The Physics of Responsibility

Brown, Molly. The Physics of Responsibility: Alternate Worlds and Adolescent Choices. Mousaion, 2011, 28:2
http://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/19825/Brown_Physics%282011%29.pdf?sequence=1

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In her article, “The Physics of Responsibility: Alternate Worlds and Adolescent Choices”, Molly Brown concludes that Diana Wynne Jones and Phillip Pullman both use the concept of heterotopia as a way to discuss the infinite possibilities of adolescence. Heterotopia, as Brown uses it, refers to “a move away from unitary or even a binary conception of the universe towards an acceptance of the possibility… that we may, in fact, be surrounded by seemingly endless number of dissonant and dissimilar world” (Brown, p. 2). In Fantasy series like Jones’ Chrestomanci series and Pullman’s His Dark Materials series, the fantasy worlds from which the protagonists live are only part of a much largest tapestry of interwoven worlds, an infinite possibility of worlds sometimes like or sometimes dissimilar from their own. In these fantastical multiverses, Brown implies, the authors present “a shifting perspective of limitless possibilities that mirror both the enormous potential and the terrifying insecurities of adolescence” (Brown, p.8).  Brown writes, “Finally, too, it would seem that both Jones and Pullman use heterotopia not only to reflect the liminal uncertainties of adolescence, but to question and reshape what Tolkien calls “eucatastrophe” (1977[1964]:70), the “happily ever after” that is perhaps, in the end, the most illusory element of all fantasy. By rejecting this comforting and traditional narrative formula, these innovative writers show their readers that life is not a story to be neatly resolved at a single point, but a continuous struggle to make and preserve meaning both for ourselves and for others” (Brown, p. 11). The challenge for teens is to turn their backs on all the different choices that they are not choosing, and instead embrace and fully experience the single world they are making for themselves. The challenge of adolescence, as presented by these two authors, is to learn to live a single life to its fullest. Maturation and adulthood come with the closing of possibilities and acceptance of the life choices one makes.