When I was young, I had good reasons to not like even my narrow slice of reality. Then I was given the Narnia books and jumped through a portal into an entirely other world filled with magic and wonder. I was hooked.
I continued escaping from my life into fantasy worlds, from Xanth to Prydain to Earthsea. There was a time I could have confidently navigated you through The Land or Middle-earth, yet would have struggled to navigate the limited number of real world routes I experienced on a weekly basis: to the store, to church, to my father’s. I was the kid who would read while walking, while sitting, while riding, while eating. If this were a fantasy story, then I would have begun to fade from our world, slowly erased as the fantasy realms became more real to me than reality. It wasn’t Tom Hanks in Mazes and Monsters bad, but I definitely loved my books.
Some might argue that by escaping into fantasy worlds I missed opportunities to learn and grow in our world. I certainly was a few years late reaching the magical world of dating (but then I was super smooth. Yeah), but I also feel I learned some things in those fictional worlds. This is not to argue that escaping from reality is always good or always bad, but rather that if a fantasy world is well developed, it too can shape us in some small ways similar to the real world.
It’s hard to pick just five books that did this for me, but these worlds were among the first I read, and most often re-read, and so were important to my early development. Here’s just a sample of what I learned (keeping in mind that I started reading many of these as a young and extremely sheltered teen):
Middle-earth (The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien)
- Wizards are quick to anger.
- Even those who are twisted by pain and hatred and would do us harm deserve our pity and help, because there but for the grace of the elves goes us. And whenever possible, kindness is a better response to hate than violence, not just for the hater, but for our own soul.
- A hero is the person who has the courage to do what is needed and right, especially when they do not want to, or there are easier alternatives, or it will make you miss second breakfast.
- People can make a lot of terrible video games based on sacred trilogies.
Pern (Dragonriders of Pern and the Harper Hall Trilogy by Anne McCaffrey)
- Dragons are cool.
- Women can be kick-ass heroes too!
- Geez, and men can be insecure dicks, and dismissive of a person’s skills or opinions just because that person is a woman.
- Happiness lies in pursuing your true passions and potential even in the face of doubt and resistance.
- I want a fire lizard.
The Land (Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson)
- Good people do bad things; bad people do good things.
- Sometimes the things holding you back from true magic are your own fears, preconceptions, and self-imposed limitations.
- The Land is a precious and living thing that should be protected and appreciated.
- Our actions and choices can have consequences that play out far into the future.
- Whiners annoy me.
Valdemar (The Last Herald Mage and Heralds of Valdemar by Mercedes Lackey)
- Have faith in who you are—who you are by nature is not “wrong.”
- If the people around you are toxic, there’s a group somewhere that will love and support you for who you are.
- But also beware of living in a bubble of like-minded supportive voices and forgetting that there’s a whole world out there with differing views who might hate or resent you, particularly if you shut yourself off from them so they don’t learn to do differently.
- I want to control things with my mind.
Midkemia/Kelewan (The Riftwar Saga by Raymond E. Feist)
- Different cultures may be driven by fundamentally different histories, different views of the world, and views of what is important.
- Caring for all of humanity is as important as loyalty to any specific nation or group.
- A misspent youth does not doom one to a wasted life, especially when offered options.
- Friends may go on widely different paths as they grow, but true friendship accepts change.
- If I can’t have a fire lizard, I’ll settle for a drake.
What fictional worlds have had an impact on your view or understanding of the real world?
Top image from the US cover to Bigfootloose and Finn Fancy Free.
Randy Henderson is an author, milkshake connoisseur, Writers of the Future grand prize winner, relapsed sarcasm addict, and graduate. His “dark and quirky” contemporary fantasy novel, Fin Fancy Necromancy, is now out from Tor (US) and Titan (UK). The sequel, Bigfootloose and Finn Fancy Free, will be released February 16, and you can read the first three chapters at the Tor/Forge blog.
The Vorkosigan saga:
If you choose an action, you choose the consequences. If you want the consequences, you’d best choose the action to get them.
Anything worth doing is worth overdoing doing well.
There’s a number of ways to react to any problem, some better than others:
Honor is where you stand with yourself. Reputation is where you stand with the world.
Don’t waste your time trying to be normal or someone else. Be the best possible you you can.
I think I learned more about ethics from Terry Pratchett than from anyone else:
“There’s no greys, only white that’s got grubby. I’m surprised you don’t know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is.”
The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson–even if you aren’t what you want to be, you can still be brilliant.
The supernatural seas of the Pirates of the Caribbean films:
Not all treasure is silver and gold.
For what we want most, there is a cost which must be paid in the end.
It’s not about living forever. It’s about living with yourself forever.
Up is down – that is, the best way over something isn’t around it or avoiding it, but rather straight through it.
It’s never too late to learn.
And, of course: that it’s a pirate’s life for me.
The Xanth books taught me a lot about the misogyny and rape culture still rampant in the real world around me, mostly by blatantly glorifying them.
Tamora Pierce’s books collectively provided the best example I’ve seen of how diverse heroines can be, in demographics (race, age, etc.), appearance, talents, weaknesses, career, motivations, personality, and life choices. Their only shared traits are being brave (but not fearless), intelligent (but capable of major and minor mistakes), compassionate (but sometimes ruthless), and snarky.
The Redwall books taught me more about western European flora, fauna, and landscapes than I needed to know, despite ostensibly being in an imaginary world.
