Fantasy Or Allegory

What’s the difference? That’s the big question. Where do we find distinction between fantasy and allegory? They seem to be used in conjunction if not interchangeably. Well, contrasted to how the words are used, their meanings can not even be obscured to mean the same or similar things.

FANTASY:

The faculty of imagining things, especially things that are impossible or improbable.

ALLEGORY:

A story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to revealed a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.

There we have as clear and plain a distinction as ever I have seen. You can see that neither fantasy nor allegory is a genre, but more like a toolbox of materials to be used upon and in a genre. Like I said a while back in my post “Fantasy: Good Or Evil“:

Fantasy is the great magnet of writing; wherever it is concerned it transforms the genre completely.

What do you know? I believe that was a direct quote, those hardly ever happen. Moving on, fantasy is not like allegory in that it is capable of converting an entire story with a few choice words of myth and method. That puts fantasy on a larger scale than allegory and we can think of it as being the bigger of two objects. Say that fantasy is a large sponge and allegory is a small cup. 

By comparison the cup is much smaller than the sponge, so we consider the sponge greater. However, with enough squeezing and pushing, the sponge will fit in the small cup because it is more flexible. Fantasy is broad and absorbitant, yet it can be reduced and fitted into the allegory category. You’ve probably read a Fantasy/Allegory novel at one time or another. “The Chronicles of Narnia” by C. S. Lewis is a good for instance in Fantasy/Allegory. In the series Lewis portrays the character of Aslan the Lion as God, he even has him sacrifice his life for the guilty as Jesus did on the cross. Allegory is a picture of something else, something real.

Yet fantasy, in order to fit in the category of allegory, has to empty itself of nearly all of its contents like a sponge would do to fit in a small cup. A lot of the quality is lost from the fantasy when it is made to pattern or outline real events or people. Both fantasy and allegory are useful tools in telling a story, they can coincide to a degree but the quality of one or the other may suffer because of it. The greater of the two is allegory just for the sheer depth and power over other elements it posses, but fantasy still retains a larger realm of influence among genres and it shall always be so.

Remember these are tools to be used in the telling of a story for the reader’s enjoyment, to compliment the plot and message, and above all, to bring glory to God. That’s where allegory comes in handy. For with allegory, a glimpse of God may be input into fantasy. Allegory opens the door for a supernatural God to step into a world made to mirror and magnify His glory. The hand in hand conbination of fantasy and allegory is like a million spotlights all pointed to a stage upon which stands the theme, the message, the focal point of the story: this should always be Love, and the love of God.

So, the question began and the question remains: fantasy or allegory? I say yes.

As always, thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it, I enjoyed writing it. Like, follow, leave a comment, let me know what you think, and follow me on social.

Twitter: @EJaredAllen

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—the anonymous novelist

Of Monsters And Men

Hello again. I love that particular greeting. It is as refreshing and pleasant a welcome as they come. There’s an altogether warming essence about it that settles the spirit. Now, I’m not going to talk about the band, “Of Monsters And Men”, and I realize that the name of this post was somewhat misleading, but it was used to prove a point. 

A allusion to someone or something is a useful tool to cause an idea or memory to spring into the mind of your readers.

Though in this case, monsters and men are the topic of this post. 

Men- Obviously not men specifically; the race of men: These are your story. Not only are your men more important than your monsters, they are the track that your stories ride on. Characters drive stories. Readers read for the characters’ sake. 

A reader will often read a particular author’s work specifically for the way he/she writes their characters.

Monsters- To avoid setting your mind on the stereotype in which we have placed these creatures, I’ll define the word briefly.

Monsters: An imaginary creature that is typically large, ugly, and frightening.

That is how Oxford defines it; however, a more correct definition of the word would be: 

An imaginary creature of fantastical size and shape that is typically powerful, ugly, or frightening.

Monsters. These are fun. Monsters are the playground of any fantasy writer, Christian or secular. Monsters are a large part of what makes your story fantastical, adding flare and personalization with the limitless possibilities available (being that by definition monsters don’t and can’t exist). Both men and monsters alike are essential to any fantasy works, and at the same time, they are the most unique and exciting toys of the novelist. 

It goes without saying that you will be partial to any character you create and truly pour yourself into. But that principle applies even more so to monsters, on a broad scale. If you create an entire creature type and “species”, you become not only attached to that one specific monster as a character, but to the entire “species”, as a character type and pool from which to spawn new ones. I’ll talk more about both monsters and men in later posts. But, remember this, if you are going to have mythic beings in Christian writing, they must serve a purpose, or have an allegorical meaning. 

As always, thanks for reading and be watching for exciting posts in the future.

 –the anonymous novelist