The word eucatastrophe (good catastrophe) was coined by J.R.R. Tolkien to describe what he believed was the essence and highest function of fairy-stories.
It is the sudden, unexpected joyous turn.
Tolkien explains, “In such stories when the sudden ‘turn’ comes we get a piercing glimpse of joy, and heart’s desire, that for a moment passes outside the frame, rends indeed the very web of story, and lets a gleam come through” (‘On Fairy-Stories’, 61).
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Eden: We All Long for It
“Certainly there was an Eden on this very unhappy earth. We all long for it, and we are constantly glimpsing it: our whole nature at its best and least corrupted, its gentlest and most humane, is still soaked with the sense of exile. If you come to think of it…”
Maps of Fictional Worlds
“When I first decided I wanted to be a writer, when I was 10, 11 years old, the books that I loved…came with maps and glossaries and timelines—books like Lord of the Rings, Dune, The Chronicles of Narnia. I imagined that’s what being a writer was: You invented a world, and you did it in a very detailed way, and you told stories that were set in that world.”
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