Fantasy Land

I started reading my first adult fantasy book. That means that all the Harry Potters and Fablehavens did not count (according to my husband) even though they have a gazillion pages. Who knew?

Fantasy is really quite complicated. Just ask Brandon Sanderson, Brandon Mull or L.E. Modesitt Jr., I mean really, how do they keep track of all those characters, their secret powers, the powers of various objects, mythical creatures, the kingdoms where they live, blah, blah, blah? All of a sudden, I need a reference sheet to tell me what I just read and I'm only 100 pages into the book. My mind starts to leave—you know, the light is on but nobody’s home. I’m just wondering when he (said super fantasy hero) is going to kiss the girl. And who cares if the dragon comes back because dragons aren’t real anyways. Okay, really, I try to be scared when I read about the dragon/demon/evil power, but I just can't because, well, I don't want to blow it for you, but it's NOT real.

And that is when I had my little epiphany. As I reviewed in my wee brain all the many people I know who enjoy fantasy, they were all folks not like me. Fantasy readers aren’t right-brained creative folk, they are left brained, record keeping factual folk. I think. However, this is hard for me to decipher since most times I can’t find either side of my brain.

I shared this remarkable insight with my husband who is totally left-brained; he also functions as my left brain, and he was totally not surprised. He also happens to be a huge reader and lover of fantasy. He has always said, “Why should I read about something that could actually happen?” I always say, “Why should I read about something that could never happen?”

He explained that right brained people live in a fantasy world all the time. So, why on earth do they need to escape? While, left-brained people, like himself, live, work and breathe in the real world. That’s why they need fantasy—to escape. . .

So all this time I’ve been living in fantasy land doing fantasy laundry, making fantasy mac n’ cheese, and shopping at the fantasy grocery kingdom. I guess driving the carpool is my idea of fantasy too. Maybe I need to escape to the real world.