Utopian Escape: As easy as picking your own poison
Fantasy authors have a profound influence on their readers’ mindsets and beliefs because, when words are beautifully presented, humans can’t help but want to believe them.
For many, writing stories and filling them with characters who don’t have to deal with negativity is a strong outlet to distract from reality’s harshness. The more people can distance themselves from reality, the safer they tend to feel, and this false sense of security makes the fantasy genre attractive for writers seeking escape. Fantasy allows writers to avoid real-world consequences entirely, even through subtle shifts in the laws they design for a specific land. Escapism in fantasy creates storylines which stretch the readers’ suspension of disbelief to the breaking point. This makes fantasy books lose their beauty as they lose the realism readers relate to. On a greater scale, authors can take their universes completely away from the real world and remove all consequences, false ideas, and wrong beliefs.
Authors who write in the fantasy genre can craft, debatably, some of the most attractive stories. With everything from beautiful, unearthly descriptions to intriguing details and background worldbuilding, fantasy offers something to captivate almost every reader. Fantasy authors have a profound influence on their readers’ mindsets and beliefs because, when words are beautifully presented, humans can’t help but want to believe them. When authors use this power to put the True Reality in a negative light, however, this unique skill becomes deadly. As authors focus on writing fantasy only as escape and with no regard for realism, they lead their readers to believe that consequences are bad, evil actions are wrongly punished, the real world is pointless, or—an extreme idea which can be taught by escapism—God is evil because He punishes sin.
When used rightly, however, high fantasy allows readers and writers to easily see how truths work in the real world through accentuated situations. Issues arise when high fantasy writers who seek respite are encouraged, while building their world, to avoid establishing boundaries, consequences, and ideologies for the universes their stories to take place in. This leads to escapism taking root in writing. For those overwhelmed by the world’s problems and expectations, fantasy is the perfect place to escape into. Writers don’t have to think about the real issues of belief and can instead exist in a world where mythical creatures and events seem to demonstrate why consequences aren’t needed.
Low fantasy may not easily reveal escapism. The genre offers firmer guardrails to help writers keep one foot in the real world, but it can still provide the basis for escapism since all fiction holds potential to fall into mere escapism. Low fantasy allows writers to keep aspects of reality, often the base world or pleasant pieces, but leads them to not make it exactly similar. Since the basic world-building is already set, writers can begin to add the mythological details they want: fantastical creatures, superpowers, superheroes, and other non-realistic scenarios offered by high fantasy. Is just means that, while high fantasy makes it obvious to authors that they’re escaping reality, low fantasy has the tendency to allow writers to fall into escapism unawares.
Often, fantasy leans toward complete avoidance of the world’s problems, especially in subgenres with a great deal of worldbuilding by the author. Escapism gets tricky to identify, however, since some aspects of fantasy do bring in problems from the world itself. Many fantasy books face real problems of the world, either on a personal or worldwide scale, which means fantasy does not easily fall into complete avoidance. Low fantasy, specifically, often deals with the world’s problems but does not simply surrender to them by refusing to acknowledge that there is any solution or better path to correct problems. Authors must stand on the line between avoiding problems and surrendering to them by writing with the knowledge that people are fallen but have hope in Christ. When authors represent wrong beliefs from the world and attempt to bring in consequences, they can fall into creating rewards for wrong actions and beliefs. While desiring to escape reality’s seeming harshness, authors can switch consequences for characters’ actions from what they should be to what the author wants them to be.
When authors give themselves the ability to choose consequences and escape the world, their escapism leads to never wanting to return to reality. If they do wish to go back, escapism teaches them to try and patch over the fallen aspects of the world by writing books where those don’t exist. As writers keep creating new fictional realities, they continually ignore reality and don’t face the issues they don’t want to acknowledge.
The escapism in fantasy works a lot like an addiction: it enables writers to escape their problems at first and then traps them in a cycle which keeps them coming back—even when they don’t want to. Initially, fantasy’s escapism may work to distract authors from problems, but it doesn’t last forever. At some point, writers want to explore deeper content in their writing. They may realize their stories are shallow or feel irritation because they aren’t able to present the ideas they dream of being able to portray in their books. However, most writers will find it hard to avoid escapism once they’ve trained themselves in it. When writers practice escapism, primarily the kind that avoids all negativity, they dim their ability to convey and process truth about difficult concepts and consequences.
