Why does the fantasy genre have such a bad reputation?

[Farseer]

It's now 2am on 01/01/12 here in Australia and I'm off to bed ( Happy New Year! ), BUT I just couldn't leave without saying...

Well met and welcome to thePlenty, moxy!!!

Yes, all posts are 'alive' so feel free to delve in wherever you dare!

['thul]

still nearly 6 hours to go here.

[moxy]

Why, thank you for the welcome Farseer!
I'll be off for now to celebrate. Best wishes to all of you for 2012!

['thul]

merry new year!

[fool-ish]

Best wishes to you all for 2012!

And back on topic for a moment, I think I do 'flee' into other worlds through books. It offers respite from reality. I do know people who refuse to delve into the realms of fantasy, though they're unable to give a valid reason why. They probably think it's all a nonsense.

[Farseer]

I'd have to say that I enjoy journeying into 'other worlds' but, as much of what we read within a fantasy plot/story is based on reality, the events and emotions etc are all as 'true' for me as if they had happened at some point in our own history or as if they were happening right now.

Giving elves or wizards or vampires emotions, troubles and pleasures that mirror our own is no different reading material for me, especially as a not-very-well-travelled and isolated Australian, than reading an account of, say, an Inuit, African or Japanese person. Such people live in worlds with totally different cultures, landscapes, languages etc than what I know and thus their worlds are as other-worldly to me as a fantasy world constructed by an imaginative author.

In this, I don't think I could ever say that I read fantasy to flee from reality any more than I attempt to flee from things when I read a non-fiction book about another culture or read a fiction novel based on a true story. All may take me out of my own real world but I am still experiencing the world via another's perspective. As often as not, I might pick up a fantasy book to distract me from my own dramas only to be plunged into the life of a character who is experiencing much the same thing as I am...and their grief or frustration or anguish compounds my own!

[fool-ish]

Yeah, there is that...leaving my own stresses and worries behind only to go through someone else's for a time. Though ultimately, I can leave their troubles behind, whereas mine remain. I'm leaving this now before I become maudlin!

[Valarya]

I hadn't noticed this thread being revived until just now and decided to read it from start-to-end. As I was reading some of Albertsaurus's musings on his Uncle and the frustrations which ensued (which was quite well-written and well-said, by the way!).. I thought to myself "I bet he'll watch Game of Thrones with the rest of the world and not realize that it is actually of the fantasy genre."

Hah! One page later, there it is. I'm glad something, at least, as brought him around to admitting fantasy isn't as horrible as he originally thought.. even if it is just a TV show and might not make him pick up the actual book. Start somewhere, yes?

[Farseer]

Start somewhere indeed!