- Fantasy Lands: Fiction or Reality?

By Ankita Sundriyal
In the 16th century, a large number of fictional works made their way to the bookstores. A widespread topic at that time was fairytales and their lands. So writing about fictional lands became a common trend among authors.
The earliest effort seen in this genre was Utopia by Thomas More, published in 1551. Utopia means “no-place-land”. It is an island shaped like a crescent moon where everything is absolutely perfect with free education for children, equal rights and work for men and women, houses with no doors being changed after every two years and there is no private ownership here. There are no laws, and the criminals serve as slaves in the household where each can have only two slaves. The food is served in the community halls. Agriculture is the main occupation here and a most notable feature is religious tolerance.
Inspired by Utopia, Jonathan Swift wrote Gulliver’s travels in 1726. Included among the most famous classics; Gulliver’s travels became an instant success and was universally read. This novel depicts the story of Gulliver who loves to travel and gets stranded on an Island named Lilliput in a shipwreck. The citizens of Lilliput i.e. Lilliputians, capture Gulliver while he is unconscious and then he wakes up to find himself surrounded by people just one-twelfth of his size. Later he convinces them that he is up to no harm and slowly becomes a favourite of the natives.
In 1852, Samuel Butler wrote Erewhon which was published anonymously. Butler wrote about a country, Erewhon, by which he meant to show the conditions of a Victorian state. Erewhonian criminal punishment laws, religious intolerance and absence of machines were some of the few facts mentioned about the country. Another feature was the magnificent banks which had their individual currencies. The coins had religious images printed on them. It is very interesting to note that if spelt backwards, Erewhon sounds somewhat like nowhere.
Then came a novel which was a delight for children, The Oz books were by L.Frank Baum, who later on wrote fourteen more books on the Land of Oz. Although many Oz books were published, but the most popular one among kids was the first one, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in which Dorothy and her dog, Toto, get swept by a cyclone and reach Oz. In Oz, she meets amusing characters like a scarecrow tin man and a cowardly lion.
The famous fictitious town, Malgudi, created by the renowned RK Narayan is a town that narrates the bitter realities of life in a humorous way. Malgudi is just like any other old fashioned village consisting all kinds of people, be it the irresponsible and carefree children or the gossiping adults. Malgudi first appeared in his novel Swami and Friends and then showed its presence in Malgudi Days, The world of Nagraj, Bachelor of Arts, Waiting for the Mahatma and many others of Narayan’s works.
The latest addition to the saga of fictional lands is Harry Potter by JK Rowling. Having released seven books in series and six movies based on them, the Harry Potter craze never seems to die among its fans. Rowling created a magical world, a school named ‘Hogwarts’, a wizard bank ‘Gringotts’ managed by goblins and a ‘ministry of magic’. The humans were referred to as Muggles in the novel.
Fictitious lands are a shortcut to the children’s hearts and instant success. The University of Chicago has published a literary atlas indicating the location of such imaginary lands. Creating an era of their own, these fantasy cum fiction novels never fail to amaze people and sell like hotcakes. Maybe this is the big reason why fantasy novels are preferred over literary masterpieces.