Actual Fantasy

I've been on more than one occasion accused of living in a fantasy world with a perverse fairytale outlook on life. I, for example, shouldn't try to fulfill my dreams or carry out my prospects. I shouldn't take risks to reach huge rewards at the expense of intermediate losses. I'm told the best thing for me would've been to study for a diploma engineer, with my head attached the right way round, compiling code for a living. No real imagination, just endless routine.

In Laberinto del Fauno, a tiny girl tries to escape the horrors of civil war by immersing herself in a fantasy reality. Cutely embedded into the events of the "real world", the fantasy characters help Ofelia cope with the cruelness of her surroundings.

I couldn't help but feel sympathy for the girl: after all, her world wasn't too different from my own. Now, I'm not saying I leave at night to play with a 3,5 metre tall faun, but oh yes, you'll find me immersing in, for example, music just about 24/7. I also find it comforting to fill my head with, well the thought of success for one thing, but also the nutty idea that the world might not always be as fucked up as it seems. Really, show me someone who doesn't create fantasy worlds for themselves and I'll give you a cookie. It's a natural bloody defense mechanism, isn't it?

This latest fuckhead offed 8 kids at a nearby school here in Finland. You probably read about it, or at least you should've read about it. If you haven't, please crouch, so I can use the back of your head as a landing pad for the anvil about to fall from a good height. Anyway, now that the whole thing's blown over ('scuse the pun), the government is making huge efforts to prevent this from happening again by forbidding handguns. And big guns. And other weapons like hand grenades. And also IRC, youtube, the internet, schools, bad people, good people, Ford Mondeos, etc.

What are they really trying to accomplish? Forbidding everything even remotely related to the incident? Too bad the really can't forbid the one true reason these types of things tend to happen: human nature. Indeed, at the end of the day, even the people running the country are nothing more than a bunch of grownups in smart suits, not knowing how to handle the cruelty and evil of human existence, and doing what they can to regain control by immersing in a fantasy world of their own.

So yes. I paint the world in my own colours. And bloody well so, I couldn't handle the real world if I tried.