Coper
Active member
How do you feel about escapist fantasy? I'm thinking in particular of fantasy in the form of novels, movies, video games, comics etc., but I don't just mean fantasy as in the genre of The Lord of the Rings; I mean any sort of fiction that lets you escape from your own life into something more exciting or exotic.
I've had a love/hate relationship with fantasy for a long time. It can be quite emotionally intense to really get into a fantasy, whether it's someone else's creation or something I make up myself. At some point, however, you have to snap back to reality, and that tends to be a bit of a letdown. Also, fantasizing makes me feel like an inferior person. I tell myself that if I weren't so held back by my shyness, I could have real-life experiences that would make any fantasy I could have pale in comparison. As it is, it's real life that tends to suffer by comparison to fantasy, at least for me. I suspect the same is true for a lot of people with SA. Perhaps the reason I feel so negative about fantasizing is that I've internalized the negative stereotypes that people have associating fantasy with nerdiness, shyness and introversion. The example of Henry Darger sticks out in my mind as the personification of the stereotype of the fantasist as socially defective person.
In any case, I feel like, at this point in my life, I've more or less put fantasy in its proper place in my life, as something I can experience for fun occasionally, but not become preoccupied with emotionally. There is one glaring exception to this state of affairs, however: love. It has become apparent to me that many female characters in works of fantasy are essentially designed to cause the reader/player/whatever to fall in love with them, and I am very susceptible to their come-ons.
Sometimes, I think that if real-life love never works out for me, I should just cut my losses and accept fantasy as a substitute. I can draw well, so I could be one of those guys who apparently spend all their free time drawing pornographic comics with their favorite characters. Or maybe I could just get way into Second Life. I don't think I'll ever really do anything like that, but sometimes I like to fantasize about it. :roll:
I've had a love/hate relationship with fantasy for a long time. It can be quite emotionally intense to really get into a fantasy, whether it's someone else's creation or something I make up myself. At some point, however, you have to snap back to reality, and that tends to be a bit of a letdown. Also, fantasizing makes me feel like an inferior person. I tell myself that if I weren't so held back by my shyness, I could have real-life experiences that would make any fantasy I could have pale in comparison. As it is, it's real life that tends to suffer by comparison to fantasy, at least for me. I suspect the same is true for a lot of people with SA. Perhaps the reason I feel so negative about fantasizing is that I've internalized the negative stereotypes that people have associating fantasy with nerdiness, shyness and introversion. The example of Henry Darger sticks out in my mind as the personification of the stereotype of the fantasist as socially defective person.
In any case, I feel like, at this point in my life, I've more or less put fantasy in its proper place in my life, as something I can experience for fun occasionally, but not become preoccupied with emotionally. There is one glaring exception to this state of affairs, however: love. It has become apparent to me that many female characters in works of fantasy are essentially designed to cause the reader/player/whatever to fall in love with them, and I am very susceptible to their come-ons.
Sometimes, I think that if real-life love never works out for me, I should just cut my losses and accept fantasy as a substitute. I can draw well, so I could be one of those guys who apparently spend all their free time drawing pornographic comics with their favorite characters. Or maybe I could just get way into Second Life. I don't think I'll ever really do anything like that, but sometimes I like to fantasize about it. :roll: