Why Write Fantasy?

We all think in stereotypes sometimes. It’s evolutionary reflex; shorthand sketches for larger, more complex ideas, that enable us to navigate our world quickly on an everyday basis, without exhausting ourselves.

But so too, we all carry biases. Prejudices. Blindspots, that bar us from the nuance of situations.

So there’s something joyous about stepping into an authorial world that doesn’t have an immediately familiar lived history or culture. Rather, we can engage with a story more freely on its own terms, without barriers of assumption.

This is an X civilisation, that means Y. A character’s nationality means A, their social rank B, their faith C, their skin colour D, even their sexuality E. And so on.

We extrapolate from existing experience via touchpoints and reference but, with fantasy, those ideas are more permeable from the first page. Open to new interpretation. 

Abstracted from familiar certainties, the reader wallows and draws new conclusions.

Afterall, the joy of reading is to experience the vicarious thrill of scenarios other than our own, without the risks associated with firsthand experience. And, to learn and grow in doing so.