Fairy Tales and All Things Fantastic

As promised, a new short story is up. You can find it by clicking here or on the "Fairy Story" link to the right. It is a bit of a quirky piece that is, in many ways, my ode to the fairy tale. It arose from a challenge to write a children's story without a happy ending.

Originally, I had intended to post a completely different piece - a chick lit story I had already shared once on Facebook. I was planning on saving Fairy Story for the off chance that I found an appropriate venue for it. When I realized what topic I wanted to talk about today I felt it really was much more appropriate to share it here, alongside this post.

Because I want to talk about how important fairy tales are.

A beautiful quote from Neil Gaiman is being shared around Facebook:

Image credit: www.weareteachers.com

This comes from a lecture Neil gave about "Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming." I highly recommend reading the lecture in its entirety, but in a nutshell, he talks about how we need to let our children read what they enjoy and why fiction, in particular, is crucial. Everything that humans have ever created began in someone's imagination and therefore the imagination is paramount to our continued existence as human beings.

I want to talk about a certain branch of fiction in particular - speculative fiction - and my frustration at its frequent dismissal as a legitimate and significant aspect of literature.

First of all - what is speculative fiction? It is a broad term to describe genres with a speculative element including various types of fantasy, science fiction and horror. The fairy tale would be a type of speculative fiction.

Let me clarify that I find almost all genres to be fascinating and valuable in our quest to better understand human existence. However, speculative fiction has always had a special allure for me. Whether it was a type of escapism or just an exciting way to exercise my imagination, I constantly immersed myself in the fantastic and the supernatural. From Chronicles of Narnia to The Vampire Chronicles to Star Trek to Vision of Escaflowne. These stories will always resonate with me in a way no others do.

I understand and respect that not all people have the same tastes. While I don't mind romance in my stories, I am not overly fond of purely romantic fiction. Just as some people don't understand the appeal behind stories about spaceships or dragons. I do have a problem when people try to control the genre intake of their children based on their own interests - whether overtly by withholding it or unconsciously by saying things like "that kind of stuff is stupid". I also hate the hierarchy of books that exists in our culture that holds literature as a golden standard and genre literature (particularly young adult) as low or common.

A few years ago, when I worked at EB Games, a mom and her son came in to buy a game. He was probably around ten years old and very badly wanted to play shooters - Call of Duty or Halo - with his friends. Since both of these games have a Mature rating (17+), the mother asked us for advice. It's something that was asked of us frequently and we gave her the usual overview. Call of Duty is exactly what it appears - a war game where humans kill humans. In Halo, humans kill aliens; many parents opt for Halo feeling that having their child shoot aliens is less violent than witnessing the death of other human beings. We also gave her the age-appropriate suggestion of Ratchet and Clank - a kids' sci-fi adventure game with humor akin to Looney Toons.

Ratchet and Clank (Sony Computer Entertainment)

Image source: http://www.technobuffalo.com

She was appalled at the latter two options. She told me that she would much much rather he play a game where he kill other human beings than one that had anything make-believe. As a simple sales associate I wasn't in a position to ask her why make-believe was so offensive, but it has irked me to this day. What part of an imaginary world is worse than immersing yourself in a world of war and violence? In what way does culling the imagination benefit a child?

Whatever she felt, I think G.K. Chesterton counters it best in his defense of the value of fairy tales for children:

"Fairy tales, then, are not responsible for producing in children fear, or any of the shapes of fear; fairy tales do not give the child the idea of the evil or the ugly; that is in the child already, because it is in the world already. Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon. Exactly what the fairy tale does is this: it accustoms him for a series of clear pictures to the idea that these limitless terrors had a limit, that these shapeless enemies have enemies in the knights of God, that there is something in the universe more mystical than darkness, and stronger than strong fear."

Imagination helps us overcome our fears. It allows for empathy and creativity. It is at the heart of problem-solving and, as Neil Gaiman points out, helps drive the desire to make the world a better place. Encouraging and feeding that imagination with content, especially content that relies on experiencing a world fundamentally different than the one surrounding us, only helps children to grow this amazing human ability.

