Escapism in Literature

 A few days ago I wrote about fantasy and horror books in young adult and children’s reading material. Here is the adult parallel. Monday, July 11, 2011 the Wall Street Journal Bookshelf reviewer, Tom Shippey, reviewed George R. R. Martin’s book “A Dance with Dragons.” Mr. Martin’s series is inhaled by a breathless following of adults.

I do not know how you all progressed into adulthood, but I for one was almost totally done with fantasy and horror books by age thirteen. Later, raising my children, I shared in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. So far, so good, the man was an excellent writer with many moral, character-building lessons to teach. Unfortunately he revived the entire fantasy genre. Now we have the sick horror fantasies and the dance with the dragons in the land of Wargs and Yunkishmen. Shippey points out that in one of Martin’s books, (notice the R.R. as in Tolkien’s name,) he created 1,000 names on top of characters like the small folk, (now does not  that remind us of hobbits?) There is a queen who raises dragons from eggs to use them against her unruly subjects and on and on.

Martin’s books are apparently very popular, as are many other fantasy stories. What this tells me, and others also, is the fact that we live in society where escapism from reality shapes the minds and lives of our people. It is much easier to ignore that our country is morally and ethically bankrupt and is now on its way to financial ruin, when one buries one’s mind and thoughts in a land of Wargs and Yunkishmen.