However, I see no profound progress taking place when there is no hope, no inspiration, only drastic overthrow and rebellion. Before having a revolution of thought there must be real ideals to aspire to, and they are only to be found within.
These ideals are not new, bright, shiny things but old, hoary, deeply ancient things. This goes back to my pet notion that we already have all that we need, merely are oblivious to it. Fantasy plunders the well of our deepest selves for existent truth instead of creating new truths out of the illusory fabric of recent events or the flow of society.
Fantasy is not the literature of subversion of the status quo but of _awakening to_ the status quo.
The difference is in the attitude, in the subtle delicacy of approach.
And consolation has been wrongly reviled. Consolation is not apathy or inaction. It is not closing one's eyes to the evils of the world. Rather, consolation is the first step in regaining personal equilibrium and strength, which necessarily precedes the ability to act.
Thus, true long-term change is brought about not by destructive passion of the moment but by well-reasoned constructive action. Violent shock of Armageddon that leaves nothing in its wake but a blank slate is not a solution, only a postponement of progress. We don't need fantasy to mess with our minds to the point of rendering us insane -- real life horrors do that already.
What we need in fantasy is the sudden balm of clarity -- a temporary reprieve from life's white noise and clamor of pain, a kind of time-out. Such clarity, a new perspective, is made possible by fantastic metaphor. Clad in metaphor, the world becomes newborn to our senses, like a phoenix. It is the most effective fresh presentation of the elements of our life for our jaded, numbed, even ailing sense of imagination.
Why? Because without such a reprieve we cannot pause and regroup and with the newfound strength go on to initiate that very change which is sorely needed by all.
Fantasy, at its best, is balm for the soul. But it is faulty logic to assume that balm is necessarily mind-numbing anesthesia. True balm takes away the painful irritation of life and simply heals, allowing one to begin anew. And that is what fantasy can do for us.
DL: What are you working on for the future?
A number of projects, actually, mostly novel-length. I have just completed and turned in a far future SF or science fantasy novella titled "The Clock King And The Queen Of The Hourglass" to the British specialty publisher PS Publishing, to appear in a signed limited edition of 700-800 copies in late 2004 or early 2005.
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