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b is is a REVISED AND expanded version of a long letter of mine which was published in response to an article entit­ led "For Realism in Children’s Fiction", by Andrew Stibbs, a lecturer in Education at Leeds University. His article appear­ ed in Use of English, Autumn 1980, my response was published in the summer 1981 issue, and a further riposte from Mr. Stibbs appeared in the Autumn 1981 issue.

Since Mr. Stibbs has revised and clarified his original statements, particularly rejecting the implication that he was attacking fantasy as a genre, I am not going to quote ex­ tensively from his article with a view to further criticism. However, I shall quote him where necessary before putting my own point of view. Those wishing to read the complete correspondence should refer to Use of English, a maga­ zine usually taken by university libraries and education departments. The following article is not specifically a refutation of Mr. Stibbs's opinions, but I hope will provide ammunition for Tolkien Society members whose parents and teachers tease or even bully them for reading fantasy as opposed to 'realistic' literature - or even for reading anything at all.

One important point which was not made clear in Mr. Stibbs's first article, but which could have been inferred from the context, and the title m of the magazine The Use of English, contributed to our mutual misunderstand­ ing. Mr. Stibbs was speaking primarily, though not exclusively, of the study of fiction in the classroom, and of the teacher's choice of books to read to the children and to set for study. He was not speaking as a would-be censor of children's private reading. However, the tone of his remarks, especially as regards Garner and Tolkien, might well have persuaded teachers with little or no knowledge of their writings to discourage children from reading their books altogether. Hence my indignation, which Mr. Stibbs assuaged in his second article.

It is a sad but necessary fact of life that it is insufficient to

25 justify the reading of fiction (not just Lord of the Rings, which came in for fantasy) with the reason that it is a particular criticism from Mr. Stibbs. Al­ pleasurable activity. Teachers must find though I shall be quoting from this concrete reasons to explain to headmast­ criticism later, I should here quote from ers and parents that reading for fun is his second letter, to show that I am not not a waste of time, and deserves a place continuing to attack him in print, and on the school time-table. To do him that he conceded that my examples were justice, Mr. Stibbs makes a brave, if well chosen. pompous, attempt at providing the defen­ ders of fiction with such reasons. "I was not . . . attacking fantasy as Fiction is of value, both in one's per­ a genre . . . like Ms Yates I admire the sonal, and one's social and even politi­ Earthsea trilogy - and admire it for its cal life. realism." "I ascribe a moral value to exercis- ings of the imagination through reading and teaching literature . . . attending to particular complex and sometimes un­ comfortable realities . . . is a guard against those immoral acts . . . which spring from apprehensions of reality -Su- contaminated by the self - acts of lazi­ Fantasy is a diverse literature: it ness, self-deception, vanity, or self- can be an epic of war, such as The Lord pity . . . It is for celebrating and of the Rings: allegory like Dante's teaching such attentive realism that we so value the novel." Inferno: a mixture of science fiction and politics like Ursula Le Guin's The So good novels, such as Jane Dispossessed} or a family story like Austen's, may help us improve ourselves Nesbit's Five Children and It. All the by demonstrating faults of personality stories have in common the impossibility which we may then discreetly try to of their events occuring in 'everyday' correct. lif e.

