An Ode to Fantasy Fiction

First published on July 21, 2017

I was doing some work with my coach, today. We were practising meditation, and he, at one point, said, 'Now unhook your awareness from your head. Don't worry about how you do it, just do it.'

And what came to my mind straight away (at least my awareness was outside my head) was the novel I'm currently reading, part four of the fantasy epic The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. There was a remarkable similarity between what Joel said, and the way that Rand, the protagonist, describes the way he uses magic in that book.

And it got me thinking: about fantasy novels, and why I love them so much, and how they relate to this work I do as a coach. 

Because I do love them. Alongside following football, and maybe the music of a couple of artists, reading fantasy novels is really the only hobby that has stayed with me for over 20 years. And setting up a website about the wisdom and philosophy of my favourite author, David Gemmell, is one of the things I gain most satisfaction from, and am most proud of. 

I think there are many things, for me, which makes fantasy fiction mean so much to so many people. They are moral tales, of right and wrong and the shades of grey in between. They are tales of values, of heroism, of sacrifice. They are tales of humanity, in some ways more pure than novels set in the 'real world', because they are removed from the rationality and practicalities of the things we see every day. There is a thought experiment, philosophical at core, in almost every one. What if the world worked like this? What if this was possible? How would things turn out then? They are so often rooted in nature, with all the grandeur and fascination that holds for so many of us. My brother, another fantasy fan, said he thinks they deal with archetypal myths which have a deep rooted place in the human psyche going back millennia. Stories and patterns which tell core lessons about the human condition. 

And then there is this. There is the spiritual element, connecting us to the idea of not worrying about how to do something that seems so esoteric, so magical. Just doing. And there is the depth of wisdom and philosophy which the great fantasy writers weave into their storytelling, guiding us to our values and morals, and the worldviews which inform our behaviour.

I published another piece about art today, about the moments when our souls expand through the art we experience. For me, there is almost nothing like a fantasy novel to do this.