China Mieville's Un Lun Dun: A New Vision of the Young Adult Fantasy Novel Ekalavya Chaudhuri College

The base technique used by the fantasy type of narrative in popular culture has always been escapist. In the days of the ancients it can perhaps best be seen in the ‘happy idea’, a fantastic conceit linked to the classical Greek ethic of eudaemonia (meaning a happy state of human flourishing) which formed the premise for the context of a play. Instances might include, say, a quest for a private peace with a warring power or a quest above the cloudlands to build a city while competing with birds. These plays would be escapist occasions largely enjoyed by all. An issue with children’s and YA fantasy is not just that there is blatant escapism but also the sheer predictability of the form. The principal charge against such kind of fantasy is that it is merely a means of distracting the reader; it in no way prepares them to cope with social reality and the real world. The format has some easily grasped common features that do not require much intellectual taxation: an adolescent main character or characters usually marked out by a prophecy, fantasy elements which are escapist and do not generally deal in any up-front or direct way with any kind of real world issue (if these are present, they are usually there through very indirect...