What does Forster (1927, ch. VI) claim or show about handling a fantastic element so it stays alive inside a novel, separating his general claims from his readings of Flecker's Magic, Zuleika Dobson, Joseph Andrews, The Magic Flute and Ulysses?
1927 criticism. Forster gives no rule set for making a fantastic element convincing: in Ch. VI the words 'rules', 'plausible' and 'convincing' do not occur and 'consistent' occurs twice (E25). His general claims are that fantasy reaches events but not 'the forces that govern' the universe (E1) and that fantastic novels have an 'improvised air' (E2). The explicit handling remarks sit inside readings of single novels: the true fantasist merges magic and common sense 'by using words that apply to both' (E11); Matson's individual, definite protagonist 'causes the book to grip' (E7); for Zuleika Dobson 'all will depend on the handling' and resting it on one supernatural machine would be 'inept' (E12, E14). The rest is description the worker can read as technique (passengers behaving as if nothing is happening, wish logic escalating by little shocks) that Forster does not label as rules. Failures he names: heavy or thin fantasy from one machine (E14), an unsatisfying ending (E16), fantasy...
Structured fields
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"url": "https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70492/pg70492.txt",
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}Evidence claims
- [sourced_fact] 1927 criticism. Forster gives no rule set for making a fantastic element convincing: in Ch. VI the words 'rules', 'plausible' and 'convincing' do not occur and 'consistent' occurs twice (E25). His general claims are that fantasy reaches events but not 'the forces that govern' the universe (E1) and that fantastic novels have an 'improvised air' (E2). The explicit handling remarks sit inside readings of single novels: the true fantasist merges magic and common sense 'by using words that apply to both' (E11); Matson's individual, definite protagonist 'causes the book to grip' (E7); for Zuleika Dobson 'all will depend on the handling' and resting it on one supernatural machine would be 'inept' (E12, E14). The rest is description the worker can read as technique (passengers behaving as if nothing is happening, wish logic escalating by little shocks) that Forster does not label as rules. Failures he names: heavy or thin fantasy from one machine (E14), an unsatisfying ending (E16), fantasy that ceases when solid characters grow (E21, E22), Ulysses' Night Town not coming off (E24). · locator: candidate evidence excerpts source
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