tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8302487761596456689.post1962338157382730000..comments2024-03-27T11:04:31.390-04:00Comments on From the Sorcerer's Skull: Weird Revisted: Savage Swords of Middle Earth, Part 2Treyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04647628467658839351noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8302487761596456689.post-58867677630080512272020-04-15T20:12:11.374-04:002020-04-15T20:12:11.374-04:00Possibly. That's just not Howard's path. E...Possibly. That's just not Howard's path. Even when he gives us a thoroughly supernatural Odin, it's kind of horror-tinged, almost Lovecraftian.Treyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04647628467658839351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8302487761596456689.post-42674575740528716042020-03-20T05:24:43.091-04:002020-03-20T05:24:43.091-04:00But about the point on the mythic world. I think y...But about the point on the mythic world. I think you could certainly retain the mythic nature of Middle-earth (as opposed to the psuedo-science) without sacrificing much of the pulp feel. It would be interesting to see Tolkien's Valar with a more Howardian bend. Just make Ymir a fallen Maiar, and Frost Giant's Daughter fits right in. <br /><br />I could easily see a rewrite of Phoenix on the Sword set in Middle-earth, with Manwë and Sauron substituting Mitra and Set. MisterPikehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07088453872818707338noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8302487761596456689.post-58840544030356017402020-03-20T05:01:20.457-04:002020-03-20T05:01:20.457-04:00I think Tolkien's Elves are interesting when c...I think Tolkien's Elves are interesting when compared to other "Higher" beings in other stories, like your Vulcans and Minbari. <br />For starters, much of the wisdom and lofty bearing that the most respected Elves have can be attributed to their immortality. The Elves we meet have all had centuries of experience to develop their minds and collected wisdom, especially those that once lived with the god-like Valar. <br />But especially unlike the Vulcans, for example, is that Tolkien's Elves do not suppress emotion, but have more-so a childlike innocence about them. They are quicker to laugh and make jokes than the movies suggest, and have an intense passion for everything they do. This doesn't prevent them from being violent or malicious, far from it, but they seemed to lack any sense of cynicism or pettiness that plagues the "Fallen Man" in Tolkien's conception. MisterPikehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07088453872818707338noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8302487761596456689.post-80414261993271800272020-03-19T16:03:47.417-04:002020-03-19T16:03:47.417-04:00Good points. In Tolkien (and I am no Tolkien schol...Good points. In Tolkien (and I am no Tolkien scholar), I think elves are in many ways just "grander" than humans rather than better. The distinction being that humans in general would think elves better. They are better looking, smarter, more artistic, better spoken. Their souls may have no more value (in fact, human souls are special in a way Elven souls aren't in Tolkien), but elves one up us in most things. Treyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04647628467658839351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8302487761596456689.post-62435195436712373312020-03-19T15:28:05.601-04:002020-03-19T15:28:05.601-04:00The idea of elves as "humans but better"...The idea of elves as "humans but better" is interesting to me, because to make them that way, you inevitably have to take some stance on what the best parts of humanity are. <br /><br />Sure, they can be stronger, faster, smarter, longer lived with fewer diseases, those are basically gimmes, but at some point, you have to advance an opinion about what "better" means that not everyone will agree with - and that's when things get fascinating.<br /><br />Two other trends are maybe relevant here. In early pulp scifi, there seemed to be a widespread belief that the (fictional) evolutionary future of humanity was to have giant heads, diminished bodies, and hella psychic powers. I think some authors thought this was a good thing, some saw this and turned scampering for a return to the stone age, but if a character got hit with some kind of "evolution speed up" ray, that was going to be their fate.<br /><br />The other trend, which you can see in both The Matrix and Dr Strange, is the idea that the highest calling a person can have is to be a hermit on a mountain and think deep thoughts, where their degree of enlightenment will directly translate into exactly how much ass they can kick. This trope surely originally arose from some kind of misunderstanding of Shao-lin, but we still have this idea that the best and purest thing a person can do is to go be a mountain hermit while turning into a killing machine.<br /><br />So Babylon 5 has the Mimbari as the elfin, "human but better" species, and their three castes are the warriors, the religious, and the Hufflepuffs (sorry, the builders), and this third group we never