This mornings early reading was from "City of God" - written by a mystic (St Augustine, Bishop of Hippo) in North Africa over 1600 years ago. Describing the failure of the 'gods' of Rome to protect it from its fall to the barbarians, Augustine says of the auguries and soothsayers warnings to the Romans: "and this shows us that, though the verses of the poets are mythical, they are not altogether devoid of the truth, but describe the manners of the demons in a sufficiently fit style."
So, to those who wonder why I have "Dune" and the entire "Babylon 5" and "Game of Thrones" series in my DVD collection, I offer that the great escapist fiction and fantasy authors are the cultural 'soothsayers' of our time.
"Dune", "Game of Thrones", are called 'escapist fiction'. Each intends to convey a story in which the balance between faith, economics, politics, and environment define a perilous setting in which characters, largely of decidedly mixed virtue and wisdom, meet their fates. Escapist fiction - "fantasy", like many 'Science Fictions', is otherworldly. The best of it provides enormously complex histories, geography and boundaries, creatures, and cultures, for the entertainment of the reader.
Yeah, we're fans (the Mrs., taken at Winterfell castle)
Fantasy provides remote settings for the dramas being portrayed from the equally gritty world readers must return to when the book closes. Books of this type frequently will have violence and debauchery used as pigments painting a vivid story. For the good ones the purpose is illustrative, not merely prurient.
"Lord of the Rings" is similar to 'escapist fantasy' - but, like the fantasy works of CS Lewis, different. Despite Tolkien's (likely with fingers crossed) disclaimer, LOTR is more an allegory used to 'smuggle in' the Christian story than one focused on “the heart in conflict with itself” (that line Shakespeare via GRR Martin).
"Yellowstone", although not set on another world, is more like, than unlike, the great escapist works as it does focus at its core on complex, existentially conflicted, characters. It is 'fantasy' in my estimation - even if only because of the supernatural survivability of the main characters.
I personally know a vet with some real terrible memories and regrets from his service over half a century ago. He enjoys relaxing with "Yellowstone" on the TV. For me, the realization of how close we came to nuclear annihilation in the fall of '83 – or how close to catastrophe we remain with the means of our destruction still sitting, fueled and armed with 'war shot' warheads, in holes in the ground and on the submarines of four failing nations is ever in the back of my mind.
The true stuff of nightmares
Escapist fiction and fantasy are a 'safe space', if you will, in which talented writers can tell tales of human flaws and nobility - with consequences that are merely imaginary.
So, I recommend folks tired of the incessant, daily 'fear porn' try and read "Dune". Rest assured, the 'real world' will always be there when you close the book.
UPDATE: 10/20/23 - in case you've missed my earlier references to how close we've come ... https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/10/its_3_am_who_gets_the_call.html (and, I don't believe for a minute the PRC's not got launch ready nukes in their thousand plus miles of tunnels. Nor do I think nukes are more deadly, ultimately, than a bioweapon, epox for example.)
