Week One

Course Introduction

What is Fantasy?
Wikipedia
Outline of Fantasy (Wikipedia)
Article form Philosophy and Literature

Genres of literature
Britannica
List

Fantasy vs. Science Fiction

from shamanism to Fantasy

from myth to Fantasy

from religion to Fantasy

from history to Fantasy

from nostalgia to Fantasy

from politics to Fantasy

from childhood to Fantasy

from archetypes and archetypal relationships to Fantasy

from satire to Fantasy

from biology to Fantasy

from science to Fantasy

from psychology to Fantasy

from Fantasy to... well, to Fantasy

Readings:

“Sedna” and “Oki Islands”

(with the exception of Dick and Coleridge, all selections are found in the Fantasy Worlds reader)

Film:

Allegro Non Troppo



 Allegro Non Troppo - 1976

Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, an elderly satyr repeatedly attempts to cosmetically recapture his youth and virility, all in vain.[1] With each failure, the satyr gets smaller and smaller, until he roams across a vast countryside which turns out to be a woman's body.

Dvořák's Slavonic Dance No. 7, Op. 46, begins in a large community of cave-dwellers. A solitary cave man wants to better himself and builds himself a new home. From this point on, the rest of the community copies everything that he does.  He is annoyed that everyone is able to keep up with his advances so quickly. His attempts to break away from them leads to his planning a bizarre act of mass vengeance with unintended and humorous consequences.

Ravel's Boléro, primordial sugar water at the bottom of a Coca-Cola bottle left behind by space travelers attains life, and progresses through fanciful representations of the stages of evolution and history until skyscrapers destroy all that has come before. This segment parallels The Rite of Spring segment from Fantasia, complete with a solar eclipse. Its opening moment was used as the image for the film poster.

Sibelius's Valse triste, a cat wanders in the ruins of a large house. The cat remembers the life that used to fill the house when it was occupied.  Eventually all of these images fade away, as does the cat, just before the ruins are demolished.

Vivaldi's Concerto in C major for 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, Strings and Continuo RV 559, a female bee prepares to dine on a flower in elaborate style replete with utensils and a portable TV, but is continually interrupted by two lovers sitting down for a romantic interlude on the grass. After having her meal interrupted several times, each time being forced to gather up her things and scramble to safety, she finally decides enough is enough and the male lover gets it in the end.

Stravinsky's The Firebird (specifically The Princesses' Khorovod and The Infernal Dance of King Katschey) begins with a lump of clay molded by a monotheistic symbol of the omniscient pyramid, first making a few unsuccessful creatures with overly awkward limbs, then finally the Adam and Eve as portrayed in Genesis. Adam and Eve then transform into cel animation and, as in Genesis, the serpent comes up to them, offering the fruits of knowledge in the form of an apple. After they refuse it the serpent swallows the apple himself. Falling asleep, he is immediately plunged into a nightmare in a hellish environment where he is first tormented by fiery demons and then plagued by things that are supposed to corrupt humankind (sex, alcohol, money, material objects, drugs, violence); he also grows arms and legs and is magicked into a suit and fedora. When the music ends after he wakes up, he is still wearing the suit and hat but after telling Adam and Eve his dream in a fast-motion and incomprehensible manner, he sheds the suit (losing his arms and legs but keeping the hat) and spits up the still-whole apple.

In an epilogue sequence (which features an assortment of short, unidentified orchestral clips instead of a single piece, though Slavonic Dance No. 7 can be very briefly heard again towards the end) the film's host asks an animated Igor-type monster (identified as "Franceschini") to retrieve a finale for the movie from a basement storeroom. Franceschini rejects several of these, but delightedly approves of one which depicts a ridiculously escalating war, ending with the earth exploding. The action returns to the host and the conductor discussing their next project. After a bit of brainstorming the host reveals his latest original and brilliant idea: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with the title Sleeping Beauty. This scene turns out to be another finale being watched by Franceschini. After it ends, the serpent from the Firebird Suite pops out and bites him on the nose, and the words "HAPPY END" drop on them, the serpent coming out of the "D".

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegro_Non_Troppo