Once again - I understand that not everyone will find spec fic appealing. Or they may only find very specific genres to their liking. But it is very tiring to be constantly faced with the reality that your interests are viewed as sub-par. As this article from Slate explains, you should feel guilty for reading literature intended for young adults. Especially ridiculous made-up things like the Hunger Games. You should be busy reading "real" literature.

Seriously though, why expect your kids to be literate when you shame them for enjoying reading? The same goes for adults. If you are engaging with characters and can find some meaning that helps you better relate to the relationships and challenges in your own life, who cares whether it is classic lit, graphic novel, chick lit, sci-fi, fantasy, horror, young adult or erotica? If it is a story with relatable characters and an engrossing and meaningful plot, what does it matter whether the protagonist is a two-toed sloth and the setting is Pluto? If people think that content beyond the real is limiting, they are the ones who are limited. Because if I can empathize with Jerry the sloth, think about how much easier it is to relate to other human beings. Last I checked, empathy was something the world could use more of.

Unfortunately, the biases that exist in our culture also influence publishing and financial decisions. Since I started researching Canadian science fiction and fantasy magazines, I've found some disturbing trends: there really aren't that many and they could really use some funding. One magazine in particular has been warned on several occasions that they will lose their government funding if they don't start publishing more "lit" and less "genre fiction". This is despite the fact that they are very clearly a spec fic market. I've also had a hard time finding any publications sold retail stores or loaned out at the library aside from your average lit quarterly that clearly states "no genre fiction" in their submissions guidelines.

I think we've forgotten how important the fairy tale is. I think we've become so fixated on "real" life - whatever that means - that many of us are dismissing the fantastic, the imaginative, the strange. I think that many of us adults have forgotten the amazing worlds that drew us to reading in the first place and have lost the ability to understand their appeal to our children. I'm not saying you have to love fantasy or science fiction. I'm not even saying you have to like them. Please, just don't dismiss them and don't discourage others from enjoying whatever they want to read.

If you feel like it - let me know what genres you enjoy in the comments and the stories that drew you to them in the first place!

Quick Post, New Poll

I actually posted twice last week so I'll try not to make today's post a long one. 

The past week has been a challenging one for me: sick baby, all-nighters and the resurgence of a depression I thought I had conquered a year ago. I am very fortunate to have amazing friends and family that help support me and, because of them, I muddled through and I'm actually feeling pretty great now.

It made me think about strength. About what the past few years of my life have taught me about being a strong person. This is what I've come to believe about strength:

Being strong is doing what you can for the people you love (and sometimes for those you don't). It's also realizing when you need help and asking for it. Asking for help can sometimes be harder than giving it.

Being strong is stopping to think about your actions or opinions and being able to admit when you are wrong. It is also being confident when you are doing or saying something you believe in.

Being strong is being honest. Honesty is a lot like nudity - it is revealing and it makes you vulnerable. I'm not saying we should all run around naked, but if you are scared to show a part of yourself, it never hurts to ask why you're ashamed of it.

Being strong is being able to change. You're always growing and learning; finding out who you are is a life-long endeavour, but it can be hard to let things go (singing songs from Frozen always helps).

Being strong is not a quality you are born with. It's something you choose to be. Sometimes, you just have to tell yourself that you're strong and believe it. I could write a whole post about this concept, and I probably will one day.

Being strong is making mistakes. It's realizing success is what you choose it to be and not what everyone tells you it is. It's realizing that life is often less about right and wrong decisions, and more about making a decision in the first place.

I hope that makes sense to some people. Please always feel free to comment on anything I write - whether you disagree or agree. I'm always up for friendly discussion or debate. Input or requests for posts (and polls) are also welcome.

Speaking of input - check out the poll on the right. Just a little experiment to see if anyone reads my blog and as a point of interest. What do you guys do when you've had a stressful day?

