I recently picked up Jane Yolen’s book, Take Note: A Writer’s Guide to Loving the Craft (2006), and was immediately drawn to a comment she made in the opening chapter: “Writing takes us into another, brighter, deeper more engaging world than the world we actually live in” (7). Even though in this statement she is discussing writing, many of my students in my literature classes have pretty much said the same thing about reading: they read fiction because they have found it is a great way to escape the real world through what is presented on the page.
After reading Yolen’s comment, a question promptly came to mind: do writers write fiction in order to escape reality?
I can imagine some of my readers bristling at that thought. And I myself would have felt the same way a few years back. After all, just the two words “escape reality” leave a negative image in one’s mind. I believe some writers and I myself would not want anyone to think I or other writers are trying to escape the real world.
Now, though, I am not so sure.
What caused the shift in thought?
Two things: a move to a new city and my kids moving away from home, leaving only an empty nest, which means I am alone a great deal of the time.
Now, even though sometimes I would like to, I never use writing as an escape mechanism — no matter how slow some days may be. My writing generally starts with the germ of an idea that eventually grows and develops into something I had not originally intended. And I am always searching for that new germ of an idea.
To me, escaping into writing means locking one’s self into an office that’s located somewhere in the house, and if that doesn’t work, there’s always the living-room where I, in particular, can hide away on one of two couches. Escaping means locking the front door so none of what is happening in the outside world — that is, outside my house — can enter it. It means I have deliberately decided to have nothing to do with that outside world — not the lush gardens just a few feet away or the people driving by on the busy street in front of my house or the children who walk by on their way to school.
No, that’s not me. I enjoy the outside world as much as I enjoy reading books, watching favorite TV shows, or writing in my daily journal.
So with all that said, I don’t believe readers read to escape reality. I believe they read because they want to visit another place (if only in their own minds); and they want to meet new people, and they want to see how these new people — these new friends — spend their time and live their lives. And I believe writers write because they have something they want to say or share or explore through their writing.
So, according to my way of thinking, escapism has no place in the literary world. Reading and writing are just additional ways of living that enrich one’s life.
wonders in writing 