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FINAL Current Developments at the Intersection of British Children ONLINE VERSION
Dark Materials
, God is not dead, just absent – and, to top it all, female. 90 Ibd., p. 299. 91 Taylor, Wormwood, pp. 113, 160, 163-164. 92 Having erected the House, the Creator is also called the Architect. 239 At first glance it may seem paradox that in the modern age of mass media and communication traditional convictions and ideas are so popular. Yet, increasing instability brings about a demand for security. God and the angels symbolise people’s longing for guidance, shelter, support, love and consolation. In times of need and crisis they remain symbols of hope – a quality which exceeds the competence of any artificial intelligence. 93 In current British fantasy novels for children, not only God and the angels are en vogue as characters but also comparable transcendental, i.e. non-human, beings like djinn, as in Stroud’s Bartimaeus trilogy or Kerr’s Children of the Lamp novels. Depending on the desired effect, the fantasy authors also introduce demons, witches or ghosts, which can be either good or evil. Whereas the good representatives can boost the humans’ confidence, pass on values and morals, thus seeing to a happy ending for the main character(s)’ quest, the evil ones fascinate by their wickedness and ruthlessness, their intrepidity when striving for power and their dark visions. Furthermore, these evil beings stand for a mystical and psychological dimension, people’s unconscious fears and destructive desires unleashed. Delaney’s evil witches, boggarts and other creatures, Pullman’s cliff-ghasts and spectres and Nix’s dead hands in the Abhorsen trilogy explore the depths of the human soul. As inescapable personifications of menaces and existential fear, these beings require a direct confrontation. This does not only concern the respective hero(es), but also the reader. By giving negative feelings such as depressions a form, the internal problem becomes external. Now it is concrete and can be destroyed. Rowling’s Dementors for example are designed as monsters. With their frightening outward appearance and the dissemination of an atmosphere of pure fear, these hunters of tormented souls clearly originate from the horror genre. Any encounter with them has traumatic qualities. 94 Be it the various versions of angels, demons, ghosts, Dementors, djinn or whichever form they may take, these beings embody the mystical dimensions of magic and a parallel world of spirits. Yet, as all current British fantasy novels for children that introduce such beings emphasise, like good and evil, they prove to be a double-edged sword. Whereas their involvement permits humans to achieve the otherwise unattainable, be it extraordinary power, wish fulfilment, riches, performance, skills etc., it also holds a large potential of danger. As 93 Interestingly, topical computer games like Diablo, Black and White or Devil May Cry set in at this point: The characters are good and rebel angels, demons and the devil. 94 Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, p. 281. 240 welcome as their assistance may be for certain projects, as destructive or even lethal those beings can be when they get out of control. In this connection death is becoming an important subject in current British fantasy novels for children. Seemingly a strange topic for children, who are just beginning to live and for whom death should still be far away, death is a part of life just like birth and should not be a taboo topic. Current novels have discovered its potential and scope out modern interpretations. In particular these concern philosophical and ethical questions such as right and wrong, sin and punishment, the concept of heaven and hell and life after death in general. The localisation of a possible afterlife, its form and the beings in this kind of place oblige the otherness of fantasy worlds. With the exploration of death and its realm(s), fantasy literature for children broadens its horizon, i.e. the latitude for inventions. Certainly the idea of exploring death in fantasy literature for children is not new, but its extent and frequency are. Novels such as At the Back of the North Wind, The Chronicles of Narnia or the Download 1.22 Mb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
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