Fantastic

The fantastic is a subgenre of literary works characterized by the ambiguous presentation of seemingly supernatural forces. Structuralist critic Tzvetan Todorov originated the concept, characterizing the fantastic as the hesitation of characters and readers when presented with questions about reality.

Definition

The fantastic can be seen in works where the reader has a sense of confusion about whether a work presents what Todorov calls "the uncanny," wherein superficially supernatural phenomena turn out to have a rational explanation (such as in the Gothic works of Ann Radcliffe) or "the marvelous," where the supernatural is accepted as real. He also points out that the ending always drives the hesitation towards one of two decisions:

The fantastic requires the fulfillment of three conditions. First, the text must oblige the reader to consider the world of the characters as a world of living persons and to hesitate between a natural or supernatural explanation of the events described. Second, this hesitation may also be experienced by a character; thus the reader's role is so to speak entrusted to a character, and at the same time the hesitation is represented, it becomes one of the themes of the work -- in the case of naive reading, the actual reader identifies himself with the character. Third, the reader must adopt a certain attitude with regard to the text: he will reject allegorical as well as "poetic" interpretations.

Duo 2

Duo 2 is an album by pianist Kenny Drew and bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen recorded in 1974 and released on the SteepleChase label.

Reception

The Allmusic review awarded the album 4 stars stating "The pianist's style was largely unchanged from the 1950s except that he had grown a bit as a player and was open to some more modern chord voicings. The music on this encounter with the virtuosic bassist Niels Pederson should easily appeal to Kenny Drew's fans".

Track listing