Fantasy in Our World Today

The genre of Fantasy has been steadily growing more popular over the years.  What we think of as Fantasy today hasn’t really been around for all that long, just over 2 centuries. It started small, and has been gaining steam for awhile now. In our world today, Fantasy has found its way into just about every medium we can think of, although fantasy literature still remains the primary medium.  

Fantasy is different from other genres in that it often uses magic or supernatural phenomena or beings in its plot or setting, often both.  Though not all fantasy stories include magic, a large portion of the stories available tend to involve mystical creatures, sorcerers, witches, and talking animals. This is allowed and embraced within the genre because, at its heart, fantasy follows its own rules, allowing for magic and imaginary creatures to play critical, pivotal roles in the story telling.  The settings for the story can virtually be anything at all, from our own world to far away worlds in other galaxies or dimensions.  The ones that take place in a “real world” setting may often have the fantastical elements hidden and slowly draw the characters (and readers) into a sub-world that functions as both a part of and as a separate entity of our own world where monsters can and do exist, and where human characters are able to do things we would consider to be impossible.  Fantasy stories that take place on other worlds do not have to follow any of the rules of our world. Things can be as bizarre or fantastical as the author wishes. Even the laws of physics can be different or even non-existent within these magical, mystical destinations. 

For a very long time, fantasy was considered to be something for children and often fantasy books written for adults were not received well.  It took a long time for it to gain any sort of audience, but eventually, stories such as Conan the Barbarian by Robert E. Howard in the 1950’s helped fantasy get some much needed attention. Possible the most important turn of events for this genre came with the creation of high fantasy, with the most notable (and popular) example being that of Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”. Suddenly fantasy was no longer for children or something to be ignored as inferior. The epic story contained within The Lord of the Rings is far from a child’s story and the themes, settings, and events are of a serious nature. Books that followed, such as C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, helped to guarantee the survival of the genre. 

In more recent years, fantasy has made the leap from books into other mediums, such as television and movies, as well as video games. Games such as Blizzard’s World of Warcraft and Trion World’s new launch, Rift, have helped attract millions of people to the genre. This explosion of games requires people to come up with new and interesting names and have lead to the formation of many sites that will choose a name for you, such as WoW name generator. With millions of players immersing themselves in these made-up worlds, is it any wonder that the genre has become very mainstream and continues to gain in popularity. There is no doubt that as technology grows and changes, fantasy will find a way to adapt and thrive.