Why do we need fantasy worlds or movies and things stuff like that?

[Mordred Deschain]

Give the POWER to ME!

[Letti]

"With great power comes great responsibility" /Spiderman

Oh..
I have never read Spiderman in my life I haven't seen the movies but as I see... we agree on it.

[Matt]

I actually love that line, it is a lot of what I base decisions on.

YAY!! for pop culture

I didn't actually ever have a fantasy world but I did dream/wish I was a mutant sometimes

[Letti]

Matt..
let me ask a personal question..
so..
in fact..
why the blue hell would you like to be a mutant sometimes??

[Matt]

"Mutant" as in "marvel comics superhero"

Like wolverine for instance.

[Letti]

"Mutant" as in "marvel comics superhero"

Like wolverine for instance.

Oh I see. I didn't mean the same by that word.

For me this is a mutant:



or this:



So I am sorry.

[Matt]

That is exactly what I thought you may have thought

Or even worse!! Slow Mutants.

[Jean]

Matt: what prevents you from becoming the mutant of your dreams?

(for example, I've always known that I am a bear... and I am a bear, and everyone knows I am one . There's also a werebat... a fascinating lemur...)

[Letti]

I am the most horrible mutant ever...
























... a human being.

[Matt]

Matt: what prevents you from becoming the mutant of your dreams?

(for example, I've always known that I am a bear... and I am a bear, and everyone knows I am one . There's also a werebat... a fascinating lemur...)

Not a thing, in fact, I am often a nice version of the terminator to my friends and family

I think cybernetics could be as cool as mutant power.

[razz]

wow. old thread
necro-post time
i think the reason these are so popular now is because back when films were new, we didn't need other worlds to imagine things, we just thought of the future. but now it's getting harder to imagine getting more and more advanced, with how we are now. basically, we're just bored with this one.

[alinda]

My thinking is this, 100 years ago, I believe folk were happy the way the world was going, now tho' folks would he happier somewhere different *meh*

[Arthur Heath]

Its an escape from reality. Especially as things in the economy get tighter/hectic people need far off lands to escape to. Be it TV, video games and book/comics.

[Powdered Water]

Kewl thread... I still think the poster back on the first page nailed it pretty well. The world stinks today, who wouldn't want to escape to a mythical and fantastic new world?

[John_and_Yoko]

I don't know how much truth there is to this answer, but Joseph Campbell suggested that fantasy fiction substitutes for a mythology for us in this day and age where the old religions are becoming obsolete. Think about it--how can we identify with a mythology set in Israel two thousand years ago? Myths need to be updated in order to continue to have relevance with each new generation, and in our global society (which is unprecedented) we lack a global myth and, feeling this lack, we try to fill it however we can, and a common way is with fantasy fiction. Fantasy fiction (GOOD fantasy fiction) has a lot in common with mythology, as witness The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. Yes, it's an exercise in imagination--always a good thing for us human beings as it allows us to expand our brains--but just as important if not more so is that it relates to the real world somehow, serving as metaphor for the beliefs and values of the author and his/her culture (just as true mythology does). In other words, GOOD fantasy fiction is NOT just escapism from reality but just the opposite--it gives us a guideline for living in reality.

[jayson]

Well said J&Y. Much of that was the basis of my academic work.

[flaggwalkstheline]

ah yes but one of the greatest questions the dark tower asks us is What is the difference between reality and fiction? and if you were fiction you would think you were reality

[John_and_Yoko]

ah yes but one of the greatest questions the dark tower asks us is What is the difference between reality and fiction? and if you were fiction you would think you were reality

Exactly.

"Reality" and "fiction" are convenient labels, but where do you draw the line? Winners write the history books, so those aren't accurate even though they're in the "non-fiction" section, and even though certain stories are in the "fiction" section, they're still real because someone thought them up (I think of Dumbledore saying "of course it is happening in your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?")--plus some of them are plausible enough to be in non-fiction sections (more plausible than, say, the Bible, anyway).

Honestly I think every name we give is a convenient label and nothing more--the boundaries are not fixed and unchanging, and ultimately are meaningless.

[flaggwalkstheline]

exactly, sai king completely warped my perception when he inserted himself and his writing as a part of the story
he gives justification to listen to that nagging little voice in you head that whispers "r u sure this isnt real?"

[Twilights Fire]

I do agree with the "to escape real life" version but this doesn't exactly mean that real life sucks...

I think this is more an addition to real life...

I mean; I have had an huge imagination since I was little and I think I have expended on it due to reading novels, watching movies and playing video games...
I haven't lost sight of reality (yet... ) and I think we do "learn" a lot from these so called fantasies...

Also "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" comes to mind...
It doesn't matter how satisfied or happy people are there's always something they would like/want/need that they don't have now... Even if it's a subconscious desire...

A fantasy might be a way to reach (in a way) these so called desires that may or may not be in reachable in real life....

Slaying dragon's,
Finding true love,
Being a mad and homicidal king (Hey to each his own)

That might be a reason why fiction/a fictional world can provide satisfaction for people...

[Myste]

Like there have been said earlier, for me too, it's a way of escaping the "reality" - forgetting everyday troubles. It can be a book, movie, a game but books are the best for me...

