Fantasy: The Underrated Genre

I regularly feel like I need to defend Fantasy. Those words are immediately sad to me. Why should a whole genre of books, around as long, if not longer than most, be defended?

It starts when I pitch a favourite book, in this example Deerskin, by Robin McKinley. They sound excited until I say the words "fantasy". Their face dips and I'm left trying to explain to them that its a mature fantasy novel. Its sad, because I shouldn't have to. In this example a young woman deals with living in the shadow of her glorious mother, then with her brutal rape and near death experience as a result of her injuries. If it had the name Jodi Picoult slapped on it, that shit would be on Oprah. Instead, its left a difficult and obscure book in the back corner of a store, if its there at all. The idea that a book needs to be placed in a realistic setting is disappointing.

Not since Tolkein has Fantasy had such a place in the spotlight. The likes of Tyrion Lannister, Daenerys Targaryen, and the ever troubled Stark family are splayed across magazines and headline popular newspapers and one of the top Television companies. Its made fantasy not only exciting again, but now for an adult audience.

I suppose it goes with the growing trend of youthful creations now made for adults including: Batman, the Marvel Universe, and Harry Potter.

And it is these three things, I think that make fantasy so unapproachable by those who aren't usually used to it. The fandoms and the subculture. The comi-cons and the kids lined up in their Harry Potter robes and glasses. I am in no way dismissing them. Its excellent to embrace a story in such a whole hearted way. To be passionate about something like a stories of the morality of justice, of working as a team or of kindness and love is better than to obsess over darker, more insidious aspects of the world, and often it helps people cope in the ever changing world.

But the world doesn't look at it that way. Look at the silly people in their silly costumes, and their silly stories. That's not real, that could not happen.

It was never about that in fantasy, and I'm going to come back to Tolkein when I look at this. Of course it couldn't happen, that's not the point. Its an alternative means of exploring ideas, thoughts and perspectives on the world.

It was very much Tolkein who wanted to gear this mythical world towards adults. The post World War 1 & 2 minds were bruised and battered by the horrors of reality. In a fantasy world, he made it safe, and he made perceptions of good and evil, once so clear in the eyes of the Western world, clear again. It unburdens the binds or reality so other ideas and perceptions can be explored with out tripping over things in reality that would be called to question. The mythical sword, the magical ring, the blessed trees and rivers now thought of as foolish superstition in history can once again hold sway over the mind of the reader, and of the characters in the tale.

Of course there will always be a bad apple in the genre. For every best seller, there are half a dozen crap romance novels that just don't do anything beyond entertain. The same goes with Fantasy, but just because the characters wear armour, or little at all, doesn't mean their journey is anything less than the arch of a best seller.

Fantasy deserves as much recognition as literature/literary best sellers.

ALSO DID ANYONE SEE THAT EPISODE OF GAME OF THRONES THAT JUST CAME OUT? game changer!

Sea Kayaking in Glen Uig - The Out Door Sport For Me

Oh man are my bones aching but it was worth it. Went sea kayaking with a friend today from Glen Uig. Went all the way to Peanmeanach Bothy! I love me some lengthy adventures and this one was extra excellent as it was a free experience provided by Sea Kayak Arisaig.

My shock and awe at the mighty sea creature!

I'd gone to this bothying a few weeks ago with my friends but we walked from the highway. It was a worthy adventure with blazing sun and fresh cooked muscles from the beach.

Photos from the bothy trip from a few weeks ago. Click  this lovely writing.

I enjoyed this way much more and it was quite a surprise when I realized how close it was and how accessible it was by kayak. A large portion of the way, my eye balls were in the ocean oogling the jelly fish as they floated beneath. It makes sea water all the more uninviting when there are little stingers waiting for you. We had a lovely picnic, with smoked fish and fancy cheese packed lunches.

On the way back I was so excited to see three Long Finned Pilot Whales.

