Fantasy with Friends – hosted by Pages Unbound – poses questions each Monday about fantasy, either as a genre as a whole or individual works.
I didn’t do my usual Fantasy with Friends post last week, mainly due to falling behind (again) with posts in general! I admit, I have not been great with keeping up with things this year, due to a large number of factors. And as I write this, I am being hit with the first cold of the season. Great fun! Hopefully it won’t hit me too hard, but we’ll see. And if things go quiet again for a bit, you’ll know why!
Fantasy with Friends:
Is Fantasy Worth Reading?
Some people argue that fantasy isn’t worth reading because it’s not about real things. What is your response?
My immediate, short response: what a load of tosh.
No fiction is about ‘real things’ by its definition. Horror isn’t less scary because the threat doesn’t exist IRL. Romance, even contemporary, ‘realistic’ romance contains a level of fantasy. Even if it’s set in a second world, fantasy can be used as a lens to explore real world issues, as we’ve discussed previously. Part of the beauty of reading is relating to people with different experiences, of connecting with a character from a different part of the world and gaining a deeper understanding of other people’s lived experiences. Even if the fantasy doesn’t tackle real world issues, there’s still value in escapisim.
Not everyone enjoys fantasy because they do prefer something more grounded and realistic, which is fine, but even then the scope of fantasy is huge! You can have fantasy set in the ‘real world’, where characters interact with magic or magical creatures alongside a realistic, contemporary setting. Historical fantasy can be used to explore ‘what ifs’, and even educate people on real historical events in a way that might be more exciting than historical fiction.
Fantasy has its place and can achieve things not possible in other forms of fiction. To ignore and dismiss this, and to claim it isn’t worth reading, shows a lack of intellect and illiteracy that, quite frankly, shouldn’t be taken seriously in the slightest. Most children come to reading via fantasy stories – one of the earliest fantasy series’ explores the difficulties faced by evacuees, the homesickness and worry, and transports these characters into another world where they can enact change and fight on behalf of goodness, while ‘back home’ others do the same in a different way. It can explore trauma and war and social issues in a way that makes it easier for children to digest and undestand, while also giving them a ‘jolly good story’ to enjoy along the way, and quite frankly I think that’s a truly beautiful element of the genre.
