Fantasy versus Fantasy

The genre I prefer to write shares the same name as the term for "imagined realities", which is odd because that's essentially what fiction means as well. So "fantasy fiction" is basically "fantasy fantasy." Aside from being verbose, what is the distinction? 

It appears to be the likelihood of the fantasy coming true -- specifically that there are creatures, physics, or conditions that do not currently exist. To me that seems terribly relative. For example, I was a staunch proponent of reality being what you make it for a long time. If you want to believe you know what your pets are thinking, that's fine. It doesn't seem too fantastic compared to the idea behind most deities.

I'm in wonder how fantasy fiction -- the industry -- exists at all. Fantasy fiction is, more or less, a slightly more well-defined version of whatever one's imagination can come up with. How is it financially viable? What makes it something people will pay to read? Clearly, if you try and sell someone something too diaphanous, it becomes difficult to craft -- as though you are sculpting with smoke. Even done well, the product wouldn't be of much interest to a reader; random thoughts, various ideas and half-created concepts -- although pleasant to wade through -- are not what many would consider a great use of time, let alone valuable reading, especially if it is someone else's version. 

There clearly needs to be a narrative. With a story, there is something for the crazy crap to act upon or utilize to highlight a message. This is how fables work, more or less. You have some situation with an anthropomorphic hedgehog or something and it learns after popping a few balloons to keep its hands to itself. That does help, but fantasy often has highly varied morals or no morals. Why do we choose to engage with the genre, then? What is it that makes it appealing to some, if not many? I'm glad you asked because I have the exact answer: 

• Creative problem-solving

• Metaphoric exploration

• Emotional disassociation

• Escapism

The above is a total guess -- I don't have the answer any more than I have an anthropomorphic hedgehog friend. But I can guess that most people do not read fantasy for the hard, theory-tested science or the clearly-defined possibilities (annnnd a bunch of people just disagreed with this statement, demonstrating that the observer effect applies to people's sense of privacy, too.) Anyway, if clear definitions didn't matter we wouldn't care much what happened in the story. Yet there is a tendency to push back when a story makes too little sense. 

If for example, you had a knight fighting a dragon and then they suddenly changed into a hamster fighting a tuna, we wouldn't just accept it and move on. A reader would think "how did that happen" and then proceed to delve so far into the intricacies of the exact mechanism for this transformation. (Before you know it, ten years have passed and they are living in their parents basement and wearing a shirt they bought with an obscure reference to the KDHT story.) 

So there are limits and it makes sense because stories without limits or boundaries are essentially dreams. Those can be unsettling and confusing places, which serve a purpose we have not yet determined. While fantasy and dreams are terms used interchangably, there are differences. Being caught in a dream can be horrible even when it is not otherwise threatening. Waking up from one means have to reorient onesself to reality. Oh, right: I guess I don't need to iron the walls today. 

Fantasy is different. Like dreams, fantasy tests the limits of reality in a fashion, but does not abandon basic principles existing or established. Perhaps this is why we like it. It is a sensible, coherent dream: all of the dopamine, none of the insanity. 

Whether or not that is true, I think it would be nice to come up with a different term: another way to explain that we want to be untethered from our current reality, but not to leave it all together. It would need to be some word or phrase that clearly delineates fantasy from dreams or daydreams or random thoughts. Whom ever came up with it would need to understand the distinctions and know a little about the subject and even more about all of us. If only there was a group of people who are crafty with words and able to come up with something easy to understand but appealing... 

Oh, hell no: not writers. They'll name it "Glathemoz" after the Aztec God of Orange Juice and then aruge for years over the historiography or some nonsense. I'm talking about Marketers. They have the know-how and wherewithall to do just about anything. Marketers are the true magicians in this fantasy of ours.