The Fantasy Frontier (intro):

Have you ever noticed that when it comes to telling tall tales, that they are always in the past, the future, or far away? Why is it that stories about martians are no longer popular? Why were the greek gods on mount Olympus? There seems to be a border between reality and fantasy, a border that divides the nearby and familiar with the far-off and fantastic: This is the Fantasy Frontier.

For a story to seem plausable, even if it is sheer fantasy, it shouldn't contradict what we percieve to be realistic, or if it does, it needs a good excuse. While there are some fantasy stories that put magic into a contemporary setting (such as 'Bewitched', the old TV sitcom that has witches living in suburbia), most stories that have mind-bending themes are set beyond the Fantasy Frontier, so they don't contradict reality enough to make it too obvious that it's just a story. We may know that it is fiction, but we want to pretend to believe that it could happen; otherwise it just seems silly and is not as compelling a story.

The Fantasy frontier exists anywhere it is hard for people to go. Due to the current impossibility of time travel, the past and the future make good fantasy realms. Mount Olympus was inaccessible during Hellenistic Greece, so nobody could really refute the idea of the gods living there. Underground, the ocean, and outer space make good fantasy realms because they too are inaccessible to ordianry humans. Spirit realms and alternate realities can also serve as a way to place a plausible fantasy inside of a contemporary setting, as in the hidden world created for Harry Potter's society of wizards. Star Trek put it best when they ventured 'Where No Man Has Gone Before".

The Fantasy Frontier has become further away as people's knowledge increases. H.G. Welles could tell a story about an invasion from mars, and have the maximum emotional impact because, at the time, it was not known whether or not there was life on Mars. George Lucas, by comparison, set his story "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away" so that he could just make up entire civilizations without any preconcieved notions about life in current day outer space.

Many stories are set in the past, when the Fantasy Frontier was closer to human society. The superstition and semi-anarchy of the dark ages make it a prime setting for fantasy stories. Forests were deep, dark, and forboding. They could be plausable populated with elves, ogres, goblins, and other horrors without it seeming too fake. Caves could be mountain halls for reclusive Dwarven miners, as well as hideous cave Trolls. Even totally made-up worlds such as the ones in Lord of the Rings and Krull tend to follow a medieval trend.

More explorations on the 'Fantasy Frontier' will follow.