/lit/ - Literature

I don't mean fantasy as a whole, in the sense that I can't understand stories with fantastical elements. I'm talking about the widely accepted "fantasy", the Tolkien-inspired, sword & sorcery type of genre, where every book has 5 sequels, 2 encyclopedias, a wikia for the lore and so on and so forth. What I don't understand is why so many such books exist, and how so many people read them. It's literally made up "histories" and "mythologies" which are always a riff on some actual historical accounts and cultural tales. But people don't read those. They don't know about the real world's history, people of renown or have any desire to learn a language and get into any of the world's mythologies and religions (believing is besides the point, I'm talking about research). Instead they'll drop hundreds and thousands of hours into some made up world that's usually Medieval England with some slight differences, plots that are meandering, trite, and mostly lifted from real historical happenings, and learn the tongues and histories of said made up worlds. Why? Why waste all that time? If you like the "feel", then I guarantee you the actual history and culture that inspired it has more to mine.

I just don't understand it. I get in movies and mostly games. You want to play as a cool wizard doing some epic stuff, or a knight slaying dragons. You are the one doing it and being part of the world. But why care about the lore beyond the superficial aesthetics? Why waste all that time with useless info? The Fantasy genre has a very specific autism with this endless barrage of useless info that drags down the story, and I've never gotten into it for this particular reason. I got a LotR pack for example, and half the RotK book is the appendix. On and on and on about genealogy and historical accounts and literally what happened each day. I admire the dedication, but it's too much for something I'll forget two days later. And LotR is the pinnacle, so you can imagine my distaste for the rest. I can obviously pick up and play some Dark Souls, I can read about Medieval Germany, I can read the Song Of Roland, I can brush up on some Persian Myths, but why would I drop the time on any made up world?

>>16446804
Obviously. But that's true for most mediums. There are only a handful of truly great creations out there. The harsh realization is that about 90% of "art" is useless and exists merely for some sort of passive entertainment. Few things can cause you to have an emotional response. I've watched tons and tons of great movies and shows. From various genres, places and time periods. But only a few have stayed with me. It's not even about favourites, but what set them apart from the rest. The majority is jsut white noise, where you go
>yeah, that was good acting/storytelling/etc/etc
But nothing in them made them stand out more than just another piece of "good" media that you consumed that one time. I think the problem with people is that we seek to define ourselves by what we "like", and in the process fail to actually use our time efficiently. Sometimes I envy autists who pick one thing and run with it.

>>15814422
Yeah, yeah. Pagans discovered America. But what did they do next? Settle it? Use it for some sort of benefit? What is their legacy there? What cultures remain in America that inherit the Germanic ideal? Where are the monuments to this great deed?