Hey guys I'm 18 and love to read. Ever since I was little I have loved the fantasy genre and it often occupied much of my thoughts. I recently came under a tremendous amount of stress with school that really kinda svcked the life out of me. I just got over it and I sat down to read A Song of Fire and Ice (Game of Thrones...Please no spoilers) and just couldn't get into it. I usually love diving into a story and going on that adventure, BUT as I was reading I kept thinking along the lines of

"This isent real...whats the point of reading this"
"These situations and characters are so unrealistic"
"What are the odds of all this stuff happening like this"

I cannot get these ideas out of my head and sit down and enjoy a story. These thoughts just keep popping up and its really bothering me because I LOVE this series and the genre in particular. Has this happened to anybody else and does anyone have any ideas to get over this?

Thanks.

My little boy is growing up in this world

The better fantasy stories ask questions about the nature of power, the nature of duty, the nature of relationships, the nature of reality... Fantasy is basically just a brighter, more interesting canvas on which a writer can explore themes of human existence. That's the better fantasy. The bad fantasy is just a waste of time. Unless it's funny. Then it's worth your time because it's funny.


Are they really? A lot of the better fantasy stories are based on real-world politics and figures. You'd be surprised just how unrealistic RL can be.


A lot of fantasy is contrived, but there are titles that aren't. But then, even Shakespeare has a lot of contrived stories. It comes with the territory. But, again, there are fantasy stories that aren't contrived.

LOL

take a break and play something more violent and realistic. or take a break from gaming altogether, then go back to it after a month and see if you think differently.

"This isent real...whats the point of reading this" remember it is "fantasy"

There's nothing wrong with having a little fantasy in your life, you can't fully live in the real world---you'll burn yourself out. Having a fantasy is a great way to escape the crazies of the world but you want don't want to much fantasy or else----you enter the land of coco and a one way trip to shady achers.

You can't enjoy fantasy anymore because you require the fantasy universes to have realistic qualities.

Most fantasy related stuff have lore or other stuff stating why things work the way they do, also fantasy settings aren't meant to be completely realistic, you have to let go of your real-world logic and accept the fact that whatever it is your reading/watching/playing takes place in another universe.

Game of Thrones is probably the most "realistic" fantasy out there. It's still fantasy, but what did you find unrealistic about it OP? It's very low fantasy compared to most other series.

Its the school education sapping all your love of imagination away.

Read this:

http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/sk.asp

Never mind the link broke.

There's also the possible burn-out factor. Sometimes if you over saturate yourself with a genre of writing/games/TV for many years, all of a sudden you may find it harder to be entertained by it. The plots and story telling arcs all become too familiar even when wrapped in new characters and environments. This is known as being "jaded" - - becoming a lot more picky about what you consider worth your time. It happens. I still love sci-fi/fantasy movies, for example, but it takes a lot more these days for me to get "excited" or think one is, say, a 4 or 5 star movie. Doesn't mean you don't like the genre anymore...just means you're becoming more selective/familiar about what you personally enjoy.

Course, you could also still just be tired from your recent stress, making it difficult to lose yourself in any such entertainment. Take a break from fantasy, maybe try reading some non-fiction or other genre fiction for a while. Nothing wrong with that.

Try reading a non-fiction book and then see where you stand after that. I'm reading Clash of Kings right now and I'm engrossed.

It's probably a little phase. We all lose interest in things briefly, no matter what it is or how much we enjoy it.

That being said, even if A Song of Ice and Fire isn't real, the you'll definitely fall in love with the characters and genuinely care what happens to them, and love and hate the author equally over the course of the series for what happens. Even if you can't get into it right now, FORCE YOURSELF to sit down and read, because you're going to get hooked if you're human.

[Edit] Also, 'what's the point of reading it?' It's a great story. Same for most great fiction. No, it didn't actually happen, but it's interesting and fun to read anyway. Also keep in mind that much of the history you read is likely stretched out beyond what actually happened, especially back in the earlier years of history. Who's to say what actually happened and what didn't?

This seems to be happening to me, slowly though.

I think it has to do with becoming an advlt. Not that advlts shouldn't enjoy fantasy (I hope I die with a controller in my hand or a book in my face).
It probably has to do with starting to be on your own. You start to realize "why am I playing this game, when I could be working on my schoolwork/getting healthier/etc".

You're getting your priorities straight. You're responsibilities are changing a lot. You have your entire well being and success to worry about, not just whether your parent's will buy you the new game that comes out.