Fiction also makes us aware of pol­ Mr. Stibbs does not mention these itical and social problems, which, again, works, to do him justice, he attacks we might strive to eradicate in real English teaching about "ghosts, ghost life. Prime examples of these might be stories, spells . . . a termly theme on Unde Tom's Cabin and 198b. Of this 'The Supernatural'". Like him, I deplore second aim of fiction, Stibbs says: the exploitation of children's fascinat­ "The imaginativeness which English teach­ ion with witchcraft and the occult simply ers should educate rejects the untrue to keep them interested in schoolwork. and the impossible . . . and should help In common with Mr. Stibbs, I dislike pupils to avoid commercial and political second-rate supernatural thrillers. But exploitation and corruption." However, there are good fantasy alternatives to Stibbs thinks that reading some super­ sensational ghost stories. On the one natural fiction could blind children to hand, myth, legend, folk-tale, the her­ real evil. "Supernatural-mongers . . . itage of the Celtic, Norse, Greek, are teaching pupils to live in a dream Egyptian, Indian and African races, all world and to see themselves as powerless in excellent modern editions. On the • • • I want to teach children that we other hand, there are children's fantas­ cannot escape by flying and that we must ies just as good, as human, as realistic, not treat evil as supernatural." as thought-provoking and well-written as Carrie's War which Stibbs so much admires Stibbs is also concerned that some In such as these, children are not fantasy fiction fails to arouse the "taught to live in a dream world and see reader's imagination and sympathy for themselves as powerless". On the contrary other people's problems. "The subjects the young heroes and heroines do think of such imaginativeness are possible of others, do exercise power, and do win worlds, not fairy lands: human feelings, through. not inhuman feelings: and events consis­ tent with the evidence of our senses, Let me suggest that for some child­ not flying in the face of it." ren - and every child is unique - the approach made by realistic fiction is In the rest of this article I ex­ often too near the bone. Children and pand my original letter in order to adults with domestic problems may find provide examples of fantasy fiction the necessary solace and strengthening which fulfil Mr. Stibbs's criteria for of their personality in metaphorical good fiction i.e. either shedding light treatments which fantasies provide. on aspects of human personality, or on Stibbs is not alone in rejecting Alan political and social problems. In the Garner's earliest books, which Garner first category I concentrate on the himself now despises, but Garner has cor­ children's fantasies of Ursula le Guin responded with many teenagers and adults and Diana Wynne Jones, and in the second, whom The Owl Service has 'helped' (if we must see the novel as a kind of medi­ a further discussion, but I do recommend cine!). Stibbs's casual reference to "the you to read Drowned Ammet and The fairy worlds, replayed myths or red Spe11 coats, which are her best in my op­ shifts of his earlier novels" makes me inion. wonder if he has even read Red Shift, one of the great adolescent novels of our This utilitarian analysis of my time, a powerful story of teenage sexual favourite children’s fantasies is frus­ awakening, which deserves considerable trating! I would far write about the attention from anyone claiming to be a beauty of the writer's style, the literary critic. However, Red Shift is excitement and originality of the story, not a children's book and neither is The the feeling of private communication - one wonders what Lord of the Rings between teller and listener. I would place a critique of either of them should like to quote from a colleague of mine have in an article about 'Children's Fiction". within ILEA, Gillian Klein, who says: "The idea is becoming increasingly One should not dismiss the genre of accepted that children's books should be children's fantasy without considering relevant to, and should even reflect, the very best, such as the work of Joan their readers. To think that books must Aiken, Ursula Le Guin, and Diana Wynne therefore be just like life is to mis­ Jones, and the combination of science interpret this philosophy sadly. The fiction and fantasy in Peter Dickinson's world doesn't always afford excitement "Changes" trilogy and Rosemary Harris’s to children and it would be a dull lib­ Quest for Orion sequence. Mr. Stibbs's rary that didn't extend horizons beyond criteria for good children's books, "The the probable to the possible, and then best books are realistically subtle, de­ to the impossible. For their joy alone tailed and quirky" must surely include fantasies are invaluable; there is also the work of the above authors. research which shows that fantasy often provides children with an avenue by Le Guin's 'Earthsea" trilogy, desp­ which to approach particularly prickly ite being set in a world of magicians realities." (ILEA Contact, 14 September and dragons, does illustrate "human feel­ 1979). ings, not inhuman feelings". A Wizard of Earthsea may be read as a lesson ag- Such a piece of research was report­ ainst pride; and shows how our worst ed in the Library Association Record enemy may lie in ourselves, but that we for October 1980, and in the editorial can conquer our flaws. As a parable of of Books for Keeps 5, November 1980. growing up, it certainly does not teach Evidence from Germany suggested that young people to "see themselves as power­ "Children who are told fairy tales are less". The Tombs of Atuan, which deals more intelligent, calmer, mentally more with religious mania and intolerance, balanced, and more open-minded than illustrates kinds of evil that we find in those who are not." the real world. The Farthest Shore is about Life and Death. All three "Earthsea" fantasies are studies of young people growing up, making decisions, "attending to particular complex . . . realities".