Most of what I “know” about romanctic/sexual relationships came from observing those in fiction, mostly fantasy, not real life. And of course, my fantasy-novel crushes collectively taught me a lot about my own sexuality.
@2: Ditto.
@2 Oh god yes.
You can’t go around building a better world for people. Only people can build a better world for people. Otherwise it’s just a cage.
I could relate to pretty much any choice above, so I’ll leave them out.
I think the most notable series as a kid though were the Willard Price <name of area> adventures, where the boys went off and explored places and collected rare animals, and the Three Investigators, who lived in that mythical place of Rocky Beach Los Angeles and solved puzzles. I might not have been athletic, but I could solve with the best of em.
I’d also add that the Malazan books really expanded how I look at the world as an adult. I’m now a lot more philosophical than I was, and a lot more interested in the root causes of problems.
I’d like to add in the Belgariad saga by David Eddings to the above list.
You should always do what your Aunt tells you to do.
Destiny’s aren’t all there cracked up to be there scary, messy and never quite turn out how you thought they would.
Being a King is harder than it looks.
Be really far out of town when your relatives’ find the note saying you’re going on adventures without them.
Earthsea Trilogy:
You find your evil inside yourself: to defeat it, you must turn and face yourself and your fears. (Wizard)
Love conquers the darkness within. (Tombs)
To win sometimes means being willing to lose. (Farthest Shore)
The Worm Orubouros and the Zimiamvia Trilogy:
Life’s a game played by divinity: face your loses as your gains, with laughter and prepare to play again.
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath:
Pretty things aren’t always worth pinching.
Stick up for others, even your siblings: they get the hint and stick up for you too.
Nothing beats suitable cold-weather gear to go tramping in, even if you are saving the world while doing so.
And did I mention, not much beats a good soak in a hot tub and a hot drink to settle yourself after being threatened by a vicious Morrigan. Unfortunately it often means you’ll have to haul yourselves up but the bootlaces and start again.
@3 – I’m in the middle of the Rithmatist right now and loving it!
I would say Hobbit/Lord of the Rings would be big ones too, and I still am learning from it (some of the lessons didn’t really click until I was older):
-true heroism is sometimes humble and un-flashy
-Victory is not always for the victors
-Mercy and hope are incredibly important, and despair can be a dangerous thing
-Sometimes it really is the small things/people that make a difference and that are truly what make life living
-The ends don’t always justify the means (thanks Faramir!)
-Shortcuts can make for long delays ;)
@5 – OMG – a (male) friend of mine that I trust and know to be a generally non misogynistic guy loves the Xanth books and even got me the first 3 as a gift when I was in college. I was so revolted by the contents (specifically the one where the guy has the ugly/smart and pretty/dumb wife) that I did what was (then) unthinkable for me, which was to get rid of the book after I read it.
I could probably do something like this for Harry Potter and Wheel of Time but I don’t have time to think of glib comments :) And Star Wars aren’t books, but that was the other formative thing in my life as a young teen.
Chronicles of Narnia (C.S. Lewis):
– You can be forgiven no matter how ridiculously you fuck up, so long as it wasn’t out of any real malice.
– You should probably work on forgiving your family for doing dumbass things too.
Young Wizards Series (Diane Duane):
– Wizards love books.
– Everyone contributes to the balance or unbalance of the universe, and everyone is important. Wizards just have these things spelled out for them in writing.
– Most aliens are friendly if you bribe them with chocolate.
Chrestomanci Chronicles (Diana Wynne Jones):
– If you have an evil, neglectful, or abusive relative, adults will not believe you if you complain about them.
– Solving this problem generally requires the cooperation of friends your age who have powerful, or at least stable, families.
– Try to get de-facto adopted into one of the families with gryphons. (This goes for the Dark Lord of Derkholm universe too.)
– Avoid dying, no matter how many lives you have.
The Princess Bride (William Goldman, though I read the book long after I watched the movie.):
– It helps to be able to put your whole weight into smacking the giant attack rodents with a stick.
– Watch where you step.
– Don’t marry the sleazy prince, he wants to have you murdered to start a war with Guilder.
– No matter how smart you may be, your ego can blind you to the fact that someone could beat you by rigging the contest.
Hexwood (Diana Wynne Jones.)
– Never, ever piss off a galactic super computer. Every one of billions of plans will then end in your death.
Thanks so much for sharing your own influences!
@@@@@ 1 and @@@@@3 – I’m afraid I haven’t read these, but adding to my Looooooooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng to-read list. ;)
@@@@@2 – YES! Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams both for the win!
@@@@@4 – Have you read “On Stranger Tides” by Tim Powers?
@@@@@5 – indeed, not all series we read when young hold up ::Cou-xanth-gh!::. Xanth has so many great things to recommend it for young readers, not the least of which are its wonderfully awful puns, but the obsession with girl’s underthings, or stereotyping of certain characters, for example, are not among them, and with the vast breadth of options now for YA fantasy it is probably best left in the vault of memory. Also, writers emulate what they read, particularly when starting out, so best to recognize what not to emulate.
@@@@@7 – Belgariad = and have a really good travel planner, so you don’t end up going back and forth over the same ground a lot.
@@@@@8 – EARTHSEA!!!
@@@@@9 – Yes LOTR! And shortcuts can make for long delays. But sometimes, we need to break our routines and risk delay a bit for some adventure :)
@@@@@10 – Narnia was fundamental to the fabric of my early years. And I read Princess Bride before the movie, so to this day I still struggle to like the movie. But it was a book I certainly was inspired by, with such great humor and romance.