Is Narnia fantasy, or make believe?

[Rexenm]

Clearly, Narnia has a creator. Other books like The Secret Garden, and Tom’s Midnight Garden, have a hangnail. Do you think this level of fantasy is more likely make believe?

 

[Finchbearer]

They were all written for children. The Chronicle's of Narnia is fantasy, Tom’s Midnight Garden is probably magical realism and The Secret Garden is just fiction, nothing magical happens in that story, not in the book anyway.

They’re all make believe in the sense that they’re all fiction, otherwise they’d be factual. Is that the answer you were looking for?

 

[Rexenm]

Well, fantasy is not imagined. Anyhow, I tried to read Narnia in my youth, i never got that far, so it could be assumed that although they were written with children in mind, it is not of the adult belief system.

 

[Finchbearer]

… Sorry I’m not sure what either of you are trying to grasp at here. Fantasy in terms of fiction is a specific genre, which also has lots of sub genres.

‘Make believe’ is more something that might describe imaginative play that (mostly) children engage with.

Those are the most common usages of those terms but if either of you look in an English dictionary you will probably find other meanings, but this is a fantasy writing forum, so I’m assuming you want to know what they are in relation to writing.

 

[Finchbearer]

Well, fantasy is not imagined.

It is, it literally is, that’s literally the meaning of it.

Anyway…I’m outta here. I tried…I really tried.

 

[Rexenm]

So I was friend with an aboriginal growing up, and on a football team with all aboriginals except one, who was a bikie, and I had an operation, something of a kidney, and although they didn’t talk or laugh much, my best friend introduced me into something very special, in the realms of imagination - something that I thought was immature in my previous experience. I also was an avid reader since birth, being read to in a reading corner along with my mother. If I don’t read, I gloat, which is the other half of what makes me, me.

 

[Finchbearer]

Thank you, sorry if my question sounds silly

Perhaps if English is a second language ‘make believe’ and ‘fantasy’ could sound like they mean virtually the same thing, but they generally have different meanings and are applied to different contexts.

 

[Finchbearer]

Here are the the definitions as per the Cambridge Dictionary;

Make-believe
Fantasy

 

[Rexenm]

You will like this. When I was growing up, I thought fantasy meant being on the phone. I was clear that there was this thing called make believe much earlier than this however, and I set myself to loftier goals, and not hard work. This turned out to be the whole fantasy anyway, but you could them delusions of grandeur, they are not quite common.

 

[pmmg]

I'll give Mr. Lewis credit for building a fantasy world. Maybe not the type that would capture the expectations of most fantasy readers today.

I suppose it does have a make believe feel to it. The kids jump through portal and now are all prince's and princesses, but it does not end, far as I know, and they dont go put their toys away and do something new tomorrow. I believe the story is not meant to be make believe, but a fantasy adventure for them, with real consequences for their actions. And I dont think it is meant to blink away to nothing as soon as they stop playing.

 

[Rexenm]

The difference between fantasy and make-believe these days, is almost like the battlefield seen through a birthday cake forest. The market is flooded, with religious fascism. If I were to make one comment, it would be to see the haze beyond the individual as less than domestic violence and rather discarded.

 

[pmmg]

Sorry Rexenm, I think the Vogon's got control of google translate again. Maybe rework that one above. I cant make sense of it.

 

[Rexenm]

Oh, those things….

 

[pmmg]

Is 'a battle seen through a birthday cake forest' a common phrase for you?

 

[Rexenm]

Well I think it makes sense because I wrote it, but it is not a layman term, no. It is more like seeing and perceiving, rather than just seeing, or just perceiving. The problem is, we are all stuck in our own box, pigeon holed, and our tails drop off like lizards. Instead of making sense, we are turned into Rocket from Guardians of the Galaxy. But you can make sense of that in your own way.

 

[pmmg]

The difference between fantasy and make-believe these days is almost like the battlefield seen through a birthday cake forest. (<--strange image. To me it feels like you are trying to compare a battle field (serious stuff) to a birthday cake forest (silly stuff) My inference is one is serious and one is not.)

The market is flooded with religious fascism. (<--unless you are trying to have a fight, I would avoid calling things religious fascism, or anything fascism in general. That word is way over-played. To say the market is flooded with well worn ideas would match your 'stuck in a box' comment above.)

If I were to make one comment, it would be to see the haze beyond the individual as less than domestic violence and rather discarded (I think this is saying look at things bigger than individual problems. It would be easy to get wrapped up in focusing on one's past of domestic violence, but that past does not define them, they are greater than all the parts that make them up.)


If I was to reword all of this, I would say:

It seems many approach fantasy with too much seriousness, and do not see that it is also full of silliness. Fantasy writers seems to be stuck in a box, and treating Fantasy too much the same. There is too much focus on 'look at how my character copes with past abuses', and not enough looking past those to bigger questions.

Does that sum it up? and if so, why give me a line like battlefield on birthday cakes? Its hard to translate.

 

[Rexenm]

Instead of that, I will tell you how things should work. One should get up in the morning, and go to bed at night. One should leave other matters to themselves - unless it is food. Television is a necessity, not a discipline. If you don’t practice reading and mathematics, you are not going to cope with the responsibilities of being an adult. Fantasy and make-believe, are two sides of the same coin, and maturity has nothing to do with it.

 

[pmmg]

Well, that is more straight forward. Why is television a necessity?

 

[Rexenm]

In some countries they have funny laws about TVs. You must own one being one, and you cannot take one away from one.

 

[pmmg]

I guess so the government can talk to you.

But you ask, is Narnia fantasy or Make believe?

Were you thinking this question was meant to make us think more about coping with the responsibilities of adult hood? That we needed more reading and more math?