Fantasy: Reality Versus Fiction

In any work of fiction, whether historical or not, there is always a certain element of reality hidden among the towering cities and awe-inspiring heroes. Sometimes the author brings reality into the story to give credence to the people and events of his inventing. Other times-most notably in Shakespeare-reality is used as a backdrop for the story. But reality also plays a much more fundamental role in fiction. Imagine a story about a distant planet where man has never set foot. Imagine a civilization bereft of all human emotion: all love, all hatred, all virtue, all vice. What is left? There is nothing; it becomes merely a source of facts-no longer fiction in its truest sense. Fiction depends on reality for its existence, from the slightest emotions of a passing character to the very distinction of good and evil. Reality is what makes the story come alive to the read-so much so that Henry David Thoreau was able to say, “How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live” (Diary of Henry David Thoreau, August 19, 1851).

This aspect of reality is key, especially to works of fantasy. In a world full of power and magic, little is left to give the reader a secure bridge through which he can enter. What the reader wants is something that ties this new world to his own: just one thing he can relate with. Many books use emotions to this end; others use “growing-up” and everything ties to that.

Stephen King really sums the whole matter up when he talks about fiction as the truth beneath a deceit. For him fiction is like a man with a mask on: true on the inside, but “fictional” on the outside. Yet how many people fail to recognize that there is a man under the mask, that there is a truth in fiction. Perhaps one day people will find that truth, and they will realize that fiction can tell us about the world around us just as much as any other book and that it is up to them to open up and receive it.