What exactly is escapism and why does it matter?
Let’s discuss, look at some examples, and then escapism-ify some stories together!
During the last stream, the subscribers requested that we talk about escapism in stories.
When I first started seriously writing, I thought that everyone who read books did so for the same reason that I did: to enjoy the themes that the stories create and analyze how they relate to our world/society
Oh boy, was I wrong!
As it turns out, people read stories for lots of reasons: to gain information, to enjoy well-crafted language, to laugh, because they relate to a character/situation… or, most commonly, to have a fun escape from real life, a.k.a. escapism
What is Escapism?
- Escapism in literature is a story providing a different world for the reader to enjoy — a fantasy one, a sci-fi one, or even our present day through the eyes of someone they’d like to be
- Escapism isn’t necessarily all fun/happy, there is conflict, but the main characters/good guys always come out on top
- The main point of the story is to make the reader feel good, not engage them with morally/academically difficult topics
- Quite often “escapism” is used as a derogatory word, with people claiming stories are “just escapism,” not “real literature”
- To that, I have Neil Gaiman’s response to the critique of escapism, which I think highlights how it’s no less powerful or significant than any other type of story:
“If you were trapped in an impossible situation, in an unpleasant place, with people who meant you ill, and someone offered you a temporary escape, why wouldn’t you take it? And escapist fiction is just that: fiction that opens a door, shows the sunlight outside, gives you a place to go where you are in control, are with people you want to be with (and books are real places, make no mistake about that); and more importantly, during your escape, books can also give you knowledge about the world and your predicament, give you weapons, give you armour: real things you can take back into your prison. Skills and knowledge and tools you can use to escape for real.”
Why Is Escapism Important?
- Escapism is important because, if you’re writing a story that you want other people to read, there needs to be some amount of escapism in it to appeal to the average reader
- Remember! The average reader only reads a few books a year, typically from authors they already know/like, and they do it because it’s fun, not to learn lessons/feel bad about life
- If you want them to give your book a chance, then you need to show them that reading it will be a fun time, and escapism is one of the best ways to accomplish that
- Escapism isn’t just about coming up with a fantasy world, it’s something that permeates every sentence/paragraph
- For example, one of the best examples of escapism is the first Harry Potter book:
It’s not just that harry gets a letter to go live at a magical school, but that it’s addressed to him “under the stairs” and written in emerald-green ink.
It’s not just the students that are magical at the school, but the building itself!
Escapism can come in many forms:
- Having the main character do something the reader would also want to do (find out they’re a wizard, stand up to injustice, etc.)
- Specific details that bring the world to life (staircases changing direction, crab aliens who wear eight shoes, etc)
- Something is good in your world that is not necessarily good in ours (evil Dursleys get dunked on, a world without hunger, etc.)
The True Power of Escapism
Escapism is so powerful it can take stories that are bad, poorly written, or don’t make sense, and turn them into bestsellers.
For example, take this clip from Last Week Tonight:
In it, John Oliver asks how this “stupid” book became a worldwide phenomenon nearly 20 years ago. The answer is escapism: every dad wants to be a cool cryptologist solving millennia-old mysteries about the Church, so it doesn’t matter if the twist is that the code is “apple.”
- The same thing goes for the explosive popularity of light novels and web novels
- Many of them are the exact same story of teenage boy getting hit by a truck, waking up in an RPG world, and leveling up his magic powers along with a group of anime girls, etc. etc.
- And people devour them, they sell millions of copies, because people enjoy the escapism — the average reader is simply looking to be entertained for a bit, and these stories deliver that
- Of course, the best stories are the ones that combine the power of escapism with the power of good writing/storytelling
- That’s when you get Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Name of the Wind, The Hunger Games, Chronicles of Narnia, Project Hail Mary, Ender’s Game, and more
After that, chat voted on this story idea for us to escapism-ify together:
A lady living in a place known as a “dumping ground” for unwanted animals decides to start rescuing them. Meets significant other out there doing the same thing.
Here’s the ideas we came up with for each category of escapism:
Having the main character do something the reader would also want to do (find out they’re a wizard, stand up to injustice, etc.)
- She starts off in a relationship with someone who doesn’t like animals, hates that they live nearby the “dumping ground,” gives her an ultimatum to move or break up, and she chooses to break up
- But then she meets a better match once she goes to live in the woods. her new significant other is a werecreature, perhaps a dog who was dumped there in their animal form.
Specific details that bring the world to life (staircases changing direction, crab aliens who wear eight shoes, etc)
- The animals are become mythical after living in the “dump” area for a while. Dogs gain wings, lizards become dragons, etc.
- The trees can talk and bend into crazy bonsai positions
- Magical statues are disguised as stones
- Mushroom summoning circles
- Magical creatures that sleep in the dirt/under logs, their noses/lips all that is visible above ground, their magical energy is what feeds the location
- Bugs spell out words for the creatures who refuse to speak
- When the magical creatures die they turn to gold, that’s where all gold in the world came from. The main character tries to use that to persuade the evil corporation to not bulldoze the location, but they decide to bulldoze it AND slaughter the animals for the gold!
Something is good in your world that is not necessarily good in ours (evil Dursleys get dunked on, a world without hunger, etc.)
- She tries to get rescued animals to eat, they refuse, she picks mushrooms from forest and cooks them for the animals, they devour it, she tries them too, then she starts seeing the REAL forest
- Conflict with land owner who wants to get rid of the place, but she wins the battle against them
And then we wrote the first few pages of the story too:
Harold and I were in the kitchen, doing what we always did every Friday night. We’d shut the curtains, locked the door, and began having a hot, steamy… argument.
“Listen, Alissa,” Harold said as he slouched at the table. “I’m tired of this.”
“You think I’m not tired of it too?” I snapped back. At this point, as much as I’d like to say that rightful rage was pulsing through me, honestly, I was just running on muscle memory. Harold and I grumbling at each other was just another part of the day, same as flushing the toilet or brushing your teeth, but it left a worse taste in my mouth.
“Then why keep doing it?” he asked, spreading out his arms in exasperation. He narrowed his eyes at me, specifically the thing I was cradling in my arms. “All you have to do is not bring those mangy strays into the house!”
That mangy stray had a name, not that I expected Harold to know it, no matter how many times I told him I saw Peggy hobbling around in the backyard on her three legs. He’d just mumble something about not wanting dirt in the house, how dander made him sneeze, and would trail off from there.
He didn’t see her begging eyes. Or, eye, since she only had one of them. How could I not bring her inside and try to get some tuna in her belly at least?
And the same thing went for Lilly the lizard last week who clearly wanted inside when she wouldn’t leave the screen door. And Charles the chihuahua who only peed on the floor a little bit when I brought him to try some kibble. And Samantha the snake was clearly not wild, I even tried to show Harold that she’d been defanged by holding open her mouth for him but he was having none of it! The nerve.
“Alissa,” Harold said, finally looking back up at me. “I’m sorry. I’m done with this. I need you to make a choice.”
Wait a minute. This wasn’t part of the arguing-with-Harold Friday night routine. Usually he just sighed and went back to the bedroom to boot up some Fortnite or whatever until tomorrow at the same time.
“It’s me or the animals,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m leaving for Cali next week. Are you coming with me, or are you gonna stick around and be a crutch for that… thing?”
If you want to join us and help write a story by trolling in chat, or share your own writing for feedback, then we’d love to have you join us on Twitch.
And you missed the stream, you can still watch them on the YouTube channel or watch the full stream reruns.
Hope to see you next time, friend!
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