Fantasy in my childhood

It has come to my attention over the past couple years that with regards to fantasy books I was raised a bit differently than a lot of Christians. The short version is this: I don't have any problems with a lot fantasy books out there because they contain certain types of magic. I might object to them for other reasons, but I'm not the type of person who cries "satanic" or "occult" anytime a book uses magic.

The rest of this post is going to be pretty much about how and why I can say that.

1. My mom read a lot of fantasy stories to my sister and I when we were little. Anything from fairy tales and novels to the stories she made up herself. We also grew up watching sci-fi shows like Doctor Who (yes, the old ones and the even older ones) and Blake's 7. Thus, I was exposed to many different kinds of fantastical stories.

2. My mom pre-read every book when we were younger before reading it to us or letting us read it. If she thought it was a good story, we got to hear it. If it was a good story but there were things in it that she didn't particularly like, we still got to hear it but she would tell us her opinions. We knew that our mother was a higher authority than any author. Two books I remember her doing this for were The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and one of the Harry Potter books. Neither of her objections were related to magic.

3. (a) My mom didn't discriminate between Christian and secular fiction. As a result there are many secular books I got to enjoy and still enjoy. It wasn't until 10th grade or so that I discovered that Christian bookstores carried fantasy books and that there was something actually called Christian fantasy. It's a silly thing not to have realized before but I had always gotten my reading material from libraries and stores like Borders and only really visited Christian bookstores for the CDs.

3. (b) While reading Christian stories of fantasy changed my views on what a book could and should do for a reader, I refuse to limit myself to only reading the work of Christian authors. I believe that I am discerning enough now to decide for myself what is good for me to read. I recognize that everyone will have a different set of "good" books. That is fine.

However, I don't enjoy it when Christians try to make me feel guilty for enjoying some so-called "controversial" books. I don't mind if they choose not to read the same books I do. It means that I can't recommend some of my favorite stories to people who hold certain beliefs about how magic should be used in fiction. I find it a little sad that some can't see past the magic to what really makes me love those books, but I don't feel the need to abandon those books.

A good example is The Goblin Wood by Hilari Bell. It is one of my all-time favorite books and I am currently rereading it.

4. The fantasy stories I heard or read myself never caused me to believe that they were true in the sense that I could chant and mutter and cast magic spells. I believe that the argument that children can't discern between fiction and reality is a ridiculous reason to withhold books from all of them until, say, a certain age. You have to know the individual child to decide if they can handle a particular story, and you have to be clear with them early on about what fiction is. When I listened to fairy tales, they were fairy tales. When I listened to stories about talking animals, I didn't expect to be holding two-way conversations with my dog any time soon. When I listened to Harry Potter (I was 10 when my mom read us the first book), I understood that even though it mixed elements of reality with a magical world, it was fantasy.

Later I read The Goblin Wood for the first time. I thought nothing of the way the hedgewitches cast their spells. It was part of the author's fantasy world. To me it's nothing more than an interesting plot device. I thought a little bit about the way the religious system and its priests are the antagonists of the story, but as they bear little to no resemblance to my own beliefs I can view them as simply another part of the fantasy world. There are, after all, clear reasons for them being portrayed as antagonists. Rather, it's the story of the characters' challenges and development that entertained me and made me think.

Rereading it now, after meeting people who practice Wicca seriously (and there are few things that scare me more than that particular type of Wiccans and what they liked to do in their hatred of people like me), and after being more informed of the kinds of books a lot of Christians refuse to read, makes me realize that I it would probably be a good idea to find out a person's stance on the issue of magic in fiction or at least let them have a good understanding of my perspective before telling them I think this is an amazing children's book. Otherwise they are going to get the wrong impression of me.

5. Finally, the author's intent is important to me. There is no indication that The Goblin Wood or any other book I've read encourages the occult and I don't believe in misinterpreting novels in this way.

That's a bit of my story and how it has contributed to the way I think about fantasy books. Now I can tell you that The Goblin Wood is an amazing book.