Jonathan Middleton: Is Fantasy More Real Than Reality

Reality tends to not be as trustworthy as it may initially seem to be. In the words of Chesterton, “It is reality that is often a fraud” (Chesterton, 82). My own explanation of this excerpt and reasoning to why it seems that reality errs is simple. It is not necessarily reality that is what is fraudulent but our perception of it that is very much fraudulent.

To further explain this I will use the following example. We, as humans tend to categorize things and when something in a particular category does not meet our expectations of that category we tend to be extremely disappointed but this is not the fault of the object of our disappointment. We are disappointed because that object or thing did not meet the expectations we had set for it. We feel cheated when a when our grass isn't green enough, when an apple isn't sweet enough, or whatever other thing sparks our disappointment.

However, that thing that had disappointed us itself hadn't done anything wrong in the slightest, it simply existed as it did. That thing did not defraud us of our experience of it, our expectations did. The grass may still be plenty green, just not enough for you or the apple may be plenty sweet but just not enough for you.

We as people have a very difficult time separating an individual thing from the expectations we have of it and this severely cripples our ability to enjoy even the simplest things. This is also why Fantasy is so engaging, because each time you enter a new world you are free of expectations because you can have none. Each new experience in this fantasy world is new to you.