The Human Fantasy
SIDE NOTE: I have to thank silverwind9 who in so many words "dared" me (actually, more like pleaded me very nicely) to put my LJ to constant usage like it used to be. At the turn of the year, I had in my mind a "once every week" idea, but right now I seem to be in the "two every month" column. Such is the goal; I know that this will affect my grade, so I'm committed.
Sunday evening I went to see Pan's Labyrinth with my fellow Washingtonian pals. The movie was a great movie, the epitome of the "traditional" fairy tale-you know, the ones before the Brothers Grimm came along and made them look all sorts of cute. It wasn't precisely what I expected, but at the same time, I think the movie was much better and meant so much more because it wasn't what I expected. I'm not going to turn this into a book report because I don't want to spoil the movie for you (and because the inspiration I've garnered from it leads me in a slightly tangential direction), but I at least want to set the stage for you. It's Cinderella-like, and you can perhaps follow along. You have a little girl who hates her current condition and is just trying to get by, clinging to those she deeply cares about. She's presented the fairy tale life, and wanting to get out of her situation, she eagerly follows it despite the risks in doing so. Of course, she endures hardships over the course of the story, and her blind faith in some "fairy tale" winds her up in serious trouble in the real world, but she pursues it nevertheless with the hope of reaching her goal and bettering her life. Classic, dark fairy tale.
Unlike the world of Pan's Labyrinth, we not have magical fairies and fawns about us, leading us down the road to Fairytaleland. We don't have the luck to strive for attaining the title of prince or princess of some kingdom. We are immersed within the "real world," trapped within its firm grip. Sure, we have those imaginary stories to entertain us, and our dreams can push ourself outside of reality for a few hours a night, but such stuff is merely temporal, never permanent. We "know" that it's never going to come true. We may never cease imagining it, but we stop truly believing it.
Yet as I was pondering, I realised that fantasy isn't just tales of dragons and heroes, princess and monsters, fairies and fawns. Fantasy isn't just the stuff you find in ancient tomes or your public library's fiction section. There is a fantasy contained within the realm of the real, a fantasy that humans are able to live out. It is the human fantasy, the fantasy of the real. Very quickly, I fancied the planet Earth as a vast and complex MMO game-this time with the O standing for "offline." We are but mere players wandering through the world, levelling up our traits and skills, gaining experience over time, meeting people, partying up with others, and going into battle... albeit battles that are usually with the pen and not the sword. After all true MMOs (online this time) serve merely to be emulations of real life, eventually constructing a cheap façade or incomplete reflection of the actual goings-on of the MMO (offline) world.
Unlike games such as World of Warcraft, Everquest 2, and the like, there's no single strategy guide that covers everything, no set rules that are known to the masses, and the random number generator in the game is better than any computer could ever create. Yet the most important aspect of the offline world is modelled perfectly by its online wannabes: There is no set win condition. There is no true "win button" in life. For that matter, there's not even a set condition to reach before you "beat" the game of life. The world is your sandbox, and every player gets to decide the parameters of victory, whether it's by having the biggest sandcastle or achieving that "Level-60" job or simply retreating back to near-NPC status and enjoying life as it comes. No two people will put the same conditions of victory on themselves because we all enter the game with different perceptions and different goals, yet it's there deep within us whether we know it or not. We all have a win condition of some sort. It's human nature; it's all part of the human fantasy.
The best part of all is that the human fantasy is not something that can be turned off and abandoned. You can't merely give up halfway through if the going gets tough or the game seems unbeatable. Hobbies and passions don't allow you that same "privilege," always being completely unnecessary for the essence of survival such that they can afford to be abandoned. But the Game of Life cannot be ignored such, which means that our goals and aims never truly disappear with time. They can be molded and shaped, and they are always there to provide a fine distraction in times of crisis. The Game of Life does not abandon us, and I have to say that that is a good trait despite the logical paradoxes that it sometimes brings. It's always there as a fallback option, and the dream of my human fantasy comforts me always.
