wierd rl encounter (ot?) longish

[alsih2o]

i was just recently in the local small town delivering some things to a gift shop, and running errands. the owner of the gift shop and i had a conversation when we first met and "fantasy" came up. he had stated at the time that he thought the "current trend in fantasy games" was not in line with his religious views. (he is a christian) i steered the conversation in another direction (it wasn't the time or place for it) andwe found other things to discuss and we get along well.

so when i go by today he is reading, because he was behind alow wal above me i could not see his book and asked what he was reading. he says "the hobbit, don't say anything if you have read it i am only a short ways in". this stuck me as curious because of our previous conversation and i asked if he enjoyed fantasy works, trying to feel my way in. he floors me.

"i love this stuff, or used to. i used to play a game called dungeons and dragons when i was in high school, but noone plays anymore" at this point i am confused and bring up his statements from when we met as tactfully as i could. his explanation was that he had meant "graphic futuristic violence". he further explained that he found gamers like me/us to be exploring and celebrating past events with a fantasy theme, and that was alright, but he found looking forward was celebrating and wishing for violence, and that was what bothered his personal convictions.

has anyone else run into this view?

( i assume we are all in good enough taste to keep this on convictions, without crossing the religion line)

 

[WayneLigon]

..."graphic futuristic violence". ...found looking forward was celebrating and wishing for violence... has anyone else run into this view?

Not only have I never encountered it, I've never heard of that view before now. How sad and yet interesting. Let's hear more of what happens with him.

 

[alsih2o]

he seemed to be differentiating between a study/rehash method and a relish/plan methodology.

but he games noone else here games!

 

[Dr Midnight]

Hmm. I'm glad to read that it's more of a personal taste matter than beef with fantasy.

I myself dislike post-apocalyptic anything for similar reasons. That's just not how I like to picture the future, and imagining myself in a post-apocalyptic setting just depresses me.

Good story.

 

[Utrecht]

Actually, I have seen this connection between fantasy and the past - in Time magazine discussing the Two Towers. (IIRC)

Specifically, the author attempted to draw a correlation between the idea of fantansy trying to get back to an idyllic (and romanticized) time. He wen on further to state how a great many Sci-Fi fillms have dysentopic views of the future. Almost as if they were two sides of the same coin and could not easily co-exist in the collective conscience of America.

It was..... interesting (and completely wrong - looking fro broad social patterns seems more the pervue of psycics and Asimovs Foundation series )

Fixing the ubiquitous spelling mistake....

 

[F5]

Interesting conversation. I never have conversations like that. Closest I ever seem to come to deep, introspective discussions on fantasy literature is discussing with people I meet why The Two Towers is/isn't going to suck. Sigh...

I have a definition of Fantasy, as it relates to Science Fiction, that applies. I'm sure a lot of you will disagree with this definition, but it's served me well over the years.

I see sci-fi as an author's explorations of what could be, while fantasy is an author's exploration of what should be.

Fantasy, in general, revolves more around an author's moral convictions than sci-fi. It's such a satisfying genre because it presumes a universe in which things work the way the author (and many of their readers, too) really want them to work. There's often an easily-identifiable Evil for the easily-identifiable Good to overcome. The Dedicated and Worthy often wield great power, even (especially?) if they don't yet realize how worthy they are. Through bravery, friendhsip and determination, the forces of Good are able to beat the vastly more powerful forces of Evil. Things very seldom work out that way in the Real World, but they appeal to many readers of fantasy. It doesn't have to be rationally possible, as long as it feels Right it makes sense.

Sci-fi can be just as moralisic as fantasy, but it's a different kind of morality. It's more reasoned, and, well...scientific? You take a premise, and extrapolate what the implications are. "What would it mean to humankind if we could use complex mathematics to predect the future?" That kind of thing. Fantasy is more visceral than that. It can be just as well-reasoned as sci-fi, but it speaks to what we (or the author, at least) really feel, rather than what we think we would feel given a certain set of criteria.

With that in mind, I think the problem some peole have with fantasy (our favorite potter's gift shop friend included) is when their view of what should be doesn't match up with an authors' on some fundamental level. I've read books (and seen PLENTY of movies) whose moral convictions seemed to boil down to "excessive and graphic violence is fun, when emotional and moral repercussions can be ignored". And I've enjoyed enough Die Hard movies, and hack-n-slash gaming sessions to say that I can't totally disagree with that statement. But I can see where it could be disturbing and unappealing to someone with strongly held convictions to the contrary. It becomes anathema to their fantasy ideal of what should be.

Wow. This got really long, and kind of rant-ish. I'm cutting myself off now. I guess what I'm trying to say is...yeah, alsih20, I think I've encountered what you're talking about