Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Fantasy where to begin?

What is fantasy? Who ever thought that I could take a literature class on such an interesting topic?
Defining fantasy is about as hard as defining religion because every time you have a concrete definition someone always comes up with an example outside of your definition. It never hurts a guy to try though. Fantasy is an altered state of existence experienced through literature or the minds eye that defies the conventional rules of reality. Fantasy can describe the fluffy things bouncing around in our heads or magical kingdoms stacked side by side on a library shelf. Because fantasy is not held by any natural laws, it has no limits.

Some examples of fantasy include: books or movies whose storyline is not confined by reality, video games such as EverQuest or World of Warcraft, and even dreams.

My experiences with fantasy began a long time ago in junior high with a Terry Pratchett addiction. From there I fell in love a variety of other series such as the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, Sword of Truth novels by Terry Goodkind, Dragonlance chronicles by Weiss and Hickman, and any book written by Terry Brooks. I love it all and wish I had more time to read these days. It took every bit of self control I possessed to not buy Terry Brook's new books describing the disaster that created the land of Shannara. Alas there is too much work to do these days for me to spend two days without sleep.

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