School Of Geek: Fantasy Endures

“I can smell the lithium-ion battery in your pocket.”

That’s an old trick I use with my incoming students.  All part of my master plan: to be a different teacher when I first meet them. Someone with the ability to smell cell phones definitely fits that criterion. A fun bit of fantasy in a mundane day.

By the end of the year, some of them figure out that I’ve either seen the imprint of the cell phone in a kid’s pocket or that I must have seen one of them with the phone in the hallway. There are other tricks – that I don’t want to reveal – but basically they all fall for the routine in the beginning. Still, they go along with it, or better yet, they warn the next generation of students that Kirk can smell cell phones.

The question is: why?  The simple answer is: because kids want to believe in something real that’s bigger than them.  It sounds fantastic, but it explains a lot when trying to understand what literature is an instant hit with kids today, and is that so different from the adults they become?

Heck, my “psychic” ability to detect cell phones has been likened unto Gollum’s sensitivity to the whereabouts of the Ring of Power. Fantasy comes to life.

This instalment of School of Geek is going to look at enduring literature, specifically: fantasy literature. Fantasy literature is a resounding success with any type of adolescent reader: the reluctant reader, the below-par reader and even the non-fiction lovers. Fantasy lit has remained a perennial favourite subject to read over the usual gamut of optional choices of Shakespeare, teen drama or whatever passes for “edu-taining” reading material. Were you ever one of those poor unfortunates who had to read anything by Margaret Lawrence? Not to say she was a bad author, but God, didn’t you find the characters bland and every-day? Put a sword in a protagonist’s hand and you’ll put a book in a teen’s – guaranteed.

In my youth, very little fantasy existed on my school library’s shelves. There might have been some Edgar Rice Burroughs or even Jules Verne, but those worthy authors were classified as science fiction or even adventure genres. No teacher-librarian went out of their way to distinguish between fantasy or science fiction genres. Today though, you can’t get enough of it. Tolkien is a must. After the films, you can’t have a library without a Tolkien title in the house. Nor can you be without Terry Pratchett, Marion Bradley, Ursula K. LeGuin or any other classic fantasy author. These authors elevated fantasy to a respectable and distinct genre. But young authors like Brandon Sanderson and Christopher Paolini are writing vibrant fantasy that still maintains its distinctiveness but in language that young people can understand.

Even the kids who say they don’t like fantasy, read fantasy because it’s at least different. I’ve seen kids pick up a fantasy novel and lament they ‘hate magic and all that’, but still say they don’t mind the action and adventure.  In fact, if there’s a movie involved, then they’re all for the study choice.

Of course, fantasy turns itself well to film. Lord of the Rings has enjoyed more popularity than in the last ten years than it has since Tolkien’s initial publication in the 1950’s. A book that no-one since the early, unfinished days of Ralph Bakshi took up the challenge to turn it into a visual medium worthy of  the masterpiece. Though Peter Jackson may be criticized by the Tolkien purists of my generation for his interpretation, there’s no doubting that he managed to capture the imaginations of a new generation of Tolkien fans – even those who don’t like fantasy.

Jackson obviously hopes to do the same thing with The Hobbit. There’s nothing like a movie to promote a book to adolescent readers. It’s strange, but if you tell a kid there’s a movie coming out, you’ll get him to read. If they know there’s a movie coming out, teens will flock to the bookstores or libraries to see if there’s a copy available to at least skim in preparation for it. It’s perverse in a way, but if we lied to them more often about a book coming out on video, we’d probably increase readership in the schools.

The Hobbit was my favourite story when I was growing up. There was something about Bilbo’s journey of self-discovery on his adventure that mirrored my own discovery of the new world around me. Bilbo flew with eagles, riddled with a dragon, recovered a great treasure for a king and fought in a great battle that he had not bargained for. In the end, Bilbo learned that he was capable of more than just being a simple hobbit who disliked being late for tea. I thought that if Bilbo could do all these things, then perhaps I could get through grade nine and pass algebra: the thought of something greater to pale my own banal and humdrum issues by comparison. The least among us is capable of greatness. Well, that was me in grade nine, baby.

Tolkien endures. Fantasy endures in the minds and hearts of adolescents even until the time when they grow into adulthood. Teens and grown-ups alike want to believe – they just need the excuse of literature to justify falling into the once-childish games of make-believe. That’s why J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series takes place within a school. Can you imagine attendance rates if a school like Hogwarts was accessible to students in our world? Forget about cell phones – try to confiscate a wand or two and see what happens.

Among the teen fiction choices of today, fantasy and science-fiction titles rank the highest in popularity. Titles like Veronica Roth’s Divergent, or Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series (based on the ancient Greek myths) were among the Goodreads winners for most popular teen titles last year. This year, nominees include Cinder by Marissa Meyer – a re-vamping of a familiar fairy tale once popular to younger readers, now made more mature and acceptable to older teen readers. Bill Willingham’s widely popular Fables comic series is another recent example of this trend: the maturation and re-invention of juvenile literature seems to find ground with young readers. Perhaps it is recognition of the eternal nature of these characters: their arch typical nature makes them ideal for reconfiguration and every new story makes them more enduring and greater than they originally were.

Just like everything else in life, our choice of literature must have personal significance to us. This is made more meaningful to young readers who are searching for their own values. To those who have grown up, their choices in literature re-affirm these things. The arch typical constancy of fantasy motif characters like Thorin Oakenshield or Gandalf are both reassuring and affirming for both those readers. These take on other identities (Arthur, Beowulf, Merlin, and Dumbledore) but their values are the same as the readers’ when applied to different adventures. We don’t read these stories because the characters’ choices simply entertain us; we read them to see if see if we would take the same actions in the same situations. We live vicariously through them, both young and seasoned fantasy-lovers. This idea doesn’t change as we age.

One of my kids walked into class with her cell phone in her pocket. Before she sat down, I fixed her with a withering stare. She knew exactly why. She put her books down on her desk, turned around and walked out the door. Of course, she couldn’t help but hiss “my preciousssss” at me as she passed.

A literary allusionary reference … sigh, I reached them.

Fantasy literature endures.