I’m weighing in a bit late, but couldn’t let it go without a note.

Lloyd Alexander, author of the Prydain Chronicles, among other books, died on May 17th 2007.  The Washington Post carried a tribute to him in their obituaries.  I particularly enjoyed this quote printed therein:

“I used the imaginary kingdom not as a sentimentalized fairyland, but as an opening wedge to express what I hoped would be some very hard truths,” he once told an interviewer. “I never saw fairy tales as an escape or a cop-out. . . . On the contrary, speaking for myself, it is the way to understand reality.”  –Lloyd Alexander

I like that thought.  I personally see nothing wrong with the occasional escape (have you ever read Tolkien’s essay ‘On Fairy Stories‘?), but I also approach fantasy hoping for something more, and write fantasy in part out of a desire to share truth as I know it.

But as a tween, in those ugly-duckling years of neverwhere, I just knew that an assistant pig-keeper with wander-lust was someone I could relate to, and I loved him for it.