Microsoft Word final-current Developments at the Intersection of British Children-online-version doc

5.2.2
 
Parallels and differences between primary and secondary worlds 
In the genre, one encounters various degrees of familiarity between primary and 
secondary worlds. Yet, no matter how exotic or fantastic such a world is portrayed as and how 
incompatible it may seem at first glance to either the character’s or the reader’s normality, 
parallels between a realistic world and a fantastic one can always be established. 
Concurrences of this kind constitute the basis for interworldly comparisons by permitting at 
least some familiarity for orientation. As with any expedition, the explorer sets out from 
familiar turf
into unknown terrain and compares their discoveries to their own store of 
experience. Such an alignment is required for the purpose of assessing new phenomena. 
Transfers are only meaningful if classifications can be made into familiar sense and value 
systems. This is why areas that tend to remain untouched by otherness are for instance 
fundamental social contacts in the form of parenthood, friendship, love, hierarchies as well as 

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patterns of human behaviour. Political, religious or ethical aspects of society can already 
differ from the basic framework.
Outside this stable key area, the degree of familiarity can vary greatly. The more 
familiar the respective world, the more emphasis is laid on the characters and their 
development rather than an exotic setting. Slight variations support the comparison of 
contrasts without deflecting too much from the main conflicts and issues. Nevertheless, they 
suffice to encourage thought about implications and consequences of otherness. By contrast, 
the more unknown the portrayed primary or secondary world, the more important it is for the 
main character(s) to counterbalance this by facing disconcerting beings, events or other 
features in an understandable, consistent and thus recognisable way. This circumstance 
facilitates a more intense identification with the main character(s) on the part of the reader, as 
well as the drawing of conclusions about the own situation. Compared to the reader’s reality, 
the fictional worlds and the societies are either better, the same or worse than their own. 
Therefore social criticism is an essential component whenever parallels and differences 
between primary and secondary worlds are concerned.
A further aspect revealing parallels and differences between primary and secondary 
worlds is - if available - the existence, nature and mode of operation of mutual points of 
contact. The latter possess a particular innate expressiveness: It is here that the first 
impression of another world is formed and that correspondences and divergences become
apparent. The nature of a specific point of contact between worlds already permits the 
drawing of conclusions concerning the way of life as well as the level of the technology used 
by the inhabitants of the other world. So the gateway in the primary world, the interspace 
between the worlds and the corresponding gateway into the secondary world give clues as to 
what is given priority to there. In current British children’s fantasy novels, the design of these 
gateways is as manifold as the secondary worlds. Classic points of transition like a hole in the 
ground or a mirror are complemented and enriched by a wealth of imaginative variations. 
From portals and magical artefacts, often books, invocations and self-made cuts in the thin 
layers of adjacent worlds to the medium of water used for geographical as well as 
chronological travel between worlds, anything seems possible. In the following, a selection of 
such original secondary worlds and their points of contact to others will be presented, 
analysed and compared.

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