
story, Homeric epic, and Norse mythology. The first section of their book is
concerned with elaborating on the importance of these ingredients to the
overall construction of a genre of fantasy and fairy tale in the Western world,
culminating in the creation of the Faerie worlds of Middle Earth by Tolkien,
and Narnia by Lewis. In this task, Dickerson and O’Hara succeed marvelously.
The integration of their own readings of these ancient stories along with
reference to Tolkien’s own discourse on fantasy makes for a comprehensive
understanding of the development of the heroic fantasy and fairy tale as true
Story which takes place at the borders between our material world and Faerie
(the world of the supernatural or divine). In the second section of the book
Dickerson and O’Hara approach post-Tolkien fantasy written by Ursula Le Guin,
Philip Pullman, Walter Wangerin, Jr., and J. K. Rowling.
[2] It is in this second section
that Dickerson and O’Hara’s biases become clearer and more problematic.
Dickerson and O’Hara rightly show the importance of Biblical text on Tolkien
and Lewis. In particular the Christian understanding of an ultimate dichotomy
(and battle) between Good and Evil are clearly marked in Tolkien’s Lord of
the Rings and Lewis’ The
Chronicles of Narnia. Much fantasy that has
come since these pivotal works has also drawn on this motif. It is a stock
ingredient in the cauldron. However, rather than understanding this battle
between Good and Evil as one ingredient which fantasy authors may choose to use (understanding, of course, that
authors pull out of the cauldron with discretion and not randomly), Dickerson
and O’Hara see the battle between Good and Evil, understood as a battle between
a supernatural Good versus a supernatural Evil, as necessary for all fantasy.
Thus, some of the more modern fantasy authors do not fair so well in their
evaluation.
[3] Ursula Le Guin and Philip
Pullman are both considered by Dickerson and O’Hara to have created flawed
fantasy (if their works can even be considered “true” fantasy at all), because
they stray from the essential battle between Good and Evil. Le Guin dares to
suggest, in her Earthsea novels, that
good and evil are not supernatural entities but instead tendencies within each
person. Furthermore, the important task is to maintain balance between light
and dark, good and evil. Thus rather than presenting a fantasy story which ultimately
ends in the overcoming of Evil by Good (a true Christian message), Le Guin
follows what Dickerson and O’Hara call a “Westernized Eastern mysticism” (188).
While I agree with Dickerson and O’Hara that this results in a fantasy that is
not particularly Christian, I find problems with their assumption that because
Le Guin does not present a Christian message (or Christian compatible message)
she is not creating true fantasy. The problem seems to be her swaying from the
“orthodoxy” of Tolkien’s version of fantasy. Yet, if fantasy is a cauldron of
soup in which various ingredients have been continually added, why stop the
cooking in the 1950s? Surely it is as justifiable to draw on the later
additions to the cauldron such as “Westernized Eastern mysticism,” especially
considering that Le Guin wrote these novels in the late 1960s to early 1970s.
[4] Philip Pullman is also
considered flawed by Dickerson and O’Hara, largely because of his
anti-Christian, anti-Church rhetoric that permeates his series, His Dark
Materials. Again we see a bias whereby a
story that is not compatible with the Christian message of Good triumphing over
Evil (rather than good and evil in balance or good and evil as opposite sides
of the same coin) is not really fantasy. One irony of this perspective is that
Dickerson and O’Hara begin their book adamantly claiming that one should not
“reduce Story, especially that of Faerie, to mere moral platitudes or
philosophical propositions” (22). Yet their very criterion of “true” fantasy is
that it follows a very specific moral pattern. In fact, they view the lack of
supernatural Good (i.e., God) in Le Guin and Pullman as a sign that these works
are not moral at all (and thus not real fantasy). Conversely, Walter Wangerin,
Jr., and J.K. Rowling fair well because they do present a world in which
ultimate Good battles ultimate Evil (though in Harry Potter this is less clearly about supernatural forces).
[5] From Homer to Harry Potter is obviously a book geared toward general Christian
readers. In fact, though the authors do not explicitly say so, the book is
clearly an apologetic for Christian acceptance of fantasy—a reaction to
the outcry against magical and mythical fiction by certain proponents of
evangelical Christianity. Dickerson and O’Hara work very hard to show how
Christians can enjoy fantasy literature without moving away from a Christian
message. This is a valid argument and a valid project. However, they misstep
when they proceed to argue that just because fantasy can promote a Christian message, it therefore must in order to be authentic fantasy.
Chris Klassen
Wilfrid Laurier
University
cklassen@wlu.ca
