This article uses selected western works of modern and contemporary fantasy literature to address its fantastic imagination, spirit, and related discursive topics. The article contains a preface which introduces some past and existent misconceptions of and prejudices against the fantastic genre, followed by two other sections respectively entitled: "Fantasy, Freedom, and Creativity" and "Fantasy and the Encounter with the Other." The discursive topics this article chooses to respond to include, for instance, the textual freedom, normativity, and internal textual order of fantasy literature, together with their relationships with the formation of the heroic subject. This article ends with a claim that the true spirit of fantasy literature lies in encounters with the other and looks forward to more future scholarship to come and join in the investigation and appreciation of the fantastic genre.