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Fantasy and the Sense of Wonder

Posted: 02-12-2005 | Views: 13 Author: Seth Mullins Eras come and go, and fantasy tales continue to be spun. New authors continue from the horizons where others have retired; it reminds me of the passing of a torch. Sometimes its been a raging firebrand and at other times a barely-smoking wick.

Slowly, though, these works have built up a modern mythology that mirrors all the trials and hardships we face in real life - and reveals to us our most precious hopes and deepest fears.

The truth is that magic is everywhere; it's all around us. We've simply trained our eyes not to see it. Science, religion, and other pillars of our culture have pulled the blinds and darkened our rooms until it's become difficult to see much else beyond the surface of things.

Personally, I find the existence of wizards, say, easier to believe in than the notion that life began as the result of a "Big Bang" explosion of dead matter billions of years ago, or that our thoughts and feelings are the result of chemical reactions going off in our brains. But believing in the "reality" of wizards is beside the point anyway. I'm content with knowing that the world didn't look quite the same to me after I read about Merlin in T.H. White's "The Once and Future King".

The world had changed because the story had awoken in me a sense of wonder.

Wonder feeds our souls, keeps us youthful, and insures that our lives don't become predictable and stale. Children are naturally in touch with it; that's one reason why they run around with five times the energy as the rest of us. Everything in their world is fresh and new. We adults tend to forget how to be awake in the moment like that. Hopefully there will always be great fantasy stories to remind us.

It's easy to spot someone who's lost touch with the magic. They move like they're carrying a heavy weight. When they're going someplace they rarely look around; their eyes stare straight ahead, or turn towards the ground at their feet. Even when in company they seem alone. Maybe those people believe the myth of science, and are convinced that their life is the result of millions of random accidents occuring since the beginning of the world. They never heard or read a story that said that their birth was a magical event.

If you're close to such a person, maybe you could give him or her a gentle nudge. If they read, you might introduce them to the "Wheel of Time" series - let them forget, for a time, about the modern nightmares of terrorism and war as they follow the struggles of characters living in another time and place, facing a fantastic - but familiar - shadow encroaching upon their world. For the chronically hard-headed, maybe a fictional history by Mercedes Lackey or Jacqueline Carey would do the trick; let them believe they're reading for the educational value, until the enchantment wins them over.

By the time they're through they might feel as if there's something of the hero within themselves, too. Fantasy has a way of reminding us that we're all living within a great story, steeped in mystery and magic for all time.



Seth Mullins is the author of "Song of an Untamed Land", a novel of speculative fantasy in lawless frontier territory. Visit Seth at http://authorsden.com/sethtmullins