Maybe Escapism is Good, Actually

I don’t like to turn my brain off when enjoying a movie, show, or book. For me, the point has never been to “escape” the real world or be off in La-La Land; it’s to think more deeply. If a story isn’t engaging me on the level of morality, ethics, political thought….I get kind of bored.

So, I’ve always criticized fellow fans of, say, Star Wars, who argue in the comments that they expect a story to offer “escapism.”

It’s possible that, according to Tolkien, I’m wrong about this. Today I sat down to read a few pages of On Fairy-stories, an essay by JRR Tolkien about the question of “escape” and how good stories are anything but…..

This is early exclusive for subscribers on Substack and the Discord community, and then it will be posted on YouTube next week.

Thanks for being part of our mythically minded community. Riley and I are hard at work on our new book, which should be wrapped up by March. Then we’ll be penning more regular posts again here for all of you.

Happy New Year, y’all! 2025 was incredible. You played a part in that for us at Geeky Stoics. Thank you.

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