In the context of human interaction, there are four basic types of literary fantasy places. That is, four types as to the ways people from this earth (otherwise known as the real world) may or may not enter into or live in them. Each of these fantasy locations functions with its own social and physical laws, which may or may not reflect those of our world. For ease of identification, I call them the Tolkien type, the Lewis type, the Pullman type, and the Rowling type.
Tolkien Type
R. R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth is a self-contained world without reference to or interface with the Earth. The residents of Middle Earth, though human, are completely divorced from the reality of our world, and vice versa. While much interaction occurs between and among the various peoples of Middle Earth, no one from the real world intrudes. Whether our world exists is irrelevant to the action in Middle Earth.
Tolkien’s Middle Earth is a diverse place with many kinds of humans, different races if you will, often at odds but eventually cooperating for the common good. In the end, Middle Earth is an integrated whole. Creating a fantasy world completely separate from the real one allows an author to write about the human condition without using any actual humans.
Lewis Type
On the other hand, the imaginary world of Narnia created by C. S. Lewis connects directly with our world. Not only is it possible for people to pass back and forth between them, the plot requires that they do so. Narnia is a place completely apart and different from the real world, yet people of this world enter and exit it.
The Lewis type is well suited for morality tales. C. S. Lewis’ Narnia, for example, is an asexual place of spiritual struggle in contrast with the real world full of erotic energy. This is why his novels are thought of as children’s literature with limited appeal to adults. This produces a form of dualism, with the spiritual a better place and pre-adolescent asexuality the superior form of humanity. This type of fantasy structure, with people moving between two worlds, is common to children’s literature, with Baum’s Oz and Carroll’s Wonderland being prime examples, although unlike Lewis, not reflecting a dualistic worldview.
Pullman Type
In His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman takes the Lewis type a step further through creating multiple adjacent parallel universes including the one we inhabit. Like a snowflake, each one is unique yet recognizable as a habitable world. A limited number of people move among them from one to another and back again.
Pullman’s parallel universes create a kaleidoscopic view of the infinite possibilities for sentient life. The more worlds created in a given fantasy novel, the less likely the presence of moralistic monotheism and the greater likelihood of moral and ethical relativity. A multiplicity of universes makes a more difficult environment for an omnipotent God, one more suited to many gods or none at all.
Rowling Type
Rowling’s world of magic is the fourth type. In this case, the fantasy world and the real world occupy the same space and time. Everything happens in the real world, but parts of the world are imbued with fantasy elements. Wizards and witches are human just like Muggles and occupy the same places on the planet. The two so-called worlds overlap and interact. In Rowling’s example, wizards and Muggles live side-by-side and regularly engage with one another while maintaining separate cultures.
Rowling’s world is a union of magic and commonplace experience. Though for good or ill society may be separated due to genetic inheritance, the world is essentially one, not divided between the sacred and profane but a single reality with many dimensions.
Remote islands and hidden valleys are common location variations of the fourth type. People from the outside world interact with folks in these places where some fantasy elements pervade ordinary life. The society on the island of Utopia where gold is only fit for chamber pots is one example, and the extraordinary life spans in the valley of Shangri-La is another.
A Place in Time
The element of time adds complications to this typology. Rowling’s books are set in the present day. Dystopian novels with fantasy elements may be set in the real world but at a future or unspecified time, such as societies invented by Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, and H. G. Wells. Being self-contained, as with the Tolkien model, they are nonetheless more akin to the Rowling model where all the characters are some variety of human.
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Fairy tales, fables, and parables fall into separate genres but may be plugged into this model at various points. However, with these usually short pieces, the location of the fantastic action is not particularly important. The hare and tortoise could race anywhere. The dark forest, the castle, and the kingdom are useful props with at most incidental description.
Fantasy novels, however, require more information about the places the characters inhabit. Places like Middle Earth, Narnia, Lyra’s Oxford, and Hogwarts function as characters, shaping the lives and behavior of the people who live there.
Most contact between real and fantasy worlds requires a device of some sort to mediate the transition. Lewis Carroll had a rabbit hole and a looking glass. L. Frank Baum brewed up a tornado and ruby slippers. Lewis used a wardrobe. Pullman, among other means, created a magic subtle knife. Other examples are henges, thin places, storms at sea, mysterious doors or windows, phone booths, and conks on the head. Rowling invented magical spells for entering the places used by wizards and witches and to hide them from Muggles.
The kind of fantasy world an author creates means something. These worlds reflect in some way the author’s view of the nature of humankind.
Do you connect more with one type of fantasy place than the others? Why? Let us know in the comments!
