We have always loved fantasy

The fantasy genre, like most genre fiction, is sometimes looked down upon. People who enjoy fantasy are often seen as childlike.

A lot of fiction is seen that way. Certainly, science fiction and horror get the same treatment. People who like to consider themselves real adults, older generations mostly, behave as though reading genre fiction is something to be left behind when one reaches a certain age. It’s better to read adult books. Nonfiction, historical, biographical. Things about serious topics.

I don’t know why this should be, except that some people are bound and determined to remove joy from everyone’s life.

Now, I read far and wide. I love a good historical fiction moment. I have devoured biographies, especially ones written by female comedians. I read many nonfiction books about witchcraft and would run out in traffic for a good true crime novel. I only really dislike romance novels, and even then I’m not going to sit here and yuck somebody’s yum. If romance is what brings you joy, go for it.

But my heart will always truly belong to the speculative fiction genre. The horror, the science fiction, and the fantasy. And I will never allow someone to tell me that this is childish, or juvenile. I will not allow people to use this as one more example of how Millenials are still clinging to their childhoods even as we turn forty. Those sorts of arguments are often used by people who still wear their college football shirts, and I don’t think I need to explain the hypocrisy there.

While modern generations might look down their noses at fantasy fans, calling us childish or nerds, this does more to show their own ignorance of history than anything else. Because for as long as people have written stories down, even for as long as we have told stories, we told fantasy stories. Some of the oldest stories we know of are, in fact, fantasy. Starting all the way back with Beowulf.

The startling thing about Beowulf is that we can see similar motifs as we do in modern fantasy. You have your hero, Beowulf, who defeats the monster Grendel. Grendal’s mother attempts to seek vengeance but dies by his hand as well. I would argue that Grendal’s mother was perfectly justified in trying to light Beowulf’s ass up after he killed her son, but that’s an argument that has been beaten to death in too many college and high school essays, including my own. But it’s the same hero’s journey that we see, have seen, and will continue to see. A young person faces a terrible challenge, and against all odds, overcomes it.

We love this story. We tell it over and over again through time, across generations, and in every culture. We do this because it is our story. The story of the human condition. We will all face our grendels. Poverty, war, abuse, loneliness. We will all face those, and some of us will not win. Some of us will die to our grendels.

But some of us will live to be old men and women, and find that dragons are waiting for us in that time as well. Losing loved ones, poverty again, illnesses. The body breaking down, and possibly the mind as well. We will all, eventually fall to those dragons as Beowulf does.

We love fantasy because it is the genre that most perfectly portrays the challenges we face in life. And when we see Beowulf, Luke Skywalker, Captain America, and even Harry Potter fight their monsters and win, we feel like we can win against our monsters too.

So if you have ever been made to feel bad about reading fantasy, don’t. Reading and enjoying fantasy is as human as can be. We have always done it, we will always do it. And I believe we are stronger for it.

Now it’s your turn. What is your favorite current fantasy read? Let us know about it in the comments.

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