 Fantasy: June 06, 2012 Issue [#5081] |
  Fantasy
This week: Escape Edited by: Robert Waltz  
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Besides the alternate universe offered by a book, the quiet space of a museum was my favorite place to go. My mom said I was an escapist at heart . . . that I preferred imaginary worlds to the real one. It's true that I've always been able to yank myself out of this world and plunge myself into another.
-Amy Plum
No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality.
-Shirley Jackson
Books don't offer real escape, but they can stop a mind scratching itself raw.
-David Mitchell |
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Escape
One of the criticisms often leveled against fantasy (and science fiction) is that it's "escapist" writing, that its purpose is to provide an escape from day-to-day life for its readers, transporting them into another world for a time.
I say, "What's wrong with that?"
I also ask, "How is this different from other genres?"
I mean, one whole purpose of reading is to stop thinking about your problems for a while, right? And as I've noted before, every work of fiction creates an imaginary world; that's pretty much the definition of fiction. Sure, some imaginary worlds resemble ours more than others, but even the act of introducing one fictional character makes it a world other than ours.
Reading, movies, video games, role-playing games, whatever - they're all activities we undertake to give ourselves a break. Sure, overdoing anything can be dangerous, but consider some of the other mechanisms people use to get away from it all, like drugs, reality TV, alcohol abuse, or physically running away from their problems.
Fantasy doesn't sound so bad, compared to those things.
Don't let the bluenoses stop you - read what you want. Some people don't like fantasy. That's fine; there's a million other genres. For those of us who do enjoy it, though, it sharpens the mind and broadens the viewpoint.
Keep reading it, and keep writing it. |
Just some fantasy from around the site.
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Last time, in "Fantasy Newsletter (May 9, 2012)" , I talked about the subgenre of superheroes.
NaNoNette  : I agree that the Fantasy genre includes superheroes. Thor said it himself, "What you call science, we call magic." If the god of thunder says it, we should not go against it lest we want to be struck by lightning.
Well, that would certainly make me Thor.
Professor Q  : This was a wonderful newsletter! I admit that the reason I love Loki as a villain so much--especially for the Avengers--is that it makes things, quite literally, about order springing from chaos. Loki, obviously representing Chaos (and, in the mythology, chaos personified), is the very reason the Avengers, representing Law and Order, are able to come together in the first reason. Chaos is necessary for Order to exist and, in fact, is the very *reason* for its existence. I think this is just one example of the wonderful depth to be found within comics as a storytelling medium and am quite excited that comics are becoming more mainstream. Because it is true that superheroes provide us a sort of secular mythology around which to gather, and such a thing is so wonderful for its amazing inclusiveness. I should end this now...sorry.
Not at all - I think along the same lines.
LJPC - the tortoise  : Hi Robert!
Thanks for a very good Fantasy NL! I enjoyed the discussion about superheroes, and I especially liked the quotes at the beginning. They were a riot! 
~ Laura
Thanks!
Zippy B  : Guess what! I already had two characters in my head before you posted this message. Chris and Lisa Forus.
Go for it!
And that's it for me for now - until next time,
DREAM ON!!!
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