Throughout my life I have been exposed to countless genres
of fiction. I have experienced a plethora of them, from Sci-Fi to Historical
fiction, but one has always caught my eye more than any other: Fantasy. Before
you call this a nerd rant and move on, take some time and look at it from a
different perspective. I don’t see this as an escape from my life, as I love
the current world I live in. That being said, we don’t have fire spitting
dragons and enchanted swords in this world. I am fascinated by all the
different ideas people have come up with involving heroic tales of a knight
saving a princess or a crusade for a holy artifact, involving things that are
inspired by our world, but are not found naturally throughout our planet.
The first taste of Fantasy was from movies. I have always loved The Lord of the Rings movies, even when I had no idea what was going on when I was younger. One ring that had the power to corrupt minds and turn people invisible was far beyond my comprehension at the time, but has altered the way I look at things years in advance. Now when I see rings with symbols, swords, anything medieval or the sort, I get severely intrigued. I’ve never done any deep research about medieval weapons or anything like that, but whenever I see something similar it immediately becomes my number one priority; my subconscious must have latched onto this other world.
I know
that there are literally thousands of books out there about Fantasy, but I have
yet to read one that has caught my attention. Usually the wording is far beyond
what I’m willing to read at that moment or the plot is confusing, I find myself
having to re-read entire pages of these books because my train of thought is at
a different station. Don’t get me wrong, I know these books have had huge impacts
on the movies and games I play/watch, but the technological era has killed the
luster of this form of fantasy for me. I really wish that at some point in my
life, I can go to a place remote of technology and learn how to respect this
medium of my favorite genre.
Recently
(within the last five years) my Fantasy attachment has lead me somewhere else:
video games. It’s not like I strictly play fantasy games, but whenever I do see
one I’ll usually check it out. The feeling of controlling a knight clad in full
armor while wielding a great-sword with two hands is an experience I could
never fully describe, it’s amazing. It feels like you are actually there,
protecting the righteous and deciding what is good or bad. It’s a level of
control that you just can’t have in fantasy movies and definitely can’t have in
the real world. It allows you to step into this other place, and experience a
different culture without even having to leave your house. These kinds of games
have formed a better human nature for caring about others humans and the world than
real life lessons have. I’m not sure if that’s the intended purpose, but these
games, movies, and books have taught me to be a better person. So like I said
earlier, I haven’t used fantasy to escape reality, fantasy has helped me care
for my reality.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciated how you discussed the idea of fantasy, but not thinking of it as such. Most people who are not familiar with the Fantasy genre believe that when you do read a book, watch a movie, or especially play a video game of the type, your escaping this world for the fantasy one. That is absolutely not the case, and i believe that's what you were trying to communicate to others who aren't familiar with this. Every one thinks that because you do like to play the games with nights and dragons or people who have super human abilities you are trying to escape the real world. I can tell you what, i grew up with this stuff, maybe i wasn't always totally into it, but i still played the games and watched the shows. I really think Dragon Ball Z is awesome. I did when i was nine years old, and i still do to this day, even though i don't play or watch it anymore. That's because we don't try to escape from reality, but when enjoying Fantasy, we enhance our reality and make it more interesting.
ReplyDelete