Prior to reading Lord of the Rings and Armitt’s novel on Fantasy Fiction, I had read a few fantasy books myself, mostly in middle and high school (Harry Potter, Series of Unfortunate Events, Chronicles of Narnia, Nancy Drew, etc.). However, while reading her book, I wasn’t able to relate to many of the novels Armitt discussed like Paradise Lost, Animal Farm, The Grass is Singing, Utopia, Gulliver’s Travels, and several more. Because of this, I didn’t have too much of a background about them therefore, I wasn’t really able to agree or disagree with some of the points she was trying to make about fantasy fiction. Of course I think Armitt should receive credit for her work, but in my opinion, this book was extremely hard to get through and I couldn’t read more than five pages at a time without wanting to put the book down.
Although Armitt stated many valid points throughout her book, and used many examples of other novels to provide us with several definitions of fantasy (like utopia, allegory fable, space opera, magic realism), my own views on it haven’t really changed. I do enjoy reading some fantasy fiction novels but I feel like my interest in them declined right around the time film makers started transforming these books into movies. It’s funny because I just noticed that every book mentioned above has also been made into a film. It’s a faster and easier way to learn what the story’s about. You pay nine buck to sit in a movie theater for a couple of hours versus spending a week of your time reading a book. But as we all know, the books are always better. Out of the different kinds of genres to choose from though, I probably wouldn’t grab the one located on the fantasy shelf. I am more interested in literature that applies to everyday life, that contains factual knowledge about the world, and that I’m able relate to with my own experiences.
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