The Value of Fantasy

[FatCat]

Fantasy to me is the ultimate metaphor. You can build an entire world based solely on imagination and that gives an incredibly complex way to mirror the real. Creatures, swords, steampunk; a good story will be able to use these themes to say something about the world we live in today without the need to preach about it. Themes are the undercurrent, swordfights, magicians, and dragons just happen to take the main stage. The sheer power of the imagination can let you get away with so much, it's sad that there are so many fantasy novels these days that are simply photocopies of re-imagined ideas. That's the way I look at it at least....

 

[korabas]

Interesting thread.. of course all of this is subjective. My opinion may differ to yours, but both opinions are equally valid.

We mustn't forget that fiction literature doesn't necessarily have to have a deeper purpose beyond being entertaining – I don't question the value the deeper meaning of summer blockbuster films, I just watch them for fun (yes, in an escapist, vicarious fashion) and as such I don't feel any need to seek those same values in my literature.

However, I feel that fantasy, and all speculative fiction genres, do have a very powerful capacity for deep meaning - value. They can be used as analogy to examine and interpret real-life issues WITHOUT any additional real-life bias. This is perhaps the mark of a great fantasy novel, something that is entertaining but also goes beyond entertainment to allow the reader to explore various issues. It can also be the mark of a BAD fantasy novel – something that uses a fantasy setting to explore a real-life issue without actually being entertaining.

 

[Lorna]

@ Cup of Joe

This is a problem that many of us share I guess. If you feel the need to do something, then pick something small to work with. Lobbying a council can be great fun as well as effective.

lol I already do. I'm involved with Transitions Towns, blogging, running a Friends group, helping with a community garden. Blog |. Contact with the council is unavoidable, particularly when there are plans for more development on green space and endangered habitats. These are things I've neglected whilst finishing the third draft of my novel. I think it's neccessary to strike a balance between fantasy and reality. Have a ground for fantasy / bring a bit of magic back into everyday life. One shouldn't over-ride over the other.

 

[SeverinR]

Yet I feel it's our duty as writers to move and inspire our audience and benefit society as a whole.

[/B]

My deviantart sig for many years:
Art should inspire, express emotion, show beauty,
and excite those that veiw it.

Imo my Fantasy stories should share the fantasy world of my creation, to inspire imagination, describe the world in all its splendor good and bad.
To get the reader so mad, they want to throw the book at the wall, but entanlge the reader so much they have to go pick it up again. Create a world of uncertainty, good doesn't always win, but evil doesn't triumph all the time either.
To create a world so much like ours that they connect to it, but so different that they want to move there.

I think my Bard's job description would fit here too:
The true power of a bard is to draw energy from a crowd, returning it back them in an emotional and meaningful way.

 

[Lorna]

@ Severin

I think my Bard's job description would fit here too:
The true power of a bard is to draw energy from a crowd, returning it back them in an emotional and meaningful way.

Becoming a Bard is something to which I also aspire. Here's some of my favourite quotes about Bards and their role in society:

‘The earliest storytellers were magi, seers, bards, griots, shamans. They were, it would seem, old as time, and as terrifying to gaze upon as the mysteries with which they wrestled. They wrestled with the mysteries and transformed them into myths which coded the world and helped the community to live through more darkness, with eyes wide open, and with hearts set alight.’ - Ben Okri

‘The Bard has dedicated his or her life to the Way of Awen. It is their practice, their profession, their spirituality.’ - Kevan Manwaring

'The Bards offered a source of stability in a world where the immediate future was less certain than it is today. They gave the people their foundation, their roots, and fed those roots with stories of bloody and magical glory, of heroic courage and total devotion, and in doing so they encouraged the people to stretch further towards their potential...
The Bard’s power of language, spoken or sung, was the measure of his talent and he would hone his craft to a point where he was a master of emotion and human desire. He could augment the standing of an individual with eulogies, increasing or assuring a person’s status in society. He could deflate or destroy by satire, causing an individual irreparably to reveal his own weakness. It is said that through satire a Bard could cause a person’s face to break out in blemishes. He could invoke the gods of the land, of love and war...
The modern Bard is no less concerned with the use of language, though this has now broadened to include the language of music, sound, colour and movement. Skills of poetry are still greatly honoured, through understanding that poetry uniquely weaves the left (linear) and right (spatial) sides of the brain. Through his words the Bard shifts the emotions of those gathered to hear, shifts their perception of reality, their concepts of boundaries and potentials. Through his own awen, he uses his craft in order to inspire others.' - Emma Restall Orr

 

[cris2507]

A very interesting thread.
The opening post by Lorna gave much food for thought but there was one statement with which I must, personally, disagree. This is the following:
"I feel it's our duty as writers to move and inspire our audience and benefit society as a whole."
Whilst I would certainly accept that some writers have benefitted society, I would venture to suggest that this is something that is decided retrospectively, and which is, indeed, decided by society and not by the writer.
I certainly feel no duty incumbent upon me as a writer to benefit society or to teach any kind of societal or moral lesson. If I have a "duty" as a writer it is, in my opinion, purely to entertain, to divert, to gain and hopefully retain an audience's interest.
Fantasy literature does not require a value or purpose beyond that of diversion, any more than any other genre - no one, I would venture to suggest, would seek some higher or didactic purpose for detective fiction or western novels or spy stories.
As both a reader and a writer of fantasy I look upon its appeal (as opposed to its value) as being in the nature of the thrill of exploration. When I come across a new fantasy story that piques my interest enough to start reading it, I get that same old anticipatory tingle as I cross the border into a new and unfamiliar world. It is that simple thrill of the unknown and the unexplored - that's what grabs me and holds me. That is why I love fantasy.

 

[Lorna]

@ cris2507

The opening post by Lorna gave much food for thought but there was one statement with which I must, personally, disagree. This is the following:
"I feel it's our duty as writers to move and inspire our audience and benefit society as a whole."

As both a reader and a writer of fantasy I look upon its appeal (as opposed to its value) as being in the nature of the thrill of exploration. When I come across a new fantasy story that piques my interest enough to start reading it, I get that same old anticipatory tingle as I cross the border into a new and unfamiliar world. It is that simple thrill of the unknown and the unexplored - that's what grabs me and holds me. That is why I love fantasy.

Isn't providing readers with the thrill of exploration and taking them on a journey into the unknown beneficial to those people and thus to society?

 

[cris2507]

Well arguably, but I don't see that as the main purpose of fantasy writing. My purpose as a writer is not to benefit or improve people but to entertain them.
I think we may be entering into arcane semantics here centring on the word "benefit" - I took that to mean, in your original post, that you saw writing to have some educative, improving role and it was in that vein that I interpreted the word "benefit." If you mean, in a broader sense, that entertainment can be of benefit, then you will find no argument with that from me

@ cris2507




Isn't providing readers with the thrill of exploration and taking them on a journey into the unknown beneficial to those people and thus to society?

 

[Lorna]

Cris, I loved what you said about fantasy taking people into the unknown / exploring new worlds, to me that's a massively important facet of fantasy. In that sense I'd agree entertainment is beneficial

I don't think entertainment is beneficial per se. There are many forms of entertainment I know from experience are not beneficial, for myself and people around me, but I think I'll end the conversation there...