Week 8: Mythic Fiction and Contemporary Urban Fantasy

     Urban fantasy and mythic fiction are subgenres of fantasy, but equally as immersive and entertaining. In my last blog post, I talked about how easy it was to be pulled into a fantasy story; the author’s world quickly becomes our world. Unlike many fantasy books, urban fantasy is a bit more “realistic”. I mean, not that any fantasy story is necessarily realistic by any means, but urban fantasy makes the ideas within the story seem more tangible; it’s almost as if something like this could happen to you or me. These stories take ordinary people in ordinary places and throw them into extraordinary situations. The stories slowly begin to grow into something fantastic and almost dreamlike.

      Though I never really got far into the book series, I did very much enjoy the “Percy Jackson” series. This example of mythic fiction presented us with lovable characters thrown into fantastic situations. Percy was an easy character to connect with since he’s just a normal kid like I was. He seems confused in the beginning and unsure of himself and his purpose throughout the story, which makes him an easy character to connect with. The moment you open a “Percy Jackson” novel, you just get sucked right in; before you know it, hours have passed. This is what makes these books so popular among young adults. It’s easy to escape from this, at times, rather dreary world we live in and enter a magical world where almost anything is possible, especially when it’s common for the impossible to happen to normal people.  Take, for example, Harry Potter (who just so happens to be the main character of my all time favorite book series): he’s an average boy with a drab life whose life is flipped upside down on his eleventh birthday when he discovers his lineage (“yer a wizard, ‘arry”).  It would be a lie to say that you never secretly looked forward to  receiving a letter from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry on your eleventh birthday, your name written in Dumbledore’s whimsical handwriting. Urban fantasy stories are all part of a complete childhood; without them, I don’t know if I’d be the same person and have the same interests that I do today.