The Heroic Journey: An intro to Fantasy

     This blog was created for the 2018 spring class for Lit of Horror/Sci-Fi/Fantasy course at Ringling College of Art and Design. In this blog I will talk about the books we read and what they mean to me personally. If you have come across this blog and have not read the book I am talking about this week, I will warn you now that I will spoil it.
     This week we read J.R.R. Tolkien's works such as The Lord of the Rings. To be honest this week was mainly about applying "The Hero's Journey", which is a method of constructing some stories. Even though the idea itself is simple, application is not. The reason why is because in order to apply it to fantasy one would need to be able to tap in to their imagination. That would then require me to ask the question: What is imagination? We hear that word all the time but it is never really defined. A simple way to explain it is a unique way everyone expresses themselves due to their past experiences and knowledge. For example Tolkien used his knowledge of religion and linguistics to construct his unique world, while Rowling used her knowledge of mythology and the history of magic to construct hers. Imagination is the key to fantasy, It wouldn't be fun without creatures of all shapes and sizes after all.