“I can’t stand fantasy books, their worlds are just too weird or unnatural.”
I have heard variations of statements like this far too many times when I express either my love for the genre or how I write mostly in this style.
The most common complaint being that it’s just too unrealistic. And granted ogres, elves, and dragons do not flounce about in our “realms” but have you even seen what is out there?!
All these pictures are of real places and real creatures! And they don’t even begin to scratch the surface of the weird, majestic, fantastical dispersed through this planet we call home.
One of the ways in recent history that many of us have dealt with the fear, trauma, and insanity that has come about a post-Covid world (and yes I know there is no true “post-Covid” as variants continue on) has been to use humor to cope. If you’ve spent any time online, I’m sure you’ve seen the age old “Anyone else have X major event on their bingo card?”. For those who haven’t come across this, it’s basically a tongue in cheek way of pointing out just how many “once in a lifetime events” seem to be occurring so often. The thing that these memes have begun to point out is the re-discovery of the fantasy-esque side to our reality. From murder hornets, to sharks that live in underwater volcanos. Or how about the better understanding of past historical events? Ever heard of the “dark ages”? Did you know that some historians believe kicked that off was due to the eruption of a super volcano whose ash blotted out the sun for so many years it caused crops to die, disease to spread, and wars to erupt? I don’t know about you, but that sounds like the start of some of the fantasy world’s I’ve read or movies I’ve seen before.
From horrific to majestic there are just so many things in our reality that exist. Some items we’ve discovered, some not, and some that science knowns but our own journeys haven’t brought us across. It’s ok if the fantasy genre isn’t your thing. Truly! But I’m just offering this, perhaps it isn’t as far removed from reality as we assume?
Fantasy can be a great space for escape from a hard lived reality, but reading and consuming of media in general is that. Things that both help us process through emotions or help quiet the inner chaos for just a moment. We all know life can be hard and the world around us full of far too much darkness. But if someone can find something that inspires hope and encourages goodness then let us not disparage said things for other’s sake.
It’s ok to not favor certain forms of story telling, but let us not forget that certain sayings exist for a reason. It may be cliche, be there is truth in saying “Life is stranger than fiction.”