A Fictional Argument

“There was a time between the waning age of magic and the dawning age of logic when Dragons flew the skies, free and unencumbered.”

I want to introduce you to an animated movie that you’ve probably never heard of. It’s a movie that my brother and I grew up with and, to this day, I’ve not met anyone else that’s seen it. It’s called ‘The Flight of Dragons’.

But before I talk about why I bring up this movie I want to take you all the way back to the year 2000. A year of the Millennium bug and teen angst for me. Adolescence had transformed me from a good, well-behaved and studious kid to a lazy, angry, goth. I was making my mother cry on a weekly basis with my argumentative attitude.

Despite this, however, I was always a reader. It's just something I’ve always enjoyed. In 2001 I picked up a book called ‘Ravenheart’ by David Gemmell and it changed my life. I didn’t learn any new technique or strategy but I was introduced to a new hero. David Gemmell is known as a heroic fantasy writer and he uses the influence of his stepfather to create larger than life, idealist but ultimately flawed heroes.

I was so inspired by Jaim Grymauch, a major but supporting character in the book that, overnight, my attitude changed. I decided to take on that inspiration daily and started to approach each day in a new light… and I started to find some happiness. Later down the line it would influence my decision to take English and Creative Writing at university and say to myself “If I can inspire 2 people the way that I’ve been inspired, that would be a successful life.”

From that moment on I always looked for the magic.

Flight of Dragons

The central theme of the movie is questioning whether science and magic can co-exist. I won’t go into the story too much but I want to highlight one of the major characters, a wizard called Carolinus. Carolinus is one of the 4 magic brothers and his magic power is waning as the world embraces science, logic whilst rejecting magic. With this realization he chooses to inspire a quest to create the “last realm of magic”, hidden away from human eyes. A realm where dragons, fairies and wizards can remain untouched.

"The worlds of magic and logic must exist side by side...not destroy each other."

Since I’ve been working and focusing on personal development, I have a feeling that we don’t seek out magic anywhere near enough. Over the holiday period, as I browsed LinkedIn as I often enjoy to do, I noticed that there were a great number of posts and articles about books people had read. Books about business, marketing, sales, management and leadership were being recommended across the platform. Some of my personal favourites like ‘Ego is the enemy’ by Ryan Holiday and ‘Think and Grow Rich’ by Napoleon Hill got a mention which was good to see.

Is it just me that thinks we are ignoring the value of fiction?

This may be a less than popular opinion so you will have to forgive me for that. It’s my belief that fiction, focused on strategy and technique can change a business or change a life. However, again my opinion. It’s fiction that changes the world. Beowulf, Chaucer, Shakespeare, the Bronte sisters, Hemmingway, Wilde…

The thing is, right at this moment, your future is fictional. It hasn’t happened yet. So, doesn’t that make it magic by definition? Well I guess that’s debatable but it’s certainly a choice.

“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten” – Tony Robbins

If you’re hyper-focused on only consuming content that feeds you intellectually then you will have so much knowledge and so many resources to utilize in your journey. But I think it’s important to note that all of this knowledge is based on stuff that’s already happened. This stuff already exists. You can’t be original and you can’t innovate if everything you know has already happened. For me this is where fiction comes into play and that’s why I wanted to write this article. To give a little bit of love to the world of fiction. I’ve found that it has truly enriched my creativity and my imagination. I wouldn’t say that I’m a wizard on the level of Gandalf or Harry Potter but I’ve got a little bit of magic I can tap into from time to time.

“The world, though it does not realize it cannot do with magic. If man is to surmount the insurmountable, there must always be magic to inspire him.” - Carolinus