A Week of Mixed Feelings

Before I say anything I just want to point out that I've posted a story here for your reading pleasure. I will be talking more about it below, but I just wanted to make sure people knew it was up.

Anyway...

It has been a crazy week so far. Baby teeth. Sleepless nights. Oh and I got my first rejection letter. I knew it was coming. I've been made to understand that publishing your writing is a lot like jumping between buildings in the Matrix - no one makes their first jump. (Or often their second, third, fourth etc).

I was really afraid of getting that letter though. I had no idea how I was going to react. Whether I would get upset. Whether it would hurt my self esteem. Whether it would make me want to throw the whole idea out the window. What actually happened was that it made me want to work harder. I instantly started researching other publications, particularly ones better suited to the hard Sci Fi piece I had written. I also felt a strong urge to write more, go over the pieces I'd already written, submit those I thought might make the cut, and to read more (since reading is a great way to learn and improve your own skills).

Personally, I'm pretty pleased with that reaction. Unfortunately, my daughter's teeth decided to come in and I've had no time to really put all this determination to good use. At least not to the extent that I would like. But that's life. All I can do is make the best of the time I have. 

Speaking of time, a friend of mine suggested I try to set a schedule for blogging to ensure I actually keep up with it. I wholeheartedly agree. From now on my intention is to post on Sundays and provide some sort of short story or other creative content the last Sunday of the month. Today is the exception since the blog is so new and I want to give everyone a reason to stick around!

If you click the link at the top of this page, or the one on the right titled "Out of the Lost Woods", you will find my short story of the same name. It sort of falls in between genres but is on the speculative side of fiction. It is my response to my husband's challenge to write a story about someone getting lost in a magical place called the Lost Woods. Yes, he is a huge Zelda nerd.

Hope you enjoy!

This is a blog.

Apparently, I now have a blog. And, apparently, you're reading it. 

Good, now that we've got that all figured out... let me answer some questions.

Why a blog?  - A couple of reasons. The first is that I've started writing again and actually submitting for publication. It seems like a good way to keep track of everything that's going on and to share any work that I don't want to publish or that just never finds a home. In fact, I fully intend to write some pieces intended solely for this blog. I write because I love it, but it seems kind of cruel to bring something into the world just to squirrel it away somewhere. Or maybe I'm just narcissistic and want an audience for my stories. Either way, there will be creative content posted here and updates on published content (hopefully).

Second reason, I've had a couple of requests to create a blog. My personal Facebook page often functions as my philosophical platform and apparently there are people that actually read what I write. So expect to see musings on topics such as world issues, books, film, video games, nature... as my mother-in-law would say... everything except sports! Nothing against sports fans, it's just not my cup of tea. (I also like tea, there may be posts about tea).

Next question - why now? I suppose the simple answer is that I had a baby. The longer answer is that I had a sleepless baby. An energetic baby. A "keep you busy for all but 10 minutes of the day" baby. When you have absolutely no time, you start to realize how much time you used to waste. So, I started to use every second of my time as productively as possible. Middle of the night feedings (which occured up to 10 times a night for me) became my opportunity to start writing again. Even if it was on my phone using G-mail and then sending it to myself to edit in a word processor whenever I had a chance. Now she's finally sleeping a little, I have even more time to devote to writing. Something I always wanted to do and could never find the time for. Clearly I wasn't looking hard enough.

Last question - why Idlewild? I recently read Anne of Green Gables and I absolutely fell in love with Anne Shirley. The girl who values imagination above all else. Imagination is one of the most important aspects of human beings. It allows us to be empathetic. It allows us to persevere in the most challenging circumstances. It allows us to better our world while creating countless others. Idlewild was one of the names Anne imagined for a meeting place in the woods where she would play with her bosom friend Diana. 

So check out my blog from time to time if you'd like. I'll try to keep it up to date and post new creative content as often as possible.

Welcome to Idlewild.