Now, if I’d planned on taking my history degree any further by getting a Master or maybe even a PhD, I wouldn’t answer this question, as it would have been contrafactual speculations. 
Luckily, though, I intend to do no such thing, and so I can get right on with ansering the question. I think I’ll start with the simplest question first: What would I be reading if not fantasy?
Well, before I first read Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” at the age of fourteen, I mainly read Wilbur Smith, a Zimbabwean author of historical thrillers, often based on the history of South Africa and what was once known as Rhodesia. Even though his novels were all very detailed and filled with interesting history and detail (the man was obviously a very skilled researcher), they were not very advanced. Light fiction, with a lot of sex and violence. But to where could my taste in literature evolved from there? (A side note: I kinda see my penchant for fantasy fiction as a natural evolution of my Wilbur Smith fandom, as his books were all very epic in scope.) A very difficult question to answer. Perhaps I would have burrowed further down into the genre of historical novels, and from there started reading heavier stuff? One thing I have no doubts about, though, is that I’d still be reading.
As for my life, well, I’m not really sure I can say that I have one. I don’t have any real friends, and I’m rarely outside of my room, except for when I have lectures or need to buy groceries. But I don’t think that I can blame fantasy for this; I was, after all, quite asocial even before I first picked up my sister’s copy of “The Hobbit”. So no, I think I’d be pretty much the same as I am today, only I’d read different (and maybe “better”?) books. And I’d of course frequent other forums than I do today. 
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Before I read “The Hobbit” at age… twelve, I think, maybe eleven, I read books with myths, mainly Norse and Greek ones. I read through the entire 30-something book Davey Crockett-series in different “read-as-much-as-you-can”-projects in primary school twice. I also read through a similarily long Robin Hood-series once. And I’d read “The Jungle Book”, of course. Also, I think I’d read “the Three Musketeers” and “Treasure Island” once or twice, but that might have been later. And, obviously, I read comics, mainly Asterix and Donald Duck. And when I’d been very little, my mother had read me a lot of Anne-Kath. Vestly and Astrid Lindgren, so I guess you can say I’d “read” a lot of those, too.
I also had a Jostein Gaarder-phase around that time, but I can’t for the life of me remember if it was before, during or after my initial encounter with Tolkien. I’m thinking before, actually, but I’m not 100% sure.
(Gods, I’m just realizing I read “Sofies Verden” and “Kabalmysteriet” (and several times, too) when but a year or so older than my youngest sibling is now. O.o Man, no wonder people thought I read much.)
So, I think my reading-habits would be much similar without fantasy. I’d be reading Dumas and Verne and Stevenson, and possibly I’d be more into historical fiction and non-fiction history-books than I am. My life would probably be much the same, I think, but I think it might have made me more of a history-buff than I am today. It would also have made me less happy, because, let’s face it, no fantasy, no “Angel”, no Joss Whedon. And no Sarah, either, which would be awful. So yay for fantasy.
3. November 2006 @ 18:40 ( Permalink )
Okay, I’m gonna say this in Norwegian, as I have no idea how to say it properly in English: (Oh, and I just had a major déja vú — or have I simply written this before?)
Amen! Yay for fantasy, den perfekte blandinga av kiosklitteratur og m “tyngere” litteratur.
“I read through the entire 30-something book Davey Crockett-series”
Oooh, I remember that one! Much fun, ’twas.
“And, obviously, I read comics, mainly Asterix and Donald Duck.”
Ditto. Thanks to Donald Duck (as well as my parents, as they were very insistent on bringing me to the library and reading e.g. Lindgren and Vestly aloud for me and my sister), I was one of the few of the kids in my class who could read almost perfectly when we started first grade.
“(Gods, I’m just realizing I read “Sofies Verden” and “Kabalmysteriet” (and several times, too) when but a year or so older than my youngest sibling is now. O.o Man, no wonder people thought I read much.)”
Wow, Sofies Verden, too? I remember reading The Solitaire Mystery when I was nine or ten, but Sofie’s World… that one I didn’t read until I was fourteen or something.
3. November 2006 @ 22:50 ( Permalink )
Well, I kind of just browsed through the “history of philosophy”-parts the first couple of times I read it, they were boring… really, I didn’t need them anyway, the books basic concepts of philosophy aren’t all that complicated, I could (and probably had) at that point thought of many of them myself.
But yeah, Sofies Verden too. Kabalmysteriet was by far my favourite, though. I’ve been meaning to reread it for a decade, but I never get around to it. I used to read it, like, twice a year, and then I… hm, then I started reading fantasy, yes, it was definetely before I read “the Hobbit”.
3. November 2006 @ 23:00 ( Permalink )
I’ve never read Sofies Verden as I my thinking mind did caught up by her first question: “Hvem er du?” (Who are you?); that was 15 years ago and I haven’t gotten any further..
Anyway, setting up the challenge I thought that for most people Fantasy just enriches their life, but it’s not like it would do a big difference; like being someone else.
3. November 2006 @ 23:05 ( Permalink )
I’d probably be a little similar, but I wouldn’t be the same. I’ve spent far too many hours reading and watching, playing and thinking of fantasy-related things in my late childhood/early-to-mid-teens for it not to have had an effect on me as a person.
3. November 2006 @ 23:15 ( Permalink )
Answering the challenge myself, I figured out that nothing would be the same for me. Fantasy has one way or the other made me who I am today, and somehow given me the life that works for me.
4. November 2006 @ 00:18 ( Permalink )