Dear Internet Braintrust

[bodlon]

So I'm hard at work at my senior capstone project. Right now it looks like I'll be doing something about relation to the real, possibly focusing on changing attitudes about returning to it by time period or gender (possibly tying this in with differences in how Campbell's Hero's Journey breaks down by gender). The five works I'm looking at so far are:

- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - mid-19th Century, children's book, girl hero enters fantasy world, chooses conventional reality
- J.M. Barrie, Peter and Wendy - pre-WWI, children's book, girl hero enters fantasy world, chooses conventional reality
- Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere - contemporary, adult literature, male adult hero enters fantasy world, chooses it
- Graham, Jordan, and Pharoah, Life on Mars - contemporary, adult program, male adult hero enters fantasy world, chooses it
- Cathrynne Valente, Palimpsest - contemporary, adult literature, ensemble cast enters fantasy world, tries like hell to stay there

The breakdown so far seems to be that prior to postmodernism, these kinds of narratives were about (mostly) girls who have a mad adventure but then come back because they are supposed to, while now we're writing about (mostly) men who "find themselves" while in non-standard reality and stay there. I'm also considering including C.S. Lewis (who wrote the Narnia books between '49 and '54), but I'm not sure I'll have time to reread ALL of the books. He'd be another example of children who come back, but is just outside of the year range. That might suggest that the thread I'm actually looking for is that children come back, grown-ups don't.

So here's my question: is there a book or film you'd include on this list that breaks my theory? Is there a little boy or girl who stays? A grown woman or man who chooses to come back? Which time period? I'm trying to nail down what's happening in these narratives and could use another work or two to really solidify what I'm working on.

Comments

[copperbadge]

You miiiiight look at Doctor Who as a signifier of how women who enter fantasy are treated in postmodern media. New Who does not take its cues as regards companions from classic Who, in general, so you wouldn't necessarily have to survey all companions ever. In New alone you have Rose, who is forced back into reality but rewarded for it eventually, Martha who chooses it because the alternative is worse, and Donna, who's forced back into reality with her memory removed.

[bodlon]

I'm on the fence about including Doctor Who, but only because the world it posits isn't any sort of dimension shift or other world so much as a world that is much larger than the one we customarily see. It's kind of a nitpicky distinction, but I'm already aiming at something very, very broad.

I worry that I've got a non-fiction book in me all of a sudden. HALP.