Fantasy Mark Chadbourn\'s (2008) Assessment

Fantasy

Mark Chadbourn's (2008) assessment of the popularity of fantasy and science fiction is somewhat true. According to Chadbourn (2008), fantasy has surpassed "its former powerhouse cousin, science fiction" to become "the biggest genre in publishing." The trend, claims Chadbourn (2008), is directly related to an increasingly rational worldview. "The more rational the world gets, with super-science all around us, the more we demand the irrational in our fiction," (Chadbourn 2008). While this may be true, fantasy is the root of all fiction. Chadbourn (2008) admits that "A search for the origins of fantasy will usually have academics muttering about Beowulf, the Epic of Gilgamesh or Homer's the Iliad." Moreover, "all stories were fantasy" at some time, depicting "gods and monsters and supernatural artifacts with humanity caught in the middle," (Chadbourn 2008).

Before the Age of Enlightenment, most stories were oral. Up until the 20th century, most people did not read, let alone write. The stories that were told were deliberately fantastical because they captivated minds and permitted escapism. The realistic literature that emerged in Europe after the Age of Enlightenment was a domain of the upper classes. Fantasy stories were the stuff of the masses: the folktales and other oral traditions that have always been a part of cultures around the world.

The 20th century saw major social and political changes. Public education enabled more people to read and write. Therefore, the 20th century was a time of literary flourishing for all genres, including science fiction and fantasy. The popularity of fantasy is nothing new; it has always been the epicenter of fiction.

Chadbourn is absolutely correct about the role fantasy plays in the modern world. The reason why fantasy has surpassed all other genres, including science fiction, in sales is partly related to the nature of the world we live in today. Climate change, income disparity, terminal illnesses and continued wars all plague our world. The means by which we typically understand such phenomenon is through science. We have created vast canons of academic texts in fields like psychology, sociology, and other social sciences. Even politics is now "political science." Anything that cannot be codified or empirically researched is not deemed worthy of discussion. It is this over-emphasis on science that creates a boom in fantasy literature.

Fantasy writing is also a "special skill," according to Chadbourn (2008). "Being able to see beyond the boundaries of the world around us" requires a different approach to writing than other genres (Chadbourn 2008). Many reluctant readers find that fantasy liberates them from the tyranny of science. As the new religion of the world, science demystifies. Many readers find reading mundane because it too closely resembles the predictable world of science.