From Mind to Mind [Conference Presentation]

the Graphical Evolution of Final Fantasy through Tolkien’s “On Fairy-stories”

This paper has been presented at:

• March 29th, 2024 | PCA National Conference

Abstract

Tolkien’s essay “On Fairy-stories” outlines the author’s theory of Fantasy and includes Tolkien’s thoughts on the appropriate medium for such artworks: “Fantasy is a thing best left to words, to true literature. […] Literature works from mind to mind and is thus more progenitive. It is at once more universal and more poignantly particular.” Language as medium allows the reader/hearer to participate in the act of subcreation through imaginative generation of the Secondary World—each word chosen by the author activating in the encountering mind a complex matrix of associations with both individualized and “Platonic” examples of the referent. In comparison Tolkien identifies a tendency for visual representations of Fantasy to overwhelm these faculties, in essence dominating the viewer’s encounter with the Secondary World. This poses interesting questions for the application of Tolkien’s theory to many current examples of Fantasy in primarily visual media such as films and video games.

Final Fantasy is a series of JRPGs (Japanese Role-Playing Games) consisting of 16 major titles released for various video game consoles between 1987–2023. Applying Tolkien’s theory to a formal analysis of the changing graphical qualities of this series suggests a more nuanced understanding of what mediums are capable of inviting the kind of imaginative generation Tolkien describes and what may count as “true literature.”

Building on the work of MacLeod and Smol, utilizing the concept of “Visual Indeterminacy,” and combining the tools of art theory with an understanding of early JRPG graphics as pictographic/ideographic, I will argue that while more recent Final Fantasy installments, with photorealistic graphics and voice acting, function like interactive film, early Final Fantasy games functioned like literature despite their primarily graphical nature, allowing players the opportunity for the imaginative generation that Tolkien seems to have believed was integral to successful Fantasy.

Publication

Forthcoming!

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