'Escape' by Darla Slee
August 1, 2025 4:00 PM –8:00 PM
125 E. Boulder Street
| Colorado Springs, CO | 80903
Admission: Free.
Event Summary
I know that I am not alone in my fondness of imagining other worlds, oftentimes ones that are more desirable than our current one. And in times such as these, I find I have a greater need to escape into other realms. This does not mean that I ignore current events, but for my mental health I find it necessary to take vacations from reality. It is essential that we take breaks and recharge so we can keep fighting another day.
In the past and even now, escapism has been met with derision or relegated to the world of children. But imaginative art and stories have existed since the beginning of time. Imaginative storytelling helps us step outside of ourselves and our current circumstances to examine what is happening, what we are doing, and ultimately where we are heading.
Excerpted from Tolkien’s essay “On Fairy Stories”:
I will now conclude by considering Escape and Consolation, which are naturally closely connected. Though fairy-stories are of course by no means the only medium of Escape, they are today one of the most obvious and (to some) outrageous forms of “escapist” literature; and it is thus reasonable to attach to a consideration of them some considerations of this term “escape” in criticism generally. I have claimed that Escape is one of the main functions of fairy-stories, and since I do not disapprove of them, it is plain that I do not accept the tone of scorn or pity with which “Escape” is now so often used: a tone for which the uses of the word outside literary criticism give no warrant at all. In what the misusers are fond of calling Real Life, Escape is evidently as a rule very practical, and may even be heroic. In real life it is difficult to blame it, unless it fails; in criticism it would seem to be the worse the better it succeeds. Evidently we are faced by a misuse of words, and also by a confusion of thought. Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if, when he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls? The world outside has not become less real because the prisoner cannot see it. In using escape in this way the critics have chosen the wrong word, and, what is more, they are confusing, not always by sincere error, the Escape of the Prisoner with the Flight of the Deserter. Just so a Party-spokesman might have labelled departure from the misery of the Führer's or any other Reich and even criticism of it as treachery. In the same way these critics, to make confusion worse, and so to bring into contempt their opponents, stick their label of scorn not only on to Desertion, but on to real Escape, and what are often its companions, Disgust, Anger, Condemnation, and Revolt. Not only do they confound the escape of the prisoner with the flight of the deserter; but they would seem to prefer the acquiescence of the “quisling” to the resistance of the patriot. To such thinking you have only to say “the land you loved is doomed” to excuse any treachery, indeed to glorify it.
I invite you to allow yourself a moment to breathe, to do what brings you joy, and come back recharged and ready to fight the good fight!
In the past and even now, escapism has been met with derision or relegated to the world of children. But imaginative art and stories have existed since the beginning of time. Imaginative storytelling helps us step outside of ourselves and our current circumstances to examine what is happening, what we are doing, and ultimately where we are heading.
Excerpted from Tolkien’s essay “On Fairy Stories”:
I will now conclude by considering Escape and Consolation, which are naturally closely connected. Though fairy-stories are of course by no means the only medium of Escape, they are today one of the most obvious and (to some) outrageous forms of “escapist” literature; and it is thus reasonable to attach to a consideration of them some considerations of this term “escape” in criticism generally. I have claimed that Escape is one of the main functions of fairy-stories, and since I do not disapprove of them, it is plain that I do not accept the tone of scorn or pity with which “Escape” is now so often used: a tone for which the uses of the word outside literary criticism give no warrant at all. In what the misusers are fond of calling Real Life, Escape is evidently as a rule very practical, and may even be heroic. In real life it is difficult to blame it, unless it fails; in criticism it would seem to be the worse the better it succeeds. Evidently we are faced by a misuse of words, and also by a confusion of thought. Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if, when he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls? The world outside has not become less real because the prisoner cannot see it. In using escape in this way the critics have chosen the wrong word, and, what is more, they are confusing, not always by sincere error, the Escape of the Prisoner with the Flight of the Deserter. Just so a Party-spokesman might have labelled departure from the misery of the Führer's or any other Reich and even criticism of it as treachery. In the same way these critics, to make confusion worse, and so to bring into contempt their opponents, stick their label of scorn not only on to Desertion, but on to real Escape, and what are often its companions, Disgust, Anger, Condemnation, and Revolt. Not only do they confound the escape of the prisoner with the flight of the deserter; but they would seem to prefer the acquiescence of the “quisling” to the resistance of the patriot. To such thinking you have only to say “the land you loved is doomed” to excuse any treachery, indeed to glorify it.
I invite you to allow yourself a moment to breathe, to do what brings you joy, and come back recharged and ready to fight the good fight!
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Also Occurs On
- Friday, August 1
- Saturday, August 2
- Tuesday, August 5
- Wednesday, August 6
- Thursday, August 7
- Friday, August 8
- Saturday, August 9
- Tuesday, August 12
- Wednesday, August 13
- Thursday, August 14
- Friday, August 15
- Saturday, August 16
- Tuesday, August 19
- Wednesday, August 20
- Thursday, August 21
- Friday, August 22
- Saturday, August 23
- Tuesday, August 26
- Wednesday, August 27
- Thursday, August 28
- Friday, August 29
Overview
125 E. Boulder Street
| Colorado Springs, CO | 80903