Diana Wynne Jones represents the domestic side of the fantasy genre, as opposed to the epic tradition of Tolkien I also found some pertinent comments which Le Guin follows. She employs the in Screen Violence and Film Censorship Nesbit tradition of fantasy as a metaphor by Stephen Brody (HMSO 1977) in which he for family tensions: as children learn to tackled the question of whether what we control their magic powers, they solve read, and particularly what we view, can their personal problems too. Her stories influence our actions in real life: are based on universal themes which chil­ "A theory about the importance of dren have always enjoyed and needed: the fantasy and day-dreaming for personality Quest, for instance, and the Ugly Duck­ formation has been developed by the ling syndrome. We may find "attentive psychologist J.L. Singer . . . Day­ realism" in The Ogre Downstairs, in dreaming is seen as an adaptive mechanism, which five step-siblings learn to live a dimension of human skill and compet­ together, and a commentary on racial ence . . . Another function of the imag- intolerance in Power of Three, in which a ination is to stand as a protection seemingly perpetual war to the death between states of arousal and the need between two races is ended by the heroic to engage in impulsive and potentially efforts of three groups of children who damaging behaviour by making possible ought to have been mortal enemies. In delays in, and deferment of, gratifica­ several books, including Dogsbody, tion. Individuals lacking imaginative Charmed Life and Eight Days of Luke, she resources are thus much more likely to describes the difficult lives of orphans express aggressive and other feelings in living with their relatives. Space forbids overt and immediate action rather than by fantasy gratification or by transfer­ appeal to them." ring aggression through imaginative reconstruction into other channels . . . Mr. Conguest continues in praise of imaginative individuals appear to poss­ science fiction, but what he says might ess greater self-awareness of their own equally be applied to Lord of the Rings, limitations and emotional difficulties and its reception by conventional crit­ and are consequently more able to deal ics. It is not a novel of character, with them, although they may suffer more although it contains human feelings and worry and anxiety as a price for this conflicts) it is primarily a political advantage." (p.64). work about human aggression and how to cope with it, when manifested in war. This does not surprise me. As a school librarian I have often noted that And now I come to Tolkien, and here enthusiastic readers of Tolkien and I must quote Mr. Stibbs. "Both the un­ science fiction turn out to be, as realism of the impossible (the unrealism likely as not, more mature, sensitive to of the undisciplined imagination) and other people's feelings, gifted, resent­ the unrealism of the collective (the ful of stereotyped labelling, active unrealism of the inattentive imagination) against injustice, politically aware and characterise Tolkien's (sic) pseudo­ keen to serve the community, as well as sagas . " receptive to various genres of liter­ ature. Readers who choose to read Although The Lord of the Rings is 'realistic' books, on the other hand, an imitation, or pastiche, of Norse often refuse to read any other kind. But sagas, it is a much better pastiche than we may see by the space fantasy films William Morris managed. Many 20th cent­ which have become the craze, and the ury writers employ pastiche, for example Tolkien cult before that, that if the James Joyce and John Barth. Far from ins­ mythic element is missing from one's ulting Tolkien for reviving a style of literary diet they will instinctively the past, I want to praise him for conn­ seek for it elsewhere, whether in the ecting the long-severed strands of cinema, in radio and television soap English literature, since Beowulf and the operas where they treat the characters alliterative romance were lost to liter­ like J.R. and The Archers as real people, ary tradition. In the epic tradition, or in the world of pop music. most great epics imitate a fore-runner: a chain leads back from Keats' Hyperion to Milton, Dante, Virgil and Homer. Tolkien looks back to the Norse sagas and Beowulf, and to our youth, deprived of their roots by timid teaching which avoids the classic works of