A Good Story

Fantasy isn’t just a daydream, it is also a genre of fiction, the written word, stories that we buy, borrow and sell. Some stories we like and think them good stories; some we don’t like and think poor stories. Perhaps a good daydream, a good fantasy, is merely a good story written more personal. Perhaps a good story, no matter the medium (one's own daydream, another's daydream, a novel, a myth, fiction, nonfiction, etc.), is only 'good' because it reveals accurately what happens on that person's interior, reflects adequately the spirit and emotion of their interior. Perhaps a bad story is simply one that isn't accurate enough or adequate enough a reflection of that person's interior. 

Yet there are classics; there are stories (nearly) universally held as highly accurate depictions of human experience, and so we might speak of some stories as being truer than others, more adequate, more accurate, than others. But what do these other stories, daydreams, fantasies, lack? Perhaps it is akin to the difference between philosophy and ideology; the former loves and seeks the truth whilst the latter loves and seeks their particular systematic vision. Perhaps a story, a daydream, a fantasy is good for an individual because it has more interior truth than systematic vision for that individual.

Perhaps this is why daydreaming bothers me once it loses its accuracy to who I and my wife really are; it then becomes a fantasy, a vision, without much truth, an ideological inadequacy with only escapist entertainment value. Entertainment value is a value mind you, just not one I'm willing to confuse with the truth of our lives together, so just as I don’t read stories that aren't true enough for me, I'll continue skipping the poor daydreams in favor the good fantasy, the good story.