One member of our group was convinced they were dolphins and I would have agreed if the thing hadn't come within thirty feet of my kayak. It was so big and dark and grey, with a mark just after its dorsal fin. I looked it up Incredible. It was in that moment I could understand why people believed in great sea monsters. If it wanted to, it could have tipped the boat. It didn't, instead following the rest of its group, three, who made their way further north, breaching distantly.

The view after the paddle!

Sea kayaking is something I will always recommend for the outdoor enthusiast who doesn't want to bash their brains out on rocks but wants some of their own agency in over water travel. If you have your own, its cheap and if not, than the price you pay is worth it with this place as it comes with all the dry proof gear and a really helpful instructor named Izzy!


Some follow up photos to follow!

How a Dresser Makes Me Feel

If I sit my child hood self back in an arm chair and asked her what the most exciting gift I could get would be, she probably wouldn't have said a key, unless it was for a treasure chest. She would NOT have said a chest of drawers.

But I was, and I am. At 25 I find myself putting on a new set of boats. Homes are a thing I've struggled with the most when it comes to change. Transitioning into a new place, or trying to make a space for myself, I've always found something about it harder. Harder than moving to the other side of the world.

On my birthday I was given a key by my furry other, a gift better than any other.

But recently I've been struggling to find a place to belong, being between places and not really having a place for myself in either. My clothes either in a backpack, folded in a nightstand, or just in a wee pile on the floor.

Now I have a place for them. It does make the cramped room more cramped, but he's almost done his house reno so soon he'll have his space and I get mine.

Younger me would yawn at the prospect, but then she gets to wear the neat and clean Mother of Dragons and Captain America T-shirts. Younger me gets to shoot arrows and write tales of dragons and adventure. Older me gets to smile and be happy she is as she wants to be. Happy!

Also now I can pile it with books!

Also, that trick where you put the key ring on the button of your pants/trousers to keep them from sliding has worked. I no longer look like a shlub. I am thrilled!

Farm Doodle Series: The Goat

No Space of Ones Own Devices.

I want a slice of some space that really feels like mine and the room in the hostel is the only thing I've got. Everything else, everywhere else, is not mine. Its mine by another hand, by another person and I'm left with no space, only things and things with no place of their own. In the same reason you dislike going to the hostel, I have to love that little room because its a spaced carved out for myself. ME. When people go in and disrespect that it causes me distress, because I worked hard for it. I gave up a lot and I changed a lot about myself in that room and to get that room And now, with this half way between I'm anxious.

You give me so much by calling your house ours and it is ours because you and I are WE but I'm still left with corners and spaces.

When people paint and chose the colours of my walls, it frustrates me.
Here is this thing I know you will like. I know you will, but I haven't told you. I haven't asked you, because in the end the space, while holding your name isn't yours. So I give white wall after white wall my things to lean against to make my own. Create and love and then have it changed again. But even then, even then...

Perhaps it is why I make so many stories. World upon world can be my own, walls, towers, cites, mountains, they can be this place to hang my ideas, my person, and be a face, and a presence that isn't always building upon the backs and labours of others.

Perhaps I am dramatic. Perhaps in this new passage of my life I've not sat back and seen anything else other than myself being strong. I've become the characters I've so wished to be. Stronger, wiser, kinder. Their ink-made blood runs through mine.

Does a space need to be my identity? Do I need to have it to mark my place? Perhaps I want the things that I've made for my identity to have a home. The things I've looked at and held because they have come with me, they have looked back when I've laughed and cried to myself, when I was my own Iron fortress, with cold high walls. Perhaps I want to have a home. A space to call my own.

A Walk in the Woods: McKellar Balsam Trail

In the spring of 2013 I went for a walk in the woods with my dogs, Georgia and Derby. I tested my camera, new walking shoes and got some lovely pictures. 

Wild Scottish Spring

An Old Friend

Home and Beyond

At the End of a Long Road

The Sea Will Come Again

Tall. Dark Stranger

Back to the Sands

Fire made from Sparks

Vertebra

Clear

There's the Spirit of Adventure

The Mountains and Islands Beyond

Two Roads