literature L_------si.1— and music for fear of being labelled "imperialist" and "elitist" - to our Before I come to Tolkien I want to youth, Tolkien may be the only "roots"- remind you of the two functions of fic­ type experience they receive in their tion - in one's personal and political adolescence. If we all have a right to lives. This distinction is brought out our roots in this multi-ethnic society, in an essay on Science Fiction by Tolkien provides a modern synthesis of Robert Conquest, printed in his anthol­ Celtic mythology, the Arthurian legend, ogy The Abomination of Moab (Temple the Norse sagas, and Old English culture, Smith, 1979). "Western literature, as it plus in the person of the hobbits, a has been in the last two hundred years view of the English peasantry. or so, is a very special and eccentric sort of thing compared with any other. In criticising modern children's What distinguishes it is the extra­ fantasy, Stibbs claimed that it was ir­ ordinary, dominating position of the responsible and unrealistic tto invite novel of character. Literary taste has children to "engage with characters who therefore involved acceptance of the . . . fight supernatural (and frighten­ conventions implicit in this . . . ing) Dark Forces and Wild Magics caused There have always been two sorts of by no human responsibility? . . . Cont­ imagination in literature. One has been emporary pseudo-myths are fundamentally fascinated by the variations of human trivial and unreal where their proto­ feelings and actions . . . the other is types were fundamentally serious and inclined to take the human behaviour realistic." (He must be getting at largely for granted and to be interested Susan Cooper - who does deserve some more in enviromental changes . . . There criticism, I think.) is now this inclination to hold that the psychological interest is somehow higher I do not think that this is fair and more important that the other . . . criticism of The Lord of the Rings this is a self-perpetuating process. (again, one must remember that it was Introspective literature attracts intro­ not written for children). The Dark spective critics who create introspect­ Lord is a metaphor of evil which can be ive canons and anathematize what does not present within us all, and we can all

Z 6 become petty Saurons. But in his epic and may find it easy to forget that it Tolkien describes a completely realistic is they who are the 'bullies' . . . For situation when lust for world domination are they not bullying the 'ruffians' with overtakes a country's ruler. Although we their superior weapons and insults and may not call such people totally evil, their Royalist authority? . . . To write because they are human beings, by their The Lord of the Rings from the anti­ deeds shall we know them, and our duty hobbit point of view might be a morally is to end their tyranny. Maybe we pro­ commendable exercise of the imagination." test; occasionally we go to war. I pointed out in my reply that he The situation of a conscienceless had ignored the context of the quotation. warlord determined to conquer as far as The four hobbits had, after all, been possible is no fantasy - it has occured fighting for freedom elsewhere, and on all through human history. Advances in their return they found their homeland 20th century technology only make their invaded by an alien force of gangsterism. powers more frightening. The question of Food was collected and taken off to whether evil is supernaturally caused or storage and export, nobody was allowed to not is irrelevant when the scientific­ move far without permission, and anyone ally invented weapons possessed by both who protested was imprisoned on a star­ super-powers might just as well be magic vation diet. In short, a totalitarian for all we can do individually to des­ regime: a police state, without any troy them. In the present international legal Power to legitimise it. Now, if we situation Frodo had a better chance with look back at what Mr. Stibbs claims is the Ring than we do with the Bomb and one purpose of fiction, it is to be "arm­ the rest of the military apparatus which ed and educated . . . to avoid commercial threatens the hobbits of this world. and political exploitation and corrupt­ Sauron is indeed a character from real ion". The lessons learned by the hobbits, life. However, we must not make the mis­ therefore, are exactly