Monday means Fantasy with Friends time! All the prompts are hosted at Pages Unbound, if you’d like to join in. This week’s prompt is about whether fantasy is about “real things”:

Some people argue that fantasy isn’t worth reading because it’s not about real things. What is your response?

Mostly, I think that if fantasy isn’t for you — if you can’t suspend disbelief, or you argue too much with basic premises, or can’t keep the worldbuilding straight, or whatever it is — then… don’t read it, that’s no skin off my nose!

But I do think fantasy is still about real things. It’s written by people, and inevitably it’s about people, even if those people have pointy ears or fangs or transform into werewolves or have implausible monarchies or whatever it is. I think there are probably some exceptions, because there always are, but we’re a pretty self-centred species and I think it’s often about us, really, and the themes and plotlines are generally things of interest to humans — just wrapped up in a fantasy setting.

And like I said, I can get if that’s not your jam, absolutely, but I don’t think it’s factually correct to say that “fantasy isn’t about real things”. On a superficial level, sure, it’s about potions, spells, fantastical beasts, transformations, fairies, etc, etc. But that’s just the way we dress it up; it isn’t just about that. Even the simplest fantasies aimed at kids get at real human things that kids are interested in!