Here there be dragons
“Fairy Tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”
– G.K. Chesterton
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Long ago, wee little Gregory would spend hours reading, sitting on his bed or curled up in a bean bag chair (hey, it was the 70s and 80s), one book or another in hand. There were many books, and many genres, but as time passed it became more and more stories of fantasy and science fiction. What started with voyages to the Mushroom Planet and the exploits of the Borrowers and the Rescuers blossomed into a full love of fantasy and science fiction. TV, too! Despite bad early memories of my father and Star Trek (it always interfered with The Electric Company!), I came to love it. Somewhere in junior high I discovered Doctor Who, back when they played it late on Saturday nights on PBS.
For young Gregory, those books and shows allowed escape from a realities of my life as the situation worsened at home and the Arcadian landscape of childhood turned into something darker.
Adult Gregory, well. Some of the stories have changed, but the allure is still there. I curl up with SF and fantasy on my futon, or outside, or get wrapped up in SF and fantasy shows. I escape into Star Trek and Doctor Who and Firefly and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Most recently, the genre addiction has fixed on True Blood.
There’s a lot of reasons for the allure — many depend on the story in question. Heck, I may have some posts soon on True Blood and things it has me thinking about. But deep down, let us admit that one part of the allure of SF and Fantasy is always just this: escapism.
Little Gregory ran away to magical worlds – for a little while, at least, curled up with book or sprawled on the living room floor watching TV. As my world seemed to collapse into a claustrophobic black hole ruled by a father’s anger, Tolkien and Lewis and others blew open the walls and let whole new worlds in.
Not much has changed, really, though the cares and worries that I escape from are different.
Escapism isn’t a bad thing. A good escapist story, a good bit of fantasy or SF, not only lets you run away from your worries from a bit, but also arms you with some fresh ammunition. You’re reminded that different realities can happen, so that you don’t think your present circumstances are eternal and unchangeable. You see triumph over adversity, to remind you that you can triumph, even if it seems hopeless now. You don’t come back believing in dragons, but maybe you come back better armed against the dragons in your life.
Good escapism is temporary, a rejuvenating break from harsh reality before rejoining the fray once more. It goes wrong, to put it simply, when you forget to come back.
To me, religion is mostly just stories that people have forgotten are stories. They believe the stories are literally true. Joseph Campbell warned about the dangers of that long ago — that stories are powerful, but become less useful when they are believed literally. I’ve definitely known Christians and others, though, that get some of that good escapism from their beliefs — they stay connected to the world, and come back from the story refreshed and better armed for life. I’m actually quite fascinated by that, and will probably be writing more about it soon. Even as they say the believe the stories to be true, they integrate them into their lives in the same way we integrate any other beloved stories into our lives. Some few, of course, even go so far as to give up literal belief, and to clearly see their stories as fictions, but ones that resonate deeply with them.
Sadly, though, I’ve known too many that get lost in the fantasy. That’s the danger of believing the stories to be literally true. For our stories to be of true use to us, we must first remember that they are stories. Dragons do not exist, though they may be beaten.
