Why we need fantasy
One of the uncomfortable aspects of being a published fantasy author has been learning that some people take great delight in saying with disdain ‘I don’t read fantasy’. I’ve been attacked in a public forum by someone who felt anyone over the age of 40 who reads anything other than feminist literary fiction has something wrong with them. Fantasy and other forms of speculative fiction are often dismissed as ‘childish’ or ‘only entertainment’ or worst of all, ‘escapism’ for those people who can’t face reality.
Clearly I don’t hold that opinion. From where I stand, fantasy actively requires readers to stretch their imagination muscles. From imagination comes the ability to put yourself in others shoes, and to see other ways the world could be. Both of these are sorely needed in the present climate.
Luck has a hand in life
When I was a social worker working at a cancer hospital, I had a client who was no longer able to work because of his cancer. On the surface he was wealthy, with multiple houses, cars and employees, but it was all dependent on him continuing to work. Now it was crumbling before him because of circumstances beyond his control. He couldn’t stop the cancer or will away the need to have treatment. Spending money wouldn’t get rid of the terrible side effects of medication. What shocked him the most, he said, was that he had judged others who were poor, thinking it was all their fault for not working hard. To discover that the course of his life was now out of his control was a terrible awakening. He was unlucky to get cancer, but there was nothing he could do about it.
This is the reality of life – the smallest twist of fate can change everything. If you have enough income to feed your family and pay your bills, you are lucky. If you have the money to travel and buy expensive things, you are very lucky. Others are not so lucky. But many can’t see this – they think others deserve the life they have. They’ve never experienced an abusive parent, or poverty, or any of the myriad other disadvantages that derail life. And they can’t put themselves into others’ shoes to understand how these things impact on opportunities.
Lack of imagination and empathy
Being able to put yourself in another’s shoes is crucial to developing empathy. When we can imagine what another person is experiencing, we feel compassion for them. In Buddhist terms, compassion is the wish to free others from suffering. We live in a world with increasing levels of narcissism. Everyone wants to be heard, but few seem to want to listen. People can’t imagine what others are going through. This lack of imagination results in lack of empathy. Many only come to understand others if they suffer some setback themselves. But there is a less painful way.
Books let us immerse ourselves in someone else’s life for a while. They take us deep inside another person’s experiences and possibly even into their mind and emotions. For the duration of the book you can become a homeless young person, and understand that they were forced to leave home to flee abuse. You can become a refugee and realise why making a dangerous journey is better than living under occupation. This sort of immersion can show us that sometimes there is no choice.
Why fantasy?
Fantasy requires the imagination muscles to work harder. If you are reading about someone who lives a life very similar to your own, in a place similar to where you live, connecting with them is easy. Empathy comes more readily. If they live in a very different time or world, or if they are very different to you, what you are connecting to is not surface similarity. It is the spark of humanity that lies deeper within. It helps you see the underlying similarities that are there even when what is difference seems enormous.
Fantasy is also good at asking ‘what if’? The rule of fantasy is that its world needs to be consistent with itself. But it doesn’t need to follow the rules of our world. As long as readers find some things they connect with, fantasy can show readers other ways of living. Social conventions can be challenged. Alternative ways of being in the world can be brought to life.
We need to imagine a better future. To do so, we need to stretch our imagination muscles. Go read a fantasy book!
** If you want something a bit more in-depth about this topic, you can read my thesis, Re-Storying the Earth: Writing a New Meta-Narrative Through Eco-Fiction.