Fantasy Worlds

Alright---fair warning, this one may get a bit heady, but welcome to part two of the "posts inspired by my fantasy violence post" extravaganza, dedicated to Fantasy Worlds and what they represent.

The answer, of course, is everything! Or at least they can, depending a little bit on the world in question and a whole lot on the reader in question. That's part of what makes them so wonderful. But what has always jumped out to me when I "read" fantasy of any kind (including videogames, movies, etc.) is that all the worlds seem to represent, at least on one level, the hearts and minds of humankind.

Sounds a bit too heavy to be true, right? Sounds like something a writer of epic fantasy might say? Perhaps, but I think the hypothesis holds pretty well. One thing fantasy features more often than any other genre is conflicts between good and evil---good generally being defined as those who fight only in response to the aggression of others, have (or develop) a healthy respect for ideals like love and justice, are tolerant, and more often than not are pretty...basically those who reflect the ideals that, as a culture, we think we're supposed to be reaching for.

Quick tangent! When I say "we as a culture" I mean those who are drawn to fantasy for one reason or another, worldwide. We've been called a subculture long enough--I think there are enough of us to justify dropping the sub. More on that in another post someday (man, they just keep stacking up!).

Anyway, back to the issue at hand: fantasy worlds more often than not feature conflicts between good and evil. It's part of what draws people to the genre. Even when it is difficult to tell who's good and who's evil, the fact that we desire to define between the two only demonstrates even further that in fantasy we expect a conflict between them.

Okay, phew. Still with me? Good and evil. Where else do good and evil fight each other? Not in the real world--there is no universal good and evil. Even religious fanatics will back off the term evil when pressed about it and find other words to describe the people whose ideas they are fundamentally opposed to. So where else do good and evil fight each other? The only place they exist--in our hearts and minds.

We each have our own conceptions of what is good and what is evil and are constantly evaluating our own lives and actions against them. I'm convinced that good and evil are very real for most people, even if they don't think of them as such. For instance, when you walk past a homeless guy on the street you have to decide what you're going to do: Do you give him money and trust that it will wind up being used for a good purpose? Do you walk right past him and try to ignore him? Do you smile at him in a friendly way? Do you wish him the best? Do you laugh at him? Do you kick his cup over and tell him to get a job? And what do you want to do? And what does that say about you? Where does it put you on the continuum between good (ideal) and evil (opposite of ideal)?

People who are more introspective are aware of this process. I think people who are less introspective generally either feel awkward or angry without knowing why. Most fantasy readers are more introspective people, because fantasy invites introspection. And why does fantasy invite introspection?

Because fantasy worlds make explicit the conflicts that exist in the hearts and minds of people all over the world.

This is, of course, leaving out entirely the fact that characters (or at least main characters) in fantasy are generally torn by these same conflicts, but I'll speak more about that when I post on internal vs. external conflict in fantasy. This has gotten long enough.

As always, comments are encouraged. :-)