Eucatastrophe

This week in one of my classes we were looking at J.R.R. Tolkien's theories regarding fantasy and its purpose. In his famous essay "On Fairy-Stories," Tolkien suggests fantasy is a process of recovery, escape, and consolation. The recovery stage is a re-gaining, a clearing of vision, a recovery of magicness in the world, a process of defamiliarization with the every day and mundane and a recapture of mountains and monsters. The second stage is escape and while it is often criticized as escapism, Tolkien argues is not inherently a bad thing and that it may even be heroic. Escape allows one to imagine or enter a better world or to convey one's disgust at the real world through the invention of another. Tolkien also makes the distinction between the "Escape of the Prisoner" and the "Flight of the Deserter." Finally, the stage of consolation is the consolation of an ending. Tolkien describes this ending as a eucatastrophe meaning a sudden, joyous turn at the end full of grace. A Eucatastrophe does not deny the existence of dyscatastrophe but rather is necessary for the "joy of deliverance" to take full effect. I think it is here that we see Tolkien's faith most prominently represented in his work. This necessary turn must offer an alternative to death and Tolkien believes fantasy should offer a sense of that turn. Tolkien even admits that he views the Christian story this way later in the essay.

I have attempted to create my own worlds through fantasy writing since I was a child and I often wondered what it was I was hoping to achieve by it. Partially it was for my own pleasure of seeing the worlds and people I've created in my own head come to life on a page but I'm realizing now that it is more than that. I just haven't been able to put it into words but Tolkien seems to have done that for me. My work has always aimed for that eucatastrophe, that necessary turn of grace at the end that demands a joyous alternative to death. And the more I thought about that in terms of my writing the more I realized that this joyous turn is the story of my life and the lives of all Christians. Our story is not a fantasy however. Our story was real and at the end we received the consolation of grace in the form of Jesus Christ's sacrifice. I've been wondering how to reconcile my faith with the work I do and why I do it and now I know it is to provide others with the same story that has been told for centuries. I want to create something that ends with a eucatastrohpe of grace and Jesus's boundless love for all humankind. My fantasy stories, like Tolkien's, must demonstrate this to the best of my abilities and, God willing, they will reach an audience desperate for such a story.

Much love,

Mickeelie