Fantastic Williams

I don’t think I can stress enough how painful it was for me to make my way through Charles Williams’ Descent into Hell. Granted, I was reading over Labor Day weekend and would have much preferred to relax rather than read anything. I still found the novel to be too slow-moving for me. In fact, I felt as though I was descending farther and farther into hell the closer I got to the end.

Because Williams so often swings back and forth from the mundane and everyday to the surreal and fantastic, I was having trouble keeping up. There were moments when I though I knew what was going on, only to have that shattered by some sudden change from normalcy to supernatural.

Interestingly enough however, I actually began to appreciate what Williams did once I read the article I was assigned to present in class. Once I read it, I discovered that the idea of the fantastic is exactly what Williams is driving at in the book. He wants his stories to seem believable like they could in fact happen to you or me.

This is quite different from the rest of his inkling counterparts, especially Tolkien who establishes a realm entirely different from our own that leaves us wanting to play a part but knowing ultimately that we can’t. Williams, on the other hand, leaves the possibility of the fantastic occurring in reality open. It makes his story seem more believable, whether the reader wants it to be or not.