The Girl Who Loved Fanfiction

So, I wanted to talk to you about the power of fantasy.

I want to preface this by saying that I'm not, in general, a fan of Stephen King.  I'm not a big fan of horror, and often I feel like King's stuff goes off the rails.  There's some good stuff there, but I don't think he gives it enough time to marinate, as it were.  I'm often very into some aspects of his writing, and feel frustrated he doesn't develop some of his themes more fully.

Enter The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.  This was not my favorite novel ever, or even my favorite Stephen King novel, but it did address a subject I think we can all relate to: the very real power of fantasy to carry us through the shitty parts of life.

For those of you who haven't read it, I'll sum it up: A little girl is lost in the woods, and uses the thought of her favorite baseball player as a ballast.  (There are also some half-baked musings about the nature of god, but we're going to skip that for now.)

I think about this book whenever someone asks me what value things like fanfic have, because in my life, fantasy has carried me through a LOT of things.

We need heros.

There are a lot of things in our lives that we can't solve by 'taking up arms against a sea of troubles'.  Most things must simply be endured.  Ideally, we'd all have someone to help us, but there are a lot of fights we have to fight alone.  And when that happens, maybe we look to Tom Gordon, or Steve Rogers, or whoever your favorite hero happens to be.  Maybe they're an example to follow, or maybe they're just a hand you can imagine holding when there's no one else.  I think having that has saved me, more times than I can count.

So, on that note, I would like to suggest The Quiet Man, a Sherlock story about John's reaction to Sherlock's death that is very much about the power of fantasy, and how it can carry us through the hardest times in our lives.  It's a fairly long story, but it's also complete, and very beautiful.