This is not to say, however, that it is impossible for authors versed in escapism to learn how to avoid it. Authors who have written escapist books may even be stronger writers because they know what escapism looks like and how to avoid it. For Christian writers, escapism is especially harmful because it is subtle. Writers might not realize what their words connotate, but the more they allow beliefs such as ‘God is a villain’ to creep into the background of their writing, the more they visibly believe it. Matthew 12:34 warns that words reveal the heart. For true Christians seeking not only to represent Christ but to have a deeper walk with God, they must beware what their words are saying—and refute the false ideas at the root in their hearts.
The Basics of Non-Escapist Fantasy
Many fantasy books are escapist, but authors don’t have to completely avoid fantasy because it is bad and beyond use or salvation. There are many ways to represent truth in a fantasy setting, especially since its reliance on world-building allows for fantastical events, creatures, and stories innately designed to present the truth. Fantasy’s main characteristic is that it freely takes place in a world without many ties to reality, allowing authors great creativity, and this function doesn’t have to be erased to convey truth. The best way to avoid escapism and truly process through writing fantasy is to actively and constantly base your books on the unchanging truth of the Bible.
The clearest way to base fantasy books in the Bible may be to represent the Gospel, perhaps leaning toward a lightly allegorical model in your books—especially as we start out venturing into the world of fantasy. This can be hard and requires God’s grace and guidance to not detour from the truth or make very small but damning errors which change the gospel’s message and instead teach sin. Using the gospel itself, by changing names of characters to follow the gospel’s storyline and message, provides authors a basis to avoid escapism. We imitate and are inspired by great authors and their stories. Why not imitate and be inspired by The Author of our salvation and the story He gave us?! It is hard to fall to escapism when authors truly base their books in the gospel because the gospel is the opposite of escapism; the gospel confronts issues at the root cause. Thus, the gospel prevents authors from removing the existence of sin and consequence—and helps writers avoid escapism. Sure, it may be too obvious to begin with, but it’s the perfect guardrail for practicing habits that will stick with you as you go explore deeper levels of your craft.
Understandably, not every writer is called to write allegories, and not all fantasy writers have to. The truth of the Bible isn’t limited to one medium, and that is its freedom. Especially since its reliance on world-building allows for fantastical events, creatures, and stories that authors can innately design, the fantasy setting offers many ways to represent truth. The one foundational requirement for non-escapist fantasy books is that they rely on truth. In a fantasy setting, truth can be portrayed regardless of whether it is a large or small truth. Writers must determine whether their books best focus on a very large and complex truth or many simpler truths. While the gospel can be represented without necessitating an allegorical style, it will likely take a simpler form without following fictional versions of Christ, Satan, or other characters as the main or only characters represented—but non-allegory is just as valuable as allegory.
Fantasy’s strength, arguably, lies in representing smaller truths which support a large truth. Fantasy has an incredible ability to allow authors to build kingdoms, people groups, and situations that, while perhaps not extremely realistic, are arranged to portray truth in an attractive and understandable style. Since concepts are often demonstrated most clearly when shown in action or on a dramatized scale, fantasy can portray truth by allowing authors to clearly demonstrate beliefs and their consequences in a large-scale setting which is easily understandable to readers. In a low fantasy style, authors can show truth in scenarios readers themselves may have experienced—to guide them to truth through what they may have seen before in their lives.
Facing the Fantastic Reality of Christ as Our Escape
Christians should understand that reality is beautiful and shouldn’t be avoided simply because it is fallen. Fantasy, when done correctly, can highlight this fact. Escapism tends to ignore reality’s beauty by removing all evil, or by accentuating the beautiful parts to a false extent—an extent where beauty becomes no longer admirable. When authors attempt to escape in fantasy, they tend to ignore God’s beautiful creation and His mercy of salvation. By removing everything that’s wrong with the world, escapism negates the contrast that makes reality attractive. If it doesn’t do this, escapist fantasy tends to give nature the credit for beauty—praising creation rather than the awesome Creator who designed and sustains each part of the natural world. This makes the writers blind to God’s true glory and power, dulling their understanding of the truth.
“Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”
~Romans 1:25, ESV
Authors may seek escape through their writing and the best method of this seems to be ignoring consequences. Christian authors must understand that escapism itself is not true relief; it only hides the true escape Christ provides in salvation.
“For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.”
~Hebrews 2:3-4, ESV
When we neglect to remember salvation, we cannot escape. Like beauty, when the brokenness of reality is erased, the power, mercy, and love of Christ’s death on the cross is also deleted. When Christian fantasy authors represent truth through the foundation and details of their worlds and set ups, they create a powerfully captivating world which guides their audience toward a meaningful and deep understanding of truth. Christian authors called to write fantasy cannot fall victim to including escapism in their works but must instead rise to meet false worldviews and take captive ideas for Christ.
“For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.”
~1 Corinthians 10:4-5, ESV
