Fantasy, as the exhibition at the British Library in London points out, is both a means of escape and a way of viewing our own world through new eyes. Fantasy: Realms of Imagination spans from the oldest religious mythologies such as the Epic of Gilgamesh up to the works of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, and on TV, series such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Xena: Warrior Princess, and role-playing games – all of which feature in this exhibition.
Is this a show for geeks or nerds? It won’t appeal to people who only read detective fiction, or rom-coms, or kitchen-sink realism. But for anyone who loves the Harry Potter books and films, or the works of JRR Tolkien, or who grew up on the novels of William Morris or Lord Dunsany, this exhibition is a treat. It takes seriously what the more boring and strait-laced among us would scoff at as childish whimsy – because, of course, it’s nothing of the kind. As Tolkien wrote in his famous essay “On Fairy Stories”: “Fairy-stories offer… Fantasy, Recovery, Escape, Consolation, all things of which children have, as a rule, less need than older people.” That applies to all the fantasy featured here.
