I remember this thread from a few years ago and, although I didn't reply, it really intrigued me.
I don't think it's one or the other - it seems like such a larger issue to me. I think it's a combination of:
- An escape from reality
- An expansion of reality
- An alternate reality
But this also leads to the question of
where fantasy comes from - from the inside (psychological) or from the outside world. Do we expand upon ideas we see in our world, such as war, mythology, good vs. evil, etc. or is it much more imaginative and whimsical? Or both? Seems to me that there are many categories of fantasy and different possible explanations may apply to only certain categories.
Another thought of mine is that fantasy is so obviously a genre that isn't very well-defined. Fantasy and Sci-fi are so often packaged together in one form or another. The two types of books are always positioned next to each other in bookstores. However, I love fantasy but loathe sci-fi. In addition to this, horror doesn't seem like a genre in itself to me. It's more fantasy than anything else. True, it's very dark fantasy.
So, because of the fact that fantasy is so hard to define, would fantasy lose its appeal to us if it were definable? All the themes in fantasy are so out of the box, so what are we saying by trying to put a box around the definition? I myself prefer to stop trying to figure it out, but I can't help but be curious.