[HPforGrownups] Re: Harry Potter: Fantasy or Sci-Fi?

[Aberforth's Goat]

No: HPFGUIDX 14130

Pippin wrote,

> There are Eureka! moments in the background of Harry Potter, just as
> there is a landscape in the background of the Mona Lisa. But in the
> foreground, there is what Tolkien calls the Eucatastrophe, the "sudden
> glorious turn that lifts the heart", when, by something we never
> expected to happen, the day is saved. When the Stone drops into Harry's
> pocket, when the sword drops out of Gryffindor's hat, when Prongs
> gallops out of the darkness, when Harry's parents appear from
> Voldemort's wand...those are  Eucatastrophes. They belong to the genre
> Tolkien called fairy-story and we call fantasy: the genre of The Lord of
> the Rings and of Harry Potter.

Hey--that's one fascinating distinction. SF turns on eureka moments, fantasy
on eucatastrophe moments. I think it's very helpful.

OTOH, I fear that distinction might be seen as reducing SF plots to special
FX. I'm no SF fan, but there's surely more to that sort of literature than
the "loud bangs and smells and sudden disappearings" (copyright prof.
Trewlaney). All significant ficition is about people; both SF and fantasy
simply create the world in which the story takes place. Also, though I don't
have Tolkein's article clearly in mind, couldn't it be said that all truly
moving fiction demands a moment eucatastrophe, or positive resolution and
reintegration? Or must the eucatastrophe be intrinsically connected to (and
inserperable from) the "fairy" part of the fairy tale?

I'm very curious!

Baaaaaa!

Aberforth's Goat (a.k.a. Mike Gray)
_______________________

"My own brother, Aberforth, was prosecuted for practising
inappropriate charms on a goat. It was all over the papers,
but did Aberforth hide? No he did not! He held his head high."