Some authors, such as Michael Moorcock and M. John Harrison, have expressed concerns that Fantasy and Science Fiction are exercises in escapism – at their worst, frivolous entertainments distracting their audiences from social and political realities. 

However, Tolkien, Lewis and Le Guin have all made arguments that imaginative storytelling is a meaningful act in itself, with Tolkien formulating the notion of Sub-creation to describe it from a Christian worldview: honouring the Primary World and fulfilling its potential through the creation of a Secondary World.