The Sparkling Fragile

“Fantasy is more than the sum of its supposed hidden depths.”

A few things have been annoying me lately, actually sometimes I think it would be easier to quickly jot down the few things that aren’t annoying me and have done with it. High on the list are; my hair, amnesia, Hollyoaks and misappropriation of the word random, but putting those aside there are definitely two things that have been annoying me lately.

The first I heard on the radio about a year ago and I haven’t been able to stop it annoying me ever since. During a program about falling literacy standards some idiot with a degree in media studies and very little else suggested that the reason “The Lord of the Rings” was so popular was because it was actually a book about language, and JRR Tolkein’s experiences in the trenches of the First World War.

As I sat there hurling objects across the room in an attempt to destroy the radio, I began to wonder why it is that fantasy has to be about something else, or in particular why magical fantasy has to be about something else. The repetitive adventures of an unlucky-in-love (insert media savvy occupation here) are just as much a work of fantasy as and adventure with magic in it, yet while those books are read and consumed with ease, fantastical tales are read because its actually about this, that and the other or something else entirely different.

The other thing that really annoys me is the term “Modern Fairytale” I won’t go into this now because there isn’t enough room on the internet, suffice to say, Cinderella set on a council estate with two chavvy sisters is not a modern fairytale, its an old fairytale, on a council estate.

The Sparkling Fragile is a “modern fairytale” about a magical creature trying to prevent the end of the world, and although it probably is about “other things”, it is mostly about a magical creature trying to prevent the end of the world.

Mark Ashmore, writer/director