The Power of Fantasy & the Miracle of Everything @TheOrphanMan #TheOrphanManSays #OnWriting
(Applicable to Fantasy & Reality)
Why is it that in society it takes us so much time to separate ourselves from what we believe is true? Adamantly we place our trust in science, or religion, political leaning or even our personal beliefs or thoughts. These things that we all carry around with us, and yet are so rarely discussed. Our supposed truths; they are the most erosive thing on our condition if they run unchecked through our experience of reality- and all of them are a product of Worldbuilding.
Worldbuilding is a term primarily used when talking about fantasy writing, but I and others would argue that it’s application is more useful than that. In the words of fantasy writer M. John Harrison,
“Narccistic worldbuilding represented by the word LOreal, already exists well upstream of J.K. Rowling or J.R.R. Tolkien. Neither of them is nearly as successful at worldbuilding as the genius’s coca cola or the catholic church.”
The truth is that every construct engineered to last in human history has that element of Worldbuilding as a necessary database of the actions of the entity which holds that backstory. Think of historical science, or religious histories. Think of the backstory of the United States- from the pilgrimage and the Revolutionary War, to President Obama. Hell, think of the way social media marketers craft the story of their business, or even the way you craft your own identity. All these, and indeed all of history is a form of Worldbuilding- which could be theoretically be no more truthful than a fantasy story, and yet is presented and thought of as truth.
Fantasy and fiction writing are the most honest creations that we have ever made as relating to our knowledge to the truth. Plato’s cave is a great allegory, which both expresses the power of moving to a new perspective and the fact that by the nature of the human condition- truth is unattainable. Therein lies the power of fiction writing. By the virtue of its very genre fantasy and fiction admit the nature of their own rhetoric. Every other construct fails to do this, whether it be in literature or society- history and science are for the most part thought of as ‘truth’; in literature philosophy or commentary gives the writer the opportunity to admit their own implicit bias, poetry, articles, and memoirs however are wholly invested inside the writer’s perspective and rhetoric.
That is why I see fiction and genre fiction as the most useful tool with which we can train our brains to not except anything and move into critical thinking. The power of fantasy literature is that it strips away any illusion of the truth- leaving you unexpectant and receptive to what is happening in the moment. Reading a good fantasy book is parallel to Buddhist mindfulness. In its escapism from the ‘real world’ it can remind us that the constructs of our everyday lives are in their own way just as much of a fantasy- and remove the clutter of the monkey mind. But fantasy can do even more than that.
Remember an interpretation of Plato’s cave is that it is part of the human condition, that truth is unattainable. When we read about magic and wizards, dragons and Dark Lords, Dwarves, Elves- I think the best thing that we can remember when we set down the book and enter back into the ’real world’ is that what we are experiencing around us in its own way just as Magical and miraculous, and just as much of a false perspective as what goes on within the pages of Lord of the Rings. When we see the world this way- the truth being unattainable is not such a death sentence that we will never find what we have been searching for. Instead it is a promise that what we are experience will remain a beautiful mystery for as long as we are lucky enough to eke out an existence on this middle earth. The magic of our world lies in what we cannot understand, and that resource is infinite. This is the Miracle of Everything.
The worst way fantasy can be read is to lose oneself in an obsession on the fake world over the collective reality; but for the best fantasy readers- the genre both instills a fervor for life, and an understanding of subjective truth. This understanding creates open mindedness, and freedom of thought and clears the clutter of competing voices in the mind- planted there by society and history, science, philosophy, religion and social media and leaves a brain-trained avenue towards mindfulness.
By the immersive experience of an admitted lie which in the space of 10 pages can remind you how limited the human condition is. That humility is an essential accept of retaining our humanity and our sanity when dealing with ourselves and each other. This is the power of fantasy, and the miracle, of everything.