I've been thinking for the past while about why I like the fantasy genre so much. Maybe it's the limitations (ie. weapons, no electricity usually, etc.). Maybe it's the characters in the novels I read. Maybe it's the thought of the world being larger.
Maybe it's some combination of the above and more. For me, it's like stepping into another world that is full of far more possibilities than our own. In that world there are no limits, little governance, no one and no society to have dominion over another man. Yes, the settings in the fantasy genre tend to be tougher. It is far more dangerous and people are often worried about mere survival rather than things like money or what movie they're going to see next week. Still, it seems to me to be a place in which a man can make himself and is truly only bound by the limits he imposes on himself. I wonder if the same holds true in a more modern setting.
Take our own world, for example. There are people who are born poor and in unfortunate circumstances. They can make great headways in life and eventually achieve a higher status. However, to me it seems that they can rise only so high in the vast majority of situations. How much do outsiders influence our lives?
The heart of the matter seems to be that the fantasy genre represents freedom to me. The freedom comes at the cost of the characters being at much greater risk and having far fewer luxuries than we do. However, how many of us can say that we are truly free for all that we have?
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