[cozener]

I don't really know how to answer the question for others. Maybe we should ask the Saudis...

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/11/2...ery-cases-rise

But for my part, I think that if its true that more people are into fantasy worlds these days than they have been in the past (although, frankly, I'm not entirely sold on the idea that, pound for pound, they are) it might be because people long for simpler, slower times...like way simple...like Medieval simple but with romance, titles, and magic to cover all of the dirt and grit involved with living during such a "simple" time. Everyone fantasizes about being a knight or a wizard or a princess; no one fantasizes about being a serf living in some straw hut held together with dried sheep shit. This was the reality for most folks back then. Fantasy is a way of going back to that slow simplicity while sidestepping all the misery and discomfort that comes with it.

On the other hand, it might just be the simple fact that more people read these days than they did in centuries past.

[pathoftheturtle]

Well, there's something to what you say. Although there was hardship in the past, our age has more stress. Maybe that is because so many people have grandiose fantasies, and aren't satisfied with these things which those olden folk didn't have. (Even non-readers may have power fantasies.)
However, it seems like you're only considering "fantasy" as a very narrow classification. I think that it's true enough that there's more interest just in pseudo-medieval fiction than there was 100 years ago, but it'd be even easier to show that speculative fiction in general has been growing more popular.

answering the topic title question: I don't.

I have enough fantasy worlds in my own head not to have to read about anyone else's. I do not like fantasy as a genre, but I like good literature and that's the only reason why I sometimes read fantasy, too. Unfortunately, most often the author is so absorbed in creating new world that he sacrifices anything else - the plausibility of the plot and the characters, style, dialog, whatever.

*nods* However, let me ask you this-- did you need to read fantasy in the past, in order to develop the imagination that you have now? It's an honest question: I feel much the way that you do, but I'm unsure about why. I know my experience, but I have little basis for comparison. I first saw Star Wars when I was 4 years old. I loved fantasy when I was young, and I seriously thought that more people should get into it. That has actually happened, as I've grown up, but now I'm not so sure that it is such a good thing. As you say, it is a shame to see literary values sacrificed.

I don't know how much truth there is to this answer, but Joseph Campbell suggested that fantasy fiction substitutes for a mythology for us in this day and age where the old religions are becoming obsolete. Think about it--how can we identify with a mythology set in Israel two thousand years ago? Myths need to be updated in order to continue to have relevance with each new generation, and in our global society (which is unprecedented) we lack a global myth and, feeling this lack, we try to fill it however we can, and a common way is with fantasy fiction. Fantasy fiction (GOOD fantasy fiction) has a lot in common with mythology, as witness The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. Yes, it's an exercise in imagination--always a good thing for us human beings as it allows us to expand our brains--but just as important if not more so is that it relates to the real world somehow, serving as metaphor for the beliefs and values of the author and his/her culture (just as true mythology does). In other words, GOOD fantasy fiction is NOT just escapism from reality but just the opposite--it gives us a guideline for living in reality.

It seems accurate that this rise of interest in fantasy has occured at the same time that an erosion of Christianity has, but I'm unsure about correlation. Some fundamentalists would argue that reading this stuff leads to disinterest in church, rather than the other way around. (As witness Cozener's link.) I'm Christian by choice, though, and I place high value on religious freedom. I don't try to force my beliefs on others, I wouldn't want them doing that to me. I do think that you're onto something, but when you say that fiction gives us "a guideline" for living, that seems too rigid a term. My opinion is more that it just helps us to learn how to imagine. (Or, perhaps, just to retain our imagination.) Books about different worlds encourage us to think about how the world could be... maybe even think about why it is that our world is the way that it is. At some point, we may see that instead of being escapists, we can be involved.

[Lily-sai]

.. and you never know - if you stop imagining, Fantastica will be dying again and Atreyu will never be able to finish all the stories.

(The Neverending Story. just in case someone didn't know. )

[Jean]

answering the topic title question: I don't.

I have enough fantasy worlds in my own head not to have to read about anyone else's. I do not like fantasy as a genre, but I like good literature and that's the only reason why I sometimes read fantasy, too. Unfortunately, most often the author is so absorbed in creating new world that he sacrifices anything else - the plausibility of the plot and the characters, style, dialog, whatever.

*nods* However, let me ask you this-- did you need to read fantasy in the past, in order to develop the imagination that you have now? It's an honest question: I feel much the way that you do, but I'm unsure about why. I know my experience, but I have little basis for comparison. I first saw Star Wars when I was 4 years old. I loved fantasy when I was young, and I seriously thought that more people should get into it. That has actually happened, as I've grown up, but now I'm not so sure that it is such a good thing. As you say, it is a shame to see literary values sacrificed.

It is such a good question I don't even have a ready answer!

::musing bear::

The first impulse is to say "no" - I don't remember any fantasy (like, you know, fantasy, in the narrow sense of the genre definition) ever being published here in the Soviet Union (I read my first Moorcock or Zelazny when I was about 25), but somehow it doesn't sound like the right answer; surely American fantasy of the post-war 20th century isn't all there is? There must have been lots of factors contributing to the development of a kid's - American or Soviet - imagination; it's certainly something to think about.