It is formed of ‘eu,’ meaning good, attached to ‘catastrophe, and it means “the good catastrophe”: the unexpected happy ending, which gives us a profound taste of joy. And he explains the idea of consolation by coining the word eucatastrophe. He distinguishes the literary escape offered by good fantasy from the negative quality of escapism. Using the metaphor of a dirty, smudged window-whose film of grime obscures what we see through it-he says that we need “to clean our windows so that the things seen clearly may be freed from the drab blur of triteness or familiarity-from possessiveness.” Fantasy helps us with this recovery of clear vision. He goes on to argue that this sort of fantasy has three essential functions: recovery, escape, and consolation.

You therefore believe it, while you are, as it were, inside.” Inside it, what he relates is ‘true’: it accords with the laws of that world. In a successful fantasy, the author is a ‘sub-creator’: as Tolkien puts it, “He makes a Secondary World which your mind can enter. Here, Tolkien sets out his vision of what fantasy is and what it can-and should- do.Ī genuine fantasy, according to Tolkien, creates an immersive experience for the reader. Originating as a lecture in 1939, it came about after he had published The Hobbit and had begun work on the Hobbit sequel that would become The Lord of the Rings. “On Fairy-stories” is a powerful analysis of how fantasy works.

Little did I know that this battered paperback with its trippy 1970s cover art would change my life in so many ways.

I was a young teenager, and while browsing through a book-table at a flea market, I came across a book called The Tolkien Reader, in which this essay was included. However, I do recall precisely when I encountered Tolkien’s groundbreaking essay “On Fairy-stories,” in which he explores the origins, nature, and purpose of fantasy literature. Tolkien’s The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings these tales seem to have always been part of the furnishings of my imagination. I don’t remember when I first read J.R.R.

The Tolkien Reader by J.R.R. Tolkien