When it comes down to it, princesses and knights and kingdoms may sound nice, but quite frankly I think they're actually inferior to my personal win condition in the Game of Life. Fairy tales can keep you company when you're down and out, but it's the human fantasy that keeps you company when you're on the right track, and that one truly is the one more worthy of our time and dedication.
Sunday evening I went to see Pan's Labyrinth with my fellow Washingtonian pals. The movie was a great movie, the epitome of the "traditional" fairy tale-you know, the ones before the Brothers Grimm came along and made them look all sorts of cute. It wasn't precisely what I expected, but at the same time, I think the movie was much better and meant so much more because it wasn't what I expected. I'm not going to turn this into a book report because I don't want to spoil the movie for you (and because the inspiration I've garnered from it leads me in a slightly tangential direction), but I at least want to set the stage for you. It's Cinderella-like, and you can perhaps follow along. You have a little girl who hates her current condition and is just trying to get by, clinging to those she deeply cares about. She's presented the fairy tale life, and wanting to get out of her situation, she eagerly follows it despite the risks in doing so. Of course, she endures hardships over the course of the story, and her blind faith in some "fairy tale" winds her up in serious trouble in the real world, but she pursues it nevertheless with the hope of reaching her goal and bettering her life. Classic, dark fairy tale.
Unlike the world of Pan's Labyrinth, we not have magical fairies and fawns about us, leading us down the road to Fairytaleland. We don't have the luck to strive for attaining the title of prince or princess of some kingdom. We are immersed within the "real world," trapped within its firm grip. Sure, we have those imaginary stories to entertain us, and our dreams can push ourself outside of reality for a few hours a night, but such stuff is merely temporal, never permanent. We "know" that it's never going to come true. We may never cease imagining it, but we stop truly believing it.
Yet as I was pondering, I realised that fantasy isn't just tales of dragons and heroes, princess and monsters, fairies and fawns. Fantasy isn't just the stuff you find in ancient tomes or your public library's fiction section. There is a fantasy contained within the realm of the real, a fantasy that humans are able to live out. It is the human fantasy, the fantasy of the real. Very quickly, I fancied the planet Earth as a vast and complex MMO game-this time with the O standing for "offline." We are but mere players wandering through the world, levelling up our traits and skills, gaining experience over time, meeting people, partying up with others, and going into battle... albeit battles that are usually with the pen and not the sword. After all true MMOs (online this time) serve merely to be emulations of real life, eventually constructing a cheap façade or incomplete reflection of the actual goings-on of the MMO (offline) world.
Unlike games such as World of Warcraft, Everquest 2, and the like, there's no single strategy guide that covers everything, no set rules that are known to the masses, and the random number generator in the game is better than any computer could ever create. Yet the most important aspect of the offline world is modelled perfectly by its online wannabes: There is no set win condition. There is no true "win button" in life. For that matter, there's not even a set condition to reach before you "beat" the game of life. The world is your sandbox, and every player gets to decide the parameters of victory, whether it's by having the biggest sandcastle or achieving that "Level-60" job or simply retreating back to near-NPC status and enjoying life as it comes. No two people will put the same conditions of victory on themselves because we all enter the game with different perceptions and different goals, yet it's there deep within us whether we know it or not. We all have a win condition of some sort. It's human nature; it's all part of the human fantasy.
The best part of all is that the human fantasy is not something that can be turned off and abandoned. You can't merely give up halfway through if the going gets tough or the game seems unbeatable. Hobbies and passions don't allow you that same "privilege," always being completely unnecessary for the essence of survival such that they can afford to be abandoned. But the Game of Life cannot be ignored such, which means that our goals and aims never truly disappear with time. They can be molded and shaped, and they are always there to provide a fine distraction in times of crisis. The Game of Life does not abandon us, and I have to say that that is a good trait despite the logical paradoxes that it sometimes brings. It's always there as a fallback option, and the dream of my human fantasy comforts me always.
When it comes down to it, princesses and knights and kingdoms may sound nice, but quite frankly I think they're actually inferior to my personal win condition in the Game of Life. Fairy tales can keep you company when you're down and out, but it's the human fantasy that keeps you company when you're on the right track, and that one truly is the one more worthy of our time and dedication.