Fantasy vs. Reality

I love what various authors have had to say about fantasy literature.

Ray Bradbury says, “The so-called realists are trying to drive us insane. . . .We survive by fantasizing” (quoted in Literature for Today’s Young Adults, by Alleen Pace Nilsen and Kenneth L. Donelson, published by Addison-Wesley Longman, Inc., 2001, p. 211). It does seem as if some young adult authors are writing reality in ways that focus primarily on the ugly, vulgar, raw and immoral. Those things are a part of our lives, but do they deserve the spotlight? Bradbury’s implied definition of fantasy seems to be something unreal that allows us to escape reality for a bit. Perhaps we need Bradbury’s fantasy to rescue ourselves from becoming too weighed down by reality.

Lloyd Alexander noticed:"The fantasy hero is not only a doer of deeds, but he also operates within a framework of morality. His compassion is as great as his courage - greater, in fact. We might consider that his humane qualities, more than any other, are really what the hero is all about. I wonder if this reminds us of the best parts of ourselves?" (Donelson 212).
We need those reminders often as we struggle through our own realities. To remember that courage, compassion, love, honesty, virtue, sacrifice, self-mastery, and integrity are still possible even in the most trying, dangerous, and horrifying circumstances is to recognize possibilities for choosing the higher road as we struggle through our own quests.

Ursula Le Guin has pointed out, “Children know perfectly well that unicorns aren’t real, but they also know that books about unicorns, if they are good books, are true books” ( Donelson 213). Fantasy is a bridge to reality; the bridge is the truth exposed by the parable/analogy of a fantasy world. On that bridge we can see both worlds at once - the one where we vicariously experiment with fantastical ideas and the other, where we must live out our ideas, values, and their consequences. The practice/fantasy world may help us make better real choices and to better understand why those choices are better.

As all of these authors have observed in one way or another, we know certain elements of fantasy are not real, but we do have realistic experiences with them - we think real thoughts and feel real feelings as we would in our real world. Most of us do not carry the fantastical parts of fantasy into our realities, but do we ever bring the real parts of fantasy literature, the thoughts and feelings, to life through action in our real world?

For example, can we act out courage like the protagonist of one fantasy world or act out rebellion like the antagonist of another? Might our choice depend on the consequences we have vicariously experienced in the fantasy world, or the values we have been reminded of? Can fantasy have that kind of effect on us? I know it can. I have acted as characters in books have inspired me many times, and have refused to act as others have. One instance: I explored the value of life and death in the fantasy world of Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt. Though a fountain of youth is not real, what if it was? Babbitt creates scenarios to help us think about what it means to live and die. The Tuck family cannot die, and they are lonely and isolated in their immortality. I have acted on what I have learned from my experience with Tuck Everlasting by taking courage from the understanding that death can mean a release and a culmination of life. This real understanding helps me to cope with death and to help others to do the same.

Fantasy worlds, choices, and consequences can be explored in unique ways, then accepted, revised, or rejected before we create them physically or adopt them into our understanding - this is a distinct advantage for all of us who would have only our own life experiences to draw on if we did not explore literature. In this way all fiction books could be considered fantasy whether they contain unrealities, like unicorns, or experiment with realities, like horses.

Like Le Guin has said, good fantasy books are true books; like Bradbury has said, they help us survive; and like Alexander has said, they remind us of the best parts of ourselves.