Warning: this is a Thinking Post

If you're looking for a laugh, I'm honored that you came to my blog for it. However, you'll have to check out another blog/Web site/joke-of-the-day calendar (assuming there exists a joke-of-the-day calendar that is actually funny, of course). This entry is going to be a Thinking Post. If you're not in the mood for a Thinking Post, come back in a couple of days. I'm sure I'll come up with something witty, yet urbane, at a later date.

In the meantime--

I was over at Apple's Movie Trailer site browsing the trailers and noticed that the trailer for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is up, as well as a WETA featurette for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The WETA one was neat, but the Harry Potter one actually brought on warm, fuzzy feelings and even fond recollections of my recent rereading of the book. I'm currently rereading The Fellowship of the Ring and am enjoying it more than I did when I read it the first time round, shortly before the movie came out.

So all this got me thinking on why I like fantasy--I don't read it as much as I used to (though it's making a comeback since I'm trying to save money and so am looking to my personal library, of which fantasy still makes up at least 60% for my reading pleasure), but I read it almost excusively growing up, and I'm sure I'll always have a soft spot for the genre.

Why? What is it about this stuff that kept me reading an average of a book a week for about six years straight, until I had to go to college and my free time was cut down drastically? And why is it that I'm coming back to the genre after a hiatus during which I read little but contemporary fiction?

It really didn't take me long to answer: I like the fact that the bad guys get what's coming to them. The vast majority of fantasy is based on the good/evil dichotomy. You have a dark, powerful overlord who's bent on taking over the world or destroying it. You have a group of characters who want to stop the dark overlord, and eventually do. It's interesting, because the fantasy I like best maintains the good/evil dichotomy and yet retains the protagonists as characters who neither black nor white but instead in the gray area. They're not perfect; they struggle with their own weaknesses, but the good in them wins out in the end. I think there's comfort in that. Though the worlds are made up, it's a reassurance that there is good in the world and that there are people willing to fight for it.

The thing about contemporary fiction is that it's largely concerned with the individual. Individual people getting on with their individual lives, and those lives are touched only by a few other individuals. Things that happen to those individuals won't affect Fictional Bob across the street. Fantasy, however, is typically on a much larger scope, because the outcome of the battle between the antagonists and the protagonists will affect the entire (fictional) world, including people like Fictional Bob. Fantasy offers a showcase for some of the best aspects of humanity--devotion to others and the willingness for self-sacrifice. I don't know that that comes across in much contemporary literature.

It's difficult to explain, but I guess I'll say it like this: if these books any of them, were real, I think epic fantasy, with its focus on, you know, saving the world, would matter more than the individual-centeredness of most general literature. Which I think is an interesting aspect for a genre that many malign as being a lesser form of fiction.

Well, I've babbled on long enough. I may get a more light-hearted post up tomorrow.