Sunday, May 17, 2015

Grounded In Reality

Lately, I've been wondering if I'm too grounded in reality.  I don't mean that I have some kind of grounded worldview that rises above others.  Instead, I wonder if there's a problem with my imagination being unable to go too far afield.

I enjoy fantastic scenarios, but most of those scenarios occur within the world we all know.  Schism is about the current political landscape.  Akeldama is set in a shadowy vampire world that hides within our own.  Even the fantastical science fiction of Homecoming is set within our universe, only 6,000 years in the future.

Some of the books I've tried to read are set in a mystical fantasy realm that has never heard of Earth, or it's on some far off alien planet not even in our own dimension.  I put these works down because the backgrounds are so far from what I'm comfortable with that I can't get into them.  However, these types of novels are pretty popular, so I have to assume that lots of people can set aside their realities and dive into something totally foreign.

(Quick caveat - I enjoy some novels from the Star Wars universe, but that's a world with which most of us are familiar due to the pervasive nature of the genre)

I wish I could get past this.  I think the issue is grounded in my wanting there to be a degree of plausibility to my stories.  Yes, they can be waaaaayyyyy out there sometimes, but if just the right set of circumstances occurs, then I can see it happening in our world.  Without that plausibility, the stories descend into silliness for me, tales that are so far out there that I can't get into them.

So, do I lack the imagination necessary to enjoy some stuff?  Am I incapable of putting aside my homerism for what I'm familiar with?  My friends swear by some of these books - most in the realm of fantasy - but I can't get past the unfamiliar landscape.  I'll keep trying, but I wonder at what point I just have to accept that certain things are too much for my mind to enjoy.

No comments:

Post a Comment