fantasy stereotype #647

[egypturnash]

So I'm reading this big slab of fantasy novel. In this world, people are divided into tribes, each of which has (a) a made-up name and (b) a Speciality.



I have no problem with the made-up name part. Made-up names are a given of fantasy. It's the second one that always vaguely annoys me. You have a tribe or caste or some other societal division, and there is something that every single member of this group does or is. The Warrior Tribe. The Horse-Mad Tribe. The Artist Tribe. The Shape-Shifter Tribe. The Gardeners, the Sex Mages, the Musicians, the Enlightened Mystics, the Notably Ugly Ones, whatever. Whatever caste/tribe/country/etc you are born into is your life description; it's what you'll do with your life in this fantasy world.

In a world with mental geography like this, there seems to be an even chance that there will be a token character who refuses to be what her birth destiny is.

I just wonder: What kind of experience leads someone to come up with this? The society that produces a musician can just as well produce a warrior, an enlightened mystic, an artist, a gardener...

Comments

[octantis.livejournal.com]

It's people overusing a characterization tool so they can be lazy about fleshing out the detail of how the world actually works or how characters from the tribe behave. Characterizing a faction can be helpful to color the setting a bit, or providing hooks. Overdone, it just turns two-dimensional.

[octantis.livejournal.com]

Something occured to me. What you're describing sounds kind of like the Smurfs on a bigger scale. o_O

[dour.livejournal.com]

Heh heh... yep, it comes from exactly the same sorts of ideas about identity, when you think about it...

[dour.livejournal.com]

Caste mentality is a key feature of human thought throughout our history. It resonates with us-and-them instincts, and with the desire for social definition. Immediately two examples of worldbuilders commonly revered as demigods, whose worlds are swimming in this enforced division-by-birth, pop to mind: Tolkein and Roddenberry.

Both of them escape being noticed quite so easily because instead of tribes of humans, their castes are races, entirely distinct from one another. And, to their credit, they both put a high value on cooperation between groups. Roddenberry also didn't fall into the trap Tolkein did, of characterising some races as the Designated Enemy, allowing them to be slaughtered without a second thought. (Klingons, Humans, and Romulans were at war, and had severe cultural differences, but none were cast as inherently evil and not worth considering individually.)

It's a hard mentality to escape, and it resonates well with the general public. Roddenberry, I think, realized this and decided to use that resonance as a tool for illustrating his own less deterministic views. Tolkein actually thought like he wrote, and it shows... but it made him popular. The sad truth is, experience doesn't make people think like this; people think like this naturally. Experience can learn them better. Of course, our society shields children from experiencing things...

We'll get past this; I don't worry for the long-term future of the human race. The immediate environment rather saddens me, though. And in the next few decades, a lot of people are going to have some painful and very sudden growing up forced on them, I think.

[paka.livejournal.com]

I'd disagree somewhat with your assessment of Tolkein.

Even though he goes into specialties by race, he does distribute what people do by race. Elf warriors, Elf horsemen, Elf smiths, Elf sailors, Elf jewelers and Elf sages all get mentioned.

And yes, his bad guys are cardboard cutouts. I think this is because he wants you to focus on the heros and their motivations; so for instance, Boromir and Thorin both have failures that are redeemed in their last actions, and this is a lot more important to Tolkein than the motivations behind the White-Hand Orcs or Smaug.

What I do agree with is that it's very convenient shorthand for science fiction and fantasy authors to create non-human cultures by picking a few traits and abilities humans have, then quietly ignoring all the rest of it.

other book cliche`s

[martes.livejournal.com]

And don't forget about:

The orphan with noble parentage that must reclaim his/her heratige.
The fiesty girl in a male-dominated culture that must go against tradition.
Post-apocalyptic earth where people rediscover the past
People that revert to medevil-style societies after being stranded on another planet

(yeah, I've read 'way too much SF/fantasy)

Re: other book cliche`s

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

If you want a complete rundown of all the fantasy cliches, find a copy of Diana Wynne Jones' 'Rough Guide to Fantasyland'. It's a tour guide to the Generic Fantasy World. Many a rueful laugh is contained within that slim volume.