What do scholars think are the benefits of fantasy?

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Request for Question Clarification by nenna-ga on 10 Aug 2005 14:12 PDT

Hello freeflyer-ga,

Fantasy pertaining to movies, books, in your head? Could you give us
some more details?

Nenna-GA

The biggest benefit of dealing with
fantasy is that that you dont have
to deal with the "problems" you face
when dealing with real-world-research.

Being an avid fantasy reader myself, I see the benefits of fantasy as:
1. Stimulating creative thoughts by introducing ideas that might bend
the rules of reality in ways that induce other creative thoughts to
occur.
2. Fantasy encourages kids (and adults) to read. This sounds cliche,
but it's true. Reading is a fundamental skill in our society.
3. Fantasy has been known to spur science and research along. Take
Startrek for example and how millions of physics students day dream of
being the inventor of the warp drive. ;)

Hope that helps.