Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines escapism as the tendency to seek, or the practice of seeking, distraction from what normally has to be endured. This definition appears in Tom Shippey's 1992 book The Road to Middle-Earth on page 285.
Magazines, radio, and movies became primary vehicles for mass escape following the stock market crash of 1929. Life magazine achieved huge popularity throughout the 1930s with pictures showing bathing beauties, ship launchings, building projects, and sports heroes instead of poverty or unemployment.
Modern psychologist Daniel Goleman highlighted the role of vicarious distractions in shifting unwanted moods such as anger and sadness. His work Emotional Intelligence was published in 1996 on page 73.
Norwegian psychologist Frode Stenseng developed a dualistic model distinguishing between self-suppression and self-expansion. Self-suppression stems from motives to run away from unpleasant thoughts while self-expansion seeks positive experiences through activity engagement.
Fantasy literature requires an element of horror if it is not to become mere escapism according to J.R.R. Tolkien's arguments found in works edited by Lars Konzack. This perspective appears alongside discussions of musical escapism in Merkur volume 66 issue 2 from 2012 on pages 135-142.