Alice Vol. 2 No. 3

avoidance. The word escapism usually
carries a negative connotation. Some
articles, such as “How to Snap Back
to Reality” and “Leave your Fantasy
World and Live in Reality,” described
the downsides of too much escapism.
Other articles say that escapism can
help alleviate depression and can promote
a creative lifestyle. The one thing
that these articles and studies agree on
is moderation. I am not a professional
psychologist, but I do believe that I (an
almost-journalism graduate) should
not tell you what is right or wrong.
How about I present you with the information
and you can come up with a
conclusion for your personal life?
A Lifehacker article said, “[Escapism]
allows a momentary reprieve
from your circumstances, giving you
a chance to recharge your batteries
before you jump back into the fray.”
The writer agreed that escapism is a
normal way to get away from the feeling
of being overwhelmed. When not
in moderation, escapism can also be
detrimental. Patrick Allan, the writer
of the Lifehacker article, said, “Think
of escapism like sugar or salt. You can
sprinkle it on top of your life to make
it better, but too much will ruin the
whole thing. It can cause problems at
work, damage personal relationships
and maybe even cut yourself off from
normal social circles.”
Writers such as C.S. Lewis and
J.R.R. Tolkien were advocates for escapism.
They escaped through writing
and we escape through their words. In
C.S. Lewis as Philosopher, the writers
said that Lewis “considered that used
in moderation, escapism could serve
both to refresh and to expand the
imaginative powers.” Even inside the
novel, The Lion, the Witch, and The
Wardrobe, the children escape from
Nazi Germany into the countryside
and eventually to the land of Narnia.
Without Lewis’s imagination, we also
wouldn’t be able to escape to his world.
In Tolkien and the Modernists, Theresa
Freda Nicolay said, “Tolkien argued
for escapism in fantasy literature as
the creative expression of reality within
a secondary (imaginative) world.”
Escaping to Middle-Earth in Lord of
the Rings wouldn’t exist without Tolkien.
These novels and movies have affected
people across the world. These
writers created worlds for their characters
and readers to fall into when
their surroundings get overwhelming.
Now, the movies of our childhood are
being made into live action films, and
escaping to Neverland, Wonderland
and other fantastical realms has never
been easier.
In a study about “Culture and Politics
in the Great Depression,” Alan
Brinkley says that in 1929, Americans
escaped the depression through
magazines, radio and movies. He said
in Life magazine in the 1930s “most
of the pictures give no indication
that there was such a thing as a depression;
most of the pictures are of
“Think of escapism like sugar or salt.
You can sprinkle it on top of your life
to make it better, but too much will
ruin the whole thing.”
[66] Alice May 2017
bathing beauties and ship launching
and building projects and sports heroes
— of almost anything by poverty
or unemployment.” Most films of that
time were “consciously, deliberately set
out to divert people from their problems,”
said Brinkley. In no way am I
comparing our society and politics to
that of the Great Depression, but I believe
that any stress about presidents,
money or war can be escaped through
film and literature just as they did in
the past.
BUT I’M NOT THE ONLY ONE
Hello, my name is Paige and I’m a
daydreamer. My head is perpetually in
the clouds. I’m a talented escape artist.
No, I can’t escape from chains or
boxes, but I am pretty dang good at
escaping reality. Whenever I’ve had a
long day, my favorite way to escape is
to read any of the Harry Potter books
(I could never choose a favorite).
The world of magic that J.K. Rowling
created holds a special place in my
heart. I can to be completed captured
by her words and able to keep my stress
at bay — at least for a few chapters.
When I start to feel overwhelmed by
graduation, I lay at the end of my bed,
turn on my globe string lights and put
on a Penny and Sparrow vinyl on the
record player. Records automatically
make me feel better. The scratching
sound the player makes before the music
begins takes me back to a time before
I was born; an era that I’ve experienced
only through books and movies.
Through watching Z: The Beginning
of Everything on Amazon, I saw Zelda
Fitzgerald (then-Zelda Sayre) go from
an Alabama beauty to an icon of the
‘20s. I felt as if I was traveling along
with her from Montgomery to New