The game of the Impossible, A Rethoric of Fantasy by W.R. Irwin

The game of the Impossible, A Rethoric of Fantasy by W.R. Irwin

Though we hear the terms "fantasy" and "fantastic" widely and wildly applied, few know what they mean. In this first thorough examination of fantasy as a literary genre, W. R. Irwin attempts to bring order to this phenomenon of cultural history by examining the common characteristics of fantasies written between 1880 and 1957.

By selecting the time span when the genre was most prominent, he confronts some well-remembered and some almost forgotten works of eminent authors such as C. S. Lewis, Franz Kafka, Ronald Firbank, David Garnett, Sir Herbert Read, Elinor Wylie, W. H. Hudson, Virginia Woolf, and J. R. R. Tolkien. 'The game of the Impossible' examines these selected works - representing a variety of experimental novel-length fiction - for both their intrinsic importance and illustrative value.

Irwin establishes that a fantasy is a story based on and controlled by an overt violation of what is generally accepted as possibility. It is, he says, the narrative result of transforming a condition contrary to fact into "fact" itself. As a kind of intellectual play, it is a calculated diversion in which writer and reader temporarily engage themselves. Its usefulness lies in its ability to entertain, to provide a respite from ordinary concerns, and sometimes to offer a critique of our familiar world.

Popular fascination with the fantastic has grown in the last twenty years, Irwin says, while fantasy itself appears to be waning.

The term "fantasy" has been carelessly used to designate "almost any kind of strange feeling, thought, conduct or experience; any kind of bizarre story, whether on the printed page, on stage, or in film." Though he views such exuberance as "a sign of imaginative health," Irwin suggests it has the potential danger of making "fantasy" mean nothing at all. ' The game of the Impossible' is a wide-ranging study meant to give meaning to the term, so that its place in our culture, past and present, can be understood.

Details

• Hardcover with Dust Jacket (Acceptable, has signs of wear and tear, protected in a plastic protection) 
• ISBN: 0252005872
• Condition: Very good, green cloth with gilded letters on the spine, clean copy with no notes/stamps/stickers 
  
• Publisher: University of Ilinois Press, 1976