those which take of identifying him with any one Stibbs wanted fiction to teach! Perhaps political leader today, or deceive our­ they are better taught and learned in selves by thinking that a Sauron could the powerful metaphoric setting of epic never arise to lead our own country. fantasy, or science fiction, than in the Similarly, Sauron's soldiers, the ores, novel of character which concentrates on are symbolic of any enemy soldier, personality development! policeman or anyone who uses military or uniformed authority unjustly to massacre There is a certain schizophrenia of or torture civilians. When states are at the intellectual establishment in this war, Tolkien does not endorse the solu­ country. They applaud freedom fighting tion of battlefield conflict, where the in colonies of the Third World, but are unjust side might win by force of numbers, more ready to attack their own country's but somehow to neutralise the warlord or legal framework than to consider what ideology which keeps the aggressive war freedom fighting might mean in defending going. The destruction of Sauron meant themselves. I am not accusing Mr. Stibbs the disappearance of ores as a fighting particularly, but must point out that he force. Remember that in his Letters dislikes 'Royalist' authority. It seems Tolkien clearly stated that in the real to be a cliche of left-wing children's world there were no ores - nobody could book criticism that any novel about king- be so totally evil. ship brings automatic disapproval because good socialists are assumed to be good republicans too, and nobody takes the historical context into account. Certain­ ly you cannot accuse Tolkien of claiming that hereditary kings or queens must be good rulers - see the Appendices. In Middle-earth there are good kings and bad, and Aragorn wins to the throne as much by Returning to Mr. Stibbs's criticism proving his worth as by hereditary claim. of Lord of the Rings, I note that he has not concentrated on Sauron and the ores The left-wing critic Bob Dixon exem­ after all, but on Saruman's 'ruffians', plifies this kind of approach. In where, failing to attend to the context "Catching them Young", volume 2, Polit­ of the passage, he calls Tolkien's atti­ ical Ideas in Children’s Fiction, he utt­ tude to them as shown by Merry and Pippin, ers the following, about the epic fantas­ "unrealistically snobbish, narrow-minded, ies of Tolkien, Lewis, Le Guin etc.: and aggressive". He quotes the passage in "The Scouring of the Shire", from "Another very striking feature of this "The ruffians had clubs in their hands" group and one which links it strongly to to "The sword glinted in the westering the religious tradition of the past is sun" and comments: class antagonism and manipulation . . . this feature appears as a sense of hier­ "The reader who has got so far in the archy. This is especially noticeable in trilogy has read nearly three volumes Tolkien and Lewis and reference to 'blood1, written from the hobbits' point of view, 'race' and 'stock' take us, especially in

Z 7 Lewis, to the fringes of racism. In sev­ The Lord of~ the Rings he suggests that a eral of the writers there's a strong correlative to the present world situa­ sense of elitism . . . and in Lewis tion would be a corrupt West facing there's great and constant stress on roy­ Saruman, both possessing Rings of Power. alty" . (p. 147). If we don't use the higher creativity of "evil . . . is not seen as originating Good, the prospect will be a bleak ans­ in social relationships and conditions. wer to Frodo's guestion: "Shall there be Therefore, these are not seen in need of two cities of Minas Morgul, grinning at any change . . . The effect of this kind each other across a dead land filled of literature . . . is to divert people with rottenness?" from the here and now and persuade them that it's not possible to do anything There are still evils loose in the about the problems of this world . . . world, in West and East, often hidden by Lord of the Rings isn't an allegory but ■effective propaganda, and people are of course it does have a meaning . . . deaf to what is going on, just as once It says a lot of things about' power and they refused to believe in the gas cham­ hierarchy - aristocratic notions are very bers. But literary works which can insp­ much in the forefront and there's a ire their readers to fight political great love of