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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 13, 1975)
entertainment Students spend more knights with elves, fairies Fairies, hobbits, elves and knights are the magical stuff of children's stories and illustrations. The myth and folklore underlying the tales, however, illicit a deep, sympathetic response from not only children, but adults. If the brisk sale of fantasy posters, cards and fantasy fiction to college students and adults is any indication, not just children are reading the books and admiring the illustrations. A trend today reveals a paradox: A growing violence in children's books, and an increase in adult fantasy titles. Adults seek escape While young protagonists struggle to cope with alienation, drugs, premarital sex and suicide, adults seem to seek meaning or, in contrast, thoughtless escape, in by-gone eras or fantasy worlds. Fantasy is an exploration or manipulation of reality, not escapism, according to English Professor Gene Hardy, who teaches two classes of children's literature. People seeking answers to existence, Hardy said, find a deeper, original reality in fantasy. Personal forces He added that good and evil are personal, never vague, forces in fantasy. There is a sense that providence and meaning exist. Alexander partly attributes the growing fascination with fantasy to a "weariness of always being "cool". We can "laugh harder, weep longer" he said. , Hardy dates the revival of the fantasy genre to the rediscovery in the 1960s of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy. Over 100,000 copies a year are still being sold he said. Adults and children are buying and reading the same books, Hardy said, adding that the division between adult and children's fantasy literature is arbitrary-all ages share the works together. Mary Somerville, children's coordinator for the Lincoln Public Libraries, said that adults, including many college students, are becoming less hesitant to seek and read good children's books. Mystical fiction Somerville said that she sees a movement away from dry, realistic fiction, and toward mystical or personal fiction. Hardy noted that this movement was evident in the enrollments for his English Children's Literature classes. In 1972 thru 73, the class attracted 18 students, he said. Two hundred students enrolled this semester. Fantasy zealots are not limited to the printed page. Illustrations of turn of the century artists can be found in reissued anthologies, calendars, book marks and note paper. Comapnies, like California's Green liger Press, specialize in reprints of the illustrations of Howard Pyle, Arthur Rackham and Beatrix Potter. Bill Cummins, a buyer for Nebraska Bookstore, said that the lines of fantasy and nostalgia reprint posters are very popular with university students. Pleasing art Besides their appeal as meticulous, pleasing art, Somerville said, many of the illustrations include a tremendous use of color and magical, fantastic scenes. This colorful imagery, she said, may be connected the popularity created by the "White Rabbit" imagery and psychedelics of the 1960s' drug scene. Fantasy is also closely associated with the revival of mysticism and spiritualism, she said. People are turning to visionary art, Somerville said, as well as visionary literature, and away from nihilistic realism. Hardy said that he thinks there is a difference between the posters, like Maxfield Parrish's, which appeal simply to nostalgia and sentimentalism, and the person seriously reading fantasy. Paradoxical movements are afoot simultaneously he said. Students are searching for meanings, exploring spiritualism and alternative states of mind at a time of romantic escapism and nostalgia. fJww yiwmawwM am mmm Bmg ammmmmm jiiawjwia TUE TFiErr7 M&ftRIUY, MERRILY, mm AT PEdHWHlNO OP CMTPVL UI6M 6AIT PETCmiNIHCr ffcW? MOTION- VtO FLEtf WUEH RE-LICF CP 4MX npvyr wave HEEL. U.XWU. h& hiogpC MM?eTiyi in Moo? during ike, laf zco ue&r. Turrv? uoaMn info a natural, effat&& moem&fr. 6& your& 6upplij. fzr both wen 3nd coomen. O Lj ICS? r UdUi sr 1 'I a homasbwok APARTMENTS if1 1 41' ' Mi 1 I' Looking for a beautiful way to live? Try Thomasbrook apartments. We feature large rooms. Free heat. Lots of parking. And for your leisure time, a clubhouse, sauna and tennis courts. Prices start at $160 for 1 bedroom and $180 for 2 bedroom. 2600 S. 56th Street Call 489-9659 aki R. Madhubuti (formerly Don L Lee) 02n oS 0t4 uiuun i ucl Thursday February 13 8:09 P.M. Union Ballroom U h II (Informal Rap Session 3:30 PL? Sandoz Hall) Sponsored by: Onion Programing Black Activities BLACK HERITAGE MONTI page 12 daily nebraskan thursday, february 13, 1375
