There are old books about the kingdoms far far away. Ancient Greek legends were enjoyed by renaissance era people who've never even been to Greece. And let's be

There are old books about the kingdoms far far away. Ancient Greek legends were enjoyed by renaissance era people who've never even been to Greece. And let's be real those penny dreadfuls with supernatural horror elements weren't that different from superhero comics when it comes to how detached from reality they are. And of course there's the religious texts. They often have a heavy focus on abstract things like afterlife that are very much detached from our daily life, but they're also very often foreign imports as well. Christianity is popular in Europe but its roots are in the middle east, and buddhism is very popular in east asia but its origins are in south asia. I think a certain desire for escapism is one reason why this is the case. In fact, one distinctive feature of the last century was that organized religion became less relevant to many western people. Perhaps you could argue that fiction filled the void? Kind of like how the rise of protestantism removed a lot of catholic rites and rituals from northern europe and to fill the void things like freemasonry became really popular.