ceremony." (p.149). evils may be found in many genres of lit­ erature. I would urge readers not to However, Tolkien is not so easy to dismiss, but to look again at the best in pigeonhole as that. You can argue that children’s and adult's fantasy. Lord of the Rings is a book about "the B lb / /ograptly problems of this world" and that hobbit Part one: Fantasy - what the authors say about society at least is not hierarchical. their wort 'Royalist' authority does not egual auth­ Alan Garner "A bit more practice", TLS b June oritarianism, but simply a system of law 1968, reprinted in The Cool Web (Bodley Head, and order designed to preotect the weak 1977); "Coming to terms" Children's lit. In against the strong. It is legally nece­ ed. no.2, July 1970; Interview in The Pled ssary for the hobbits to invoke the Pipers (Paddington Press, 1975). Diana Wynne Jones "Creating the experience", King's power, as this gives them the TLS 11 July 1975. legal authority to rouse the rest of the Ursula Le Guin The Language of the Night • ess­ hobbits and drive out the ruffians. The ays on fantasy and science fiction (New evil described in "The Scouring of the York, Putnam, 1979). Shire" is typical of crime in Britain C.S. Lewis An experiment in criticism (C.U.P. 1961). Of Other Worlds (Bles, 1966 (out of today: muggers, kidnappers, gangsters, print); Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975). In­ murderers, protection rackets - all app­ cludes Lewis's speech to the Library Associ­ ear in our daily newspapers, and children ation "On three ways of writing for children" need to be aware of the dangers. in which he said, a propos of a purely real­ istic reading diet: "There is something lud­ icrous in the idea of so educating a genera­ Mr. Stibbs, in his second article, tion which is born to the Ogpu and the atomic writes that he took exception to the bomb. Since it is so likely that they will language of the guoted passage rather meeet cruel enemies, let them at least have than its ethics, and says: "Ms Yates is heard of brave knights and heroic courage." right to put the passage in its narra­ J.R.R. Tolkien Tree and Leaf (Allen & Unwin, tive context, and I do not dispute that 1964). Includes essay "On Fairy Stories", justifying his use of fantasy. the story has a different suggestiveness Part two: Commentaries on fantasy and our authors from the one I pick out from the lang­ Abbs, Peter (ed.) Tract 29/30, "Myth and symbol uage . . . And maybe my prejudice against in education" esp. the essay by Neil Philip the 'snobbery' and 'aggression' I said I (Gryphon Press, 1980). found in Tolkien has blinded me to the Benton, Michael (ed.) Approaches to research In children's I iterature (Univ. Southampton, effectiveness of his presentation of 'The 1980). Various articles. higher creativity of Good'. Bettelheim, Bruno The Uses of Enchantment (Thames i. Hudson, 1976). That last phrase was guoted from my Campbell, Joseph The Hero with a thousand faces reply, and this is how I ended my defence (Sphere, 1975). of modern fantasy. There are different Carpenter, Humphrey J.R.R. Tolkien: a biogra­ kinds of evil abroad in the world, and phy (Allen & Unwin, 1977). Cook, Elizabeth The Ordinary and the Fabulous sometimes, as with the gas chambers and (C.U.P. 1969; 2nd ed. 1976). mass murderers, we are faced with meta­ Haughton, Rosemary Tales from Eternity (Allen physical evil costing millions of lives S. Unwin, 1973). which we must oppose with all our might. Lewis, Naomi Fantasy books for children (Nation­ At other times there is wrong on both al Book League, 1975). Yates, Jessica (as Jessica Kemball-Cook) "Essays sides: then, we should not over-react but on J.R.R. Tolkien and Diana Wynne Jones" in negotiate, admit our faults and strive to Twentieth century children's writers (Mac­ avoid violence. Tolkien did not see the millan, 1978); "Earthsea and others" New only solution as lying in all-out battles: Society 11 November 1976. his Good forces would have lost if that Part three: War,' peace, violence . . . were so. His solution lay in the higher Arendt, Hannah On Violence (Allen Lane, 1970). Thompson, E.P. Writing by candlelight (Merlin creativity of Good to devise a way of Press, 1980). winning without using evil weapons. In Walzer, Michael Just and unjust wars (Lane 1978: his Foreword to the second edition of Penguin 1980).

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