Notes from Day Seven: The appeal of dragons

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Dragons are one form of fantasy that helps people escape into other worlds.

Not so long ago I helped with their wedding. While upgrading her college education, she works at a Petro-Can station fueling cars. He works for a computer graphics company designing business cards, posters and flyers.

One of the more impressive fixtures in their home is a book case filled with Dragonlance novels. Obviously this couple spends a lot of time in a world that is much different from his cubicle and her posts behind the gas station cash register and fuel pumps. They are two of the legions of fans of the novels and scores of associated board games, movies, books, and digital products. With names such as Dragons of the Autumn Twilight containing fantasy realms such as Krynn, Dragonlance novels and their cousins have grabbed a lot of attention.

The first of the three promised Hobbit films is out. I know that I myself will be revisiting Middle Earth again from time to time during the next few years. I just finished, again, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, so I am fresh from a recent tour of the place.

Not that such journeys are for everyone. One distant cousin of mine has no patience with the Middle Earth's Shire and the Misty Mountains. "Lord of the Rings?" she asks incredulously. "Too many walks in the woods for me." Well, I guess there are a few. But the woods do have trolls, elves and talking trees, not to mention black riders and dragons — all keeping the walks quite interesting compared to the ones I have taken in, say, Fanshawe Park.

These fantasies have a Medieval feel to them and hearken back to pre-modern stories and myths. They make use of fantastic natural scenery and their characters are involved in struggles of often epic scale.

My sense is that those aspects of fantasy storytelling explain why readers are attracted to them. But do those works have an appeal that runs deeper?

It seems to me that fantasy writing taps into a strong desire to find that life has more to offer than whatever is on the table for a lot of us — than, say, an office cubical or running a gas pump. Many of us have made an uneasy peace with a world that offers plenty of material possessions, high-paying careers, more material possessions, a terrific body and, well, even more possessions. Of course, that offer comes with the understanding that, depending on the economy, funding sources, the affordability of gym memberships, death and taxes, it could be withdrawn any minute.

Somewhere in the hearts or minds of many people is a hope that in the end, there is some way to get to a place that has less concrete and glass, less bureaucracy; a place that is free from constant upgrading and ever-increasing layers of accountability. A place where friendships trump the bottom line.

We often desire, even if we don't know what to do with that desire, a path to a world of unspoiled ancient landscapes, where quests for beauty, love, friendship, heroism and peace are considered worthy, admirable.

There's a great scene in one of the Jesus movies where he is talking with the people. He says, "Those with power and money think they own the world. (Pause.) And, they do. (Another pause.) But what can they buy with all that money? (Pause again.) Money cannot buy a good heart."

I am not an expert in fantasy writing or film. But I've concluded that one of the messages of good fantasy literature is this: Our materialistic, consumeristic, sophisticated forms of life may seem very impressive, but they do not satisfy the need for a good life — and a good heart — that so many search for. We'll have to turn elsewhere for support in the quest for a good heart, and an admirable life.

You have probably seen the first installment of The Hobbit (unless you are on side with my cousin). A fantasy though it is, I hope it encourages your and my quest for something authentic, real, wonderful and worth celebrating in future generations. In fact, as you might have guessed, I think that the teachings of Jesus are exactly the place for that quest to start.

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