Why is fantasy important to you?

[Reaver]

Reading and writing fantasy stories is incredibly important to me because it's the key to infinite gateways into infinite worlds. It's an escape from the abject evil and misery that has held our world in thrall for centuries.

To me, fantasy lays bare all that is good and wonderful about humankind. Ultimately, it demonstrates a strong desire to make this world a better place. In many ways, fantasy is a mirror: however it doesn't reveal the ugliness of our hearts; instead it shows the beauty which lies inside each and every one of us.

I'm very thankful for each and every one of you, my fellow Scribes, for writing so many wondrous stories that are tiny beams of light shining in the darkness, joining together to create a beacon of hope in a hopeless place.

I'm thankful for a place like Mythic Scribes, one of the last bastions of all that is right in our world.


I'd be most grateful if you'd share with me why fantasy is important to you.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

Well said!

 

[Heliotrope]

Disney always has a theme in their movies that goes something along the lines of "you are only as limited as your imagination". I saw this in Meet the Robinsons and Big Hero Six, and Peter Pan, and Hook, and I cry every time because that is what I want the world to know. That's what, I think, will make us better.

So that's why I do it. Fantasy makes the "impossible" possible.

This is why I typically use a lot of kids in my stories, or disabled people/children and almost never 'heroes' or 'warriors', and why I tend to use magical realism and the fantastical occuring in real world settings.

Quote at the end of "Meet the Robinsons"

Around here, however, we don't look backwards for very long.

We keep moving forward, opening up new doors, doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading you down new paths.

- Walt Disney

 

[skip.knox]

I read fantasy because it's more interesting than other forms of literature. One can find graceful prose in many genres, and I have plenty of favorites among the classics. But only in fantasy (with SF a near second) can one find so many interesting ideas. Chandler or Camus or Tolstoy or Hesse or Conrad tell a great tale, but I keep coming back to fantasy because that's the one that can still surprise me.

Why I write fantasy is rather a different topic. I write it because, well, that's what I do. I have never felt the slightest interest in writing anything else. Except for a bit of SF, long ago. In fact, even when I think about a mystery or horror or whatever, it immediately gets put into a fantasy setting. I'm happy here. It's a big garden and it keeps me busy.

 

[SaltyDog]

Why Fantasy is important to me. Hmm...

I would say because it is always entertaining, always full of creativity, adventures of grand scale, always a place where I can go to escape, when I need a break from the real world.

I write about fantasy due to my large imagination, which I think would not fit into the other genres. If I want cat men and trains, boom! I have it. Fantasy allows you to have whatever you want, so that draws me in, pulls me into the genre. A place where I can be myself and create fantastic worlds, empires, peoples, battles, or just a small backwater town that has cool name and a cooler back story.

Lol I enjoy both reading and writing, and will never stop, or until I can't lift a pencil, type int a computer or see the words of a story.

 

[Deleted member 4265]

I think for me its about the mystery. Its hard to explain, but when you study science you learn how the world works and that makes it less magical, less mysterious. Its still fascinating, perhaps even more so, but something's been lost. When you know how a magic trick is preformed, only then can you truly appreciate the hard work put into pulling it off, but again the sense of wonder is lost. For me fantasy makes the world a mystery again. It gives me a sense of hope that maybe the world isn't as it seems. I want to learn the new rules of the world, the new histories.

 

[FifthView]

I like the clarity of fantasy. Being able to reach the truth unencumbered by reality. It's like poetry: taking the odd path, as with metaphor and simile and other indirect means in order to hit most strongly and clearly upon the heart of the matter.

The poet Auden's poem "A New Age" hits upon the modern dilemma. But then I think most people, if not all, go about their lives with narratives that are unreal; something bubbles below that our more structured "sensible" narratives strive to eliminate–unsuccessfully. Fantasy can draw it back out, put it into an entertaining and inviting form. There's so much bother in trying to keep it down, contained; I enjoy taking the cap off.

Or maybe for me it's more like doing what Nietzsche described in the preface to his book Twilight of the Idols, which was subtitled How to Philosophize with a Hammer:

Another mode of convalescence (in certain situations even more to my liking) is sounding out idols. There are more idols than realities in the world: that is my "evil eye" upon this world; that is also my "evil ear." Finally to pose questions with a hammer, and sometimes to hear as a reply that famous hollow sound that can only come from bloated entrails – what a delight for one who has ears even behind his ears, for me, an old psychologist and pied piper before whom just that which would remain silent must finally speak out.

This essay – the title betrays it – is above all a recreation, a spot of sunshine, a leap sideways into the idleness of a psychologist. Perhaps a new war, too? And are new idols sounded out? This little essay is a great declaration of war; and regarding the sounding out of idols, this time they are not just idols of the age, but eternal idols, which are here touched with a hammer as with a tuning fork: there are no idols that are older, more assured, more puffed-up – and none more hollow. That does not prevent them from being those in which people have the most faith; nor does one ever say "idol," especially not in the most distinguished instance.​

 

[Daniel]

I'm currently writing a novel which is my second attempt as fantasy, first at high fantasy. I've always preferred sci-fi over fantasy growing up, but lately I got into anime and some of the creative ideas in their fantasy genre shows are incredible. It was love at first sight and it inspired me to start writing my current WIP, so I guess you can say I'm in it for the limitless possibilities, much like sci-fi.

 

[Loric]

Because it gives me a break from real life and all the crap that comes with it. I can experience the people and enviroments that I actually want to experience (in some capacity).