But behind the printed page crouches the story, looking out at us between the lines that have temporarilyĬaged it, making it stand still so that it can be considered. We may claim to deal with abstract truths rather than mere facts, or perhaps that we deal in metaphor. However, to quote Angela Carter, imagination severed from reality festers, and writers of fantasy are often anxious to demonstrate that they are tied into real life in some way and to claim that they have a part to play there too. In fact often their books are seen as being ways of deliberately escaping from what is true into what is not true. The imaginative process involved is not so much an instantaneous flash of inspiration as an act-a series of acts-of synthesis, the ideas and associations forming a network, rather than a linear account, a network in which the spaces between the cords are as important as the irreducible knots that hold the whole thing together.įantasy writers are not noted for their adherence to truth. As I have already indicated, an initial incident, true in the most literal sense of the word, began to hook itself into many others, some past, some present, some fantastic, some commonplace, but all a part of personal reality.
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