We are doing Fantasy Creations in Theatre History in these last few days before Christmas break. I started the section by asking for books that they had read that were fantasies – and they named the usual collection of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings – – but then their imagination just gave up. Gave up? Really? How many other hundreds and hundreds of books have they neglected. Aren’t these supposed to be the favorite books of teenage readers? I know that they were my favorite pieces of literature.
Then I discovered the cause of their limited knowledge of fantasy novels – They have replaced them with fantasy video games. Now I got to admit something rather embarrassing (I guess) to my readers. I have never played a fantasy video game and actually never seen anything of them other then the shoot-um-up commercials on TV. This is the new fantasy literature. This is what defines fantasy for them. Now I am sadly afraid that each of these fantasy scenes that they create are going to be full of guns of various sizes and shapes hitting enemies endlessly for no other reason then killing is fun and produces lots of fire and damage.
Fantasy scenes have always been so clever and imaginative in my Theatre History class – – – -now I am worried.