The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers

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Yuillegan:
Indeed, perhaps all of us are just can't accept reality and hide in fiction. Or perhaps we recognise fiction for the genius that it is: truth. You can get to the heart of things much more deeply in fiction than in non-fiction because it captures people and moves them beyond the simple and limited restraints of language. People feel their reality much more than they think about it and certainly more than they can discuss it.

It's no wonder fantasy and fiction is so popular. It speaks in the language that we experience, not the one that is - story. Stories are much more like life than historical retellings because so much of the human experience is subjective. Yet despite it all we find these points of connection and meaning that exist in every story and so even our subejective experiences start to feel objective. There are deeper truths than any known science can explain.

I for one am grateful for it. If we all just lived for non-fiction we would likely live in a very dull world. And probably humanity wouldn't have made it out of the mud as we wouldn't have had the imagination required to build civilisation, so perhaps we wouldn't be here at all.

Bad Alias:
And it's not like Dickens and Shakespeare weren't produced with the intent of commercial success. I wouldn't be surprised if 99% of the stuff professional literary types appreciate is forgotten when those professional literary types pass on and some random work that nobody saw coming is what gets studied in a few hundred years.

Yuillegan:
Exactly, in fact it has many times been the case that an artist now revered was ridiculed during his lifetime. Which is why I am perfectly comfortable reading the books I like or watching the films I like etc. I can still appreciate classical brilliance but I don't feel that their success or acclaim lessens the brilliance and certainly my enjoyment of genre's like fantasy.

I also feel like it is tied into the whole "it isn't cool to like *example* because it's so mainstream" thing. Like Martin Scorsese ripping into Marvel. Look, I very much enjoy his films. But that doesn't mean I don't like a lot of the Marvel entertainment. I have been reading the comics for years and was really excited seeing it come to life. Doesn't mean there wasn't things I didn't like either, but Scorsese is far from perfect too. It's apples and oranges to me, and I don't see why some people feel the need to tear down other people's "thing" because they themselves don't enjoy it. Just let people be.

ClintACK:

--- Quote from: Bad Alias on June 15, 2020, 05:06:40 PM ---And it's not like Dickens and Shakespeare weren't produced with the intent of commercial success.
--- End quote ---

Heck, it's not like Dickens and Shakespeare didn't write Fantasy...

A Christmas Carol, Macbeth, Midsummer Night's Dream...

vultur:

--- Quote from: Bad Alias on June 10, 2020, 07:02:22 PM ---@Yuillegan: I have heard various things like faeries being demon-like or associated with hell. I've always heard, "the monks changed it because if it's supernatural and not in the Bible, then it's of the Devil" as the reason for categorizing faeries as demonic/servants of hell. I'm not sure if I've come across the specific one about them being "in between" demons and angels. Fallen but not condemned angels, if you will. That one thing could be a very interesting idea to build a fantasy setting around.

--- End quote ---

The concept of 'half-fallen' angels was pretty widespread at one time. St. Brendan the Navigator is said to have encountered them in the form of birds on a mysterious island. Dante places them in the Vestibule of Hell, unlike the true demons/fallen angels, who are in Hell proper. They were one of many explanations for the faeries.

There were lots of explanations. Sometimes they were presented as demonic, yes --  Scottish witch trials accused people of dealings with the 'Queen of Elphame' (Elf-home = Fairyland or Faerie).

There's an Icelandic story that their version of elves (huldufolk) originated from other children of Adam and Eve, beyond those that are the ancestors of "our version" of humanity.

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