Fantasy, History and Authenticity

When medieval fantasies, such as the A Song of Ice and Fire series, are criticizes for being excessively violent, misogynistic and orientalist, fans of such stories tend to respond that the world simply was that way.  Far from being a criticism of the text, such questionable tendencies are seen by some fans as signs of realism and therefore deserve literary merit, not condemnation.  It is readily apparent however that this is a rather odd response in the face of such criticism.  When exactly was the world that way, and what world are they in fact referring to?  It is doubtful that they are referring to their own world history, since dragons, elves and wizards, and other fantasy tropes cannot seriously be considered historical phenomenon.  Even if one does believe in the existence of such beings to some extent, they can only ever be taken seriously as mythological, not historical, beings; their history is timeless and not subject to historical analysis or criticism. 

Only by subtracting away the fantasy elements of the story, could one possibly make a connection between the fantasy world of the text and our own world history.  Dragon slaying knights are historically accurate because they resemble the knights of medieval Europe in code and conduct, dragon slaying aside.  But our conception of past history is dubious and often ideologically constrained, limiting our view of the past.  Not only is it constrained by our present interest in the past but it is also limited by the source material through which we understand the past; if we only understand the medieval time period through European sources it is no wondering that it reflects and retains the prejudices of that place and time.  Yet if one is not referring to our own world, but the world of the fantasy story itself, the criticism of its world-building can always be pushed back further. 

No matter how deep the author builds the history of their world to justify its current condition, one can always ask why the world was built that particular way.  Merely giving the world a deeper history does not negate the justification for that world history in its entirety.  Like a God questioned about the nature of the world they created, an author is responsible for the form their world and story take; it cannot be excused as a projection of past history or as a mere creation of the imagination.  The former route ignores the way in which we imaginatively construct the past; the latter fails to recognize that we are ultimately responsible for the worlds we create, not matter the amount of explanation we pour into them, and that our literary worlds reflect our self.  No matter how much authors build their fictional worlds, they are not merely worlds unto themselves, but are stories that they have intended to focus on with a message threaded through the narrative.  Even if Westeros did exist, there would still be the question as to why it is worth writing about, why the stories of morally abominable individuals is worth giving voice to.  And if their stories are told, there is the further question of how such narratives reflect upon the image of their creator.

In fantasy, one is ultimately responsible for the fictional world one has created.  One cannot absolve one’s self through reliance upon faux historical authenticity since one is creating their own history for their fictional world.  But it is crucial to consider that fantasy worlds are not merely written into being but are also read into being.  After all, they are written to be read.  We as readers are responsible for the worlds we read about, and we must critically engage the genre as readers; if the author is not excused by merely saying that is the way this world or this people is, the reader is not permitted to accept the world as that way or its people as that way.  Literature, even and especially fantasy literature, is never simply about its own self contained world since it is written and read within the imaginative confines of this world that we live in.  Even though we may never be able to escape our world through fantasy, we are able to reflect back upon it from an imagined vantage point, unencumbered by the burden of our historically-mediated identities.  We can confront the injustices of violence, misogyny and orientalism when we are willing to break away from conformity to our prejudicial histories and to fantasize about the possibilities open to people.  

Through fantasy we can confront the injustices of our world precisely because we do not have to conform to the historical expectations of this world and the way it constrains our identity.  One writes and reads fantasy literature, not even pseudo-historic fantasy, in relation to our history but the history of the fantasy genre itself.  Each new work should be written and read in critical conversation with the genre’s history, not merely to improve upon the inherited flaws of the fantasy genre itself but to give us a fantastic perspective from which we can improve upon the flawed world we have inherited and inhabit.  One steps outside of our limited world through the literature of fantasy, not to escape this world, but to better perceive it. 

Fans of fantasy are criticized for not living in the real world and being deluded by their imaginations and not appreciating real history, but I think this only applies to immature members of the community.  Mature writers and readers of fantasy recognize that what we think of as real history is itself a fantasy written into our identities by various ideologies.  But if history is fantasy then perhaps the fantasy genre can, if not provide us with an alternative history, at least provide us with the means to understand how our historical narratives constrain our identities and prejudice us against others.  Fantasy might not conform to history but that hardly means it doesn’t appreciate or critically engage with history.  Fantasy fans are not inauthentic because they do not conform to history, they are authentic precisely because they make their identity for themselves and do not need it imposed upon them.  Fantasy fans know that their favorite fantasies are just stories; it is everyone else that is ignorant that they are living in the greatest fantasy of all, the delusional monolith of History.