To me, fantasy is about curiosity and empathy - making the mind (and thus, the world) a more habitable place.

But since we're polarising...

I'm tired of giving books arbitrary technical standards to live up to, like I'm some sort of quality assurance manager waiting to be delivered a proper product. I don't want to be impressed or hooked or sold on the latest novel idea in a novel with potential to be transmuted into a mega series coupled with a television show and a cherry on top. If a book screams 'marketing!' at me, I'm immediately turned off to it. I hate popularity contests.

Sometimes, it's nice to just read without judgment.

I'm not really interested in the notion of 'heroes' and 'villains' or even (especially) the in-between at this point. I don't care if I can 'relate' to the characters or if they have 'agency.' Magic systems that are just unique or convoluted methods of reaching the same results are unimaginative. Does it matter how many ways we can kill someone in battle? Witty dialogue and character intellect is nice and all, but I feel like it's only replaced the old trope of strength and raw power. Ambition is boring, political intrique is tiresome, etc. etc. etc.

Sometimes, I just want to be fed words. It's like leaving a Twitch stream on just for the background noise.

I don't like the familiar in fantasy. I don't want to read about the same people around me juxtaposed over a fantastical landscape. Fantasy isn't all medieval; swords were scientific marvels at one point in time. Science fiction isn't just space ships and laser swords, and if I read another 'futuristic' story where people and aliens still fight and occupy the same stupid jobs, I'll go crazy.

All that said, I'll be the first to admit hypocrisy. I love the fantasy genre for all its quirks and cliches. Sci-fi, too. I'll watch Star Wars and STTNG all in the same night.

People think in narratives to make sense of the chaos around them. Civilizations construct mythos to collectively understand.

Sometimes, we need more than that to cope.

I read fantasy to escape the everyday fiction all around me, from the goings-on of neighbors and friends to the grand abstractions we call politics and economics. If I didn't have a Discworld or a Middle-Earth or a Genabackis to vacation to, I'd be pretty sad.