Space as the ‘Limit’ of the Fantastic in Literature: the Impossibility of Overcoming the Possible

Abstract

The article examines the theoretical problem, the “limit” of the fantastic in literature using the example of the works of American writers Ray Cummings, Miles J. Breuer, A.J. Deutsch, Martin Gardner, Robert Heinlein. The writer cannot create in the text the image of a fantastic space as a phenomenon with new characteristics that are impossible in reality. The image created in the author's imagination is not transmitted to readers using the means of representation available in literature, and the main reason for this is the stability of our spatial perception based on almost limitless possibilities of the non-fantastic space in which we exist. In Ray Cummings' novel Into the Fourth Dimension (1927), the principle of depicting a “different” space in literature is formulated: “We must cling to the realities of our world. There are no other words — no other conceptions — with which we can think these unthought things”. As a result, the “other” world is either described in the text in parameters of the world familiar to readers, as is stated by Cummings, or it is not depicted at all, even being an important element for the plot, as, for example, in fantastic stories on the topic of topology. The impossibility to depict such a “different” world does not exclude the fixation on its essence, but the pictorial space in literature remains stable. Without a visual “hint”, the reader’s consciousness cannot follow beyond the spatially possible model, but in visual arts this barrier existing in literature is removed.

Keywords

• science fiction
• ray cummings
• miles j. breuer
• a.j. deutsch
• martin gardner
• robert heinlein poetics
• fourth dimensional story
• fantasia mathematica