Thats my assumption anyway. I'm 16 and starting to go through the same thing. I used to play games 8 hours a day. Now I'm going to the gym to get fit, have a job, and getting ready for college.
Its that shift from "Carefree Teenager" to "Holy [censored] I got to get my crap together"


Its not just with fantasy. I know a lot of people who were die hard partiers in Highschool, but dropped all that when they went to college.

Then you have the opposite; Rich soiled kids who's parents take care of all of life's problems for them and care nothing more than having fun.
Hate those people

Read "The Giving Tree" (with illustrations). If that doesn't fix you, then I don't have any more advice on this situation.

Hahahaahahahhahahahahhahhahahhaha, just wait until you work

Because then all you do is spend all day banging your head against various objects, day dreaming about how you could be at home playing video games.

And then you're unemployed, and all you do is lament that you have no money to buy video games with.

Ain't life great?

My advice?

Make your life sillier. Think about more abstract issues while in the shower. Perhaps study a bit of philosophy. Speculate seriously about the future of technology and the world with your friends. It sounds like maybe you're becoming a bit too concerned with what is at the cost of your ability to seriously consider and engage with what may be. Speculative fiction isn't just good because it has dragons and laser beams, it's good because it stretches the mind.

That's odd, since I think ASoIaF is some of the most realistic fantasy I've come across. A lot of it is pulled directly from medieval history, both in the small details and in the larger epic.

But as others said, you're probably just in a phase. Don't force it. Read something that you wouldn't otherwise read that will challenge you.

It will pass. Just like caring about the environment, or believing that nice guys can get laid.
Read the National Enquirer, then you'll be desperate for something not based on any amount of reality, however small and flimsy.

Eh, what?

I can see where the op is coming from. I personally have become rather dissatisfied with the fantasy genre as a whole. I like how the word http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy has become this stagnant name where all I see when its thrown around is elves, goblins, and dwarves. I'm sorry, but I refuse to believe that is the real extent of this generation, as well as the previous generation's imagination. With everything we could use, why is it that most of the things I read / see / play drag itself back to these stereotypes of the genre?

And that's just the western - based fantasy. That doesn't even cover eastern. I think I can honestly say that the last Japanese fantasy series I truly enjoyed was the Parasite Eve series, although you could probably classify that as the horror genre. If that's the case, then I would say probably Final Fantasy VIII.

"Truth is stranger than fiction"? Exactly one woman out of hundreds survives a brutal plane crash with very few injuries. Someone falls several hundred metres off the side of a mountain and survives with barely any injuries. The discovery of X-rays happens totally by accident. "Eureka!" Political assassination at the point of a temple arm. A Tsaritsa drinking and bathing in the blood of virgins. Some Japanese fruits costs $21 000 per fruit, because Japan has a custom of gifting fruit. Some people just barely managed to miss the 911 flights that they were supposed to be on. You can kill someone just by hittin them in the right spot on their body. Etc.


I think you may just not be reading enough fantasy. Try China Mieville, Haruki Murakami, Mervyn Peake, and Robin Hobbe, for starters.

Can I cast magic, too?

That's part of what I mean by burnt out, for me personally at least. Not just goblins and dwarves, but basically always set in something akin to medieval times. Horses. Castles. King and Queens. Downtrodden peasants/tribes wearing robes and living in huts. Sword play. Usually with some kind of magic, even if it's not the main battle skill focus.

I read the first Game of Thrones when it first came out. It's a good book, altho it's a little dry initially and takes a while to get going (to the OP:that could be part of it too - read further into GoT perhaps?). But still, I can't/don't rave over it because it's still the same ol' setting as most other fantasy I've been reading for 30+ years. Also, sequel-itis. Somewhere in the mid-90's I became very tired of authors who get stuck in trilogies that become a series of 4, then 5, then 6. Does everything have to come in 3+? Write a new IP. Write a stand-alone IP once in a while and stick to your guns about it. Please.

No, but you do have a magical object that contains all the information the world has to offer. You can just write a question in it and it comes back with thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of answers. You also have a box that you just have to tap and it heats up anything you put in it. Another box that freezes anything you put in it. Another box shows you a view of millions of alternate realities, and a smaller box controls that bigger box so you can switch between these realities at your whim. There is this machine that svcks or blows air. Etc.

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

I'll check those guys out. I'm always looking foward to reading something new.


This is why I'm personally hoping that we (the united states) do not get [censored] out of Final Fantasy Versus. Although it is an FF game, I did enjoy the extended trailer showcasing the "fantasy based on reality" approach to the game. If it is successful, I believe that it will begin a positive trend to revitalize the JRPG scene, as well as out perception on eastern fantasy.


Arther C. Clark. Good quote choice.