Fantasies

Do our fantasies reflect our deepest subliminal desires or are they simply flights of imaginations? If you are in the habit of over-thinking, like I am, you are often likely to examine your fantasies. And either judge the fantasies or judge your life for not measuring up to those fantasies. "If I am dreaming about something, maybe that is what I want, then why am I not taking steps in that direction?". Maybe, a healthier alternative is to think of fantasies as an escape from reality, as reducing expectations from reality. Being able to feel like you are living another reality, without all the messy stuff that comes with actually living that reality. Also, to own your fantasies, sexual or otherwise, without guilt or judgement. My fantasies are mine alone, and no one else's business, not even of those people who figure in those fantasies. So, when people don't live up to the roles assigned to them in your fantasies, there is no sense of disappointment. For example, if the academic you look up to fails to be impressed by your presentation and to offer to co-author a paper with you, no worries.
I  used to think that great novels and short stories are mostly autobiographical because there is no way an artist can depict an experience so vividly unless she or he has lived it. I don't believe that anymore. Great works of art are born when experience blends with imagination and breaks out of the bonds of either category.