The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense. - Tom Clancy
I like that quote because it's generally true. Life is weird and unpredictable, but there's always the one who complains about a books ending being unrealistic, or even the whole plot being unrealistic. That is strange because, for me at least, reading is a kind of escapism. Maybe the allure is the idea that these fantastical situations are actually possible.
So for escapism, the fiction book for me would be His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman. Although this is actually a trilogy made of "Northern Lights," "The Amber Spyglass" and "The Subtle Knife." The characters have a huge amount to do with this, but a lot fo it has to do with the parallel world idea. Nothing excites you more than the idea that there is this fictional world that is so different to yours that you know it's a story, but which is similar enough to your own world that you can imagine it potentially being real. You can envisage yourself in that situation. Then the kicker of a twist is when the boundary between this fantastical world and your own world suddenly rips open, and because the world Pullman describes is your world, and the characters there are so much like you, and just as shocked as you are that this world exists, that the possibility of it being real increases in your imagination, it makes more sense. Because it's all very well and good imagining that you live in a world where people have daemons- physical embodiments of their soul represented by animals- but it's another level to imagining when you imagine you live in the same world you do live in, where a doorway to another world appears.
There's a lot of science theory that goes with it, and if I could stand Physics more than I do I'd talk about that. I think it has something to do with Schroedinger's Cat, but aside from owning the book, the deepest I've ever though about that was how sick it was to make a scientific game out of life and death. Maybe it's the Christian in me, but I'm certain I know a few scientific atheists who are cat lovers. (Note: this is humour for those who don't get me. Though I do know a few atheist cat lover scientists.)
Anyway I love His Dark Materials, and am annoyed that it's classified as a children's book, because that always happens to me. I can read a book and enjoy it, then also get some deep spiritual/philosophical meaning from it, or it can really move me, but the book is "meant for kids". Sometimes the really good books are just going over these kids' heads. Like Terry Pratchett. When I get into some of the better books and their social commentary/political jokes, I think, "Surely no nine year old is going to appreciate the genius that this is." But then again, I know some adults won't, and mayne I'm not giving these kids enought credit. Few gave me the credit I deserved as a kid. Ha, funnily, one who did was the guy who gave me "In Search of Schroedinger's Cat" when I was about 9. If you don't know what it is, look it up, and see why the memory makes me laugh now. I think that one maybe gave me too much credit. And we see it all comes back to physics.
happy escapism,
student_gourmand
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