Why do I consider fantasy important?
According to Beth Webb (2007), fantasy is essential for the human mind. It is a vital aspect of living. All that starts during childhood. a child learns to fill in the gaps between knowledge, reality and experience. And that becomes a very important coping mechanism in the adult life.
Every child learns to imagine things when he or she cannot explain something with reason. Why do I feel a wind on my face when every window is closed? They might not think about a crack under the window that lets the air through, but maybe imagine a fairy blowing in the dark onto their face. Fantasy is a normal and ‘logical’ solution for children, because their knowledge of the surrounding world is still so little. And even when they grow a little older and learn to understand that wood or stone can crack and let air through, they will prefer the story about their own fairy, blowing her soft and magical breath on their face in the middle of the night.
These kind of fantasies allow children to practise exploring before they are set off in the real world. The stories arouse a wide spectrum of emotions and those are important to learn to understand before the child is confronted with these in the ‘real’ world. When a child is exposed to emotions before because of fantasy stories, the child will feel and be more ready in real life.
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Fantasy explained
What about adults? And teenagers?
Fantasy is not only for children. Teenagers and also adults can benefit greatly from engaging with fantasy stories and other fantasy-media. As a teenager, adult life is only a few steps away, and this has to be faced and dealt with too. Creating fantasies, engaging in fantastical adventures is a good way of tackling reality, of escaping what can sometimes cause pain and sadness.
Taking a step into fantasy helps not only children, but also both adults and teenagers to look into the harshness of reality and face it. From this safe place of imagination, we can all look at the horrors or celebrate the joys before going back, with a more clear perspective on the situations that can harm or bother us, or fill us with joy.
But what is fantasy actually?
What makes a story a fantasy? First of all, the story has to be fictional. Second of all, the elements that make the story, can’t be details. They have to play a big part in the story. For example: the magic has to be important for the story, or the dragons have to have a big role in the story. If they are just there in the background, or if they are mentioned, but don’t have a significant role for the storyline, the story cannot be defined as a fantasy novel of story. Then the story would be placed under the category drama of crime or anything else. The third rule states that the content that makes a work fantastic, must be seen as such and not as symbols for things that are not fantastic. The last argument states that the relevant content, the stuff that makes the work fantasy, must not be mocked with in the storyline. An example to make this a little more clear can be found in the beginning of the Harry Potter story. The beginning of the books are not seen as fantasy-worthy, only because the main character of that chapter mocks the existence of magic and magical creatures. Mister Dursley likes living his normal, non-magic life and sees magic and everything that has to do with it, as unnatural and unnecessary. Therefore, those first few pages, until the main focus shifts to someone who does care about the magic, are not fantasy literature, although the magic does exist.
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According to the Cambridge Dictionary, fantasy is “a pleasant situation that you enjoy thinking about but is unlikely to happen, or the activity of imagining things”. It is also “a story or type of literature that describes situations that are very different from real life, usually involving magic.”
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Fantasy takes your mind away, it helps you escape to lands and kingdoms far beyond, to live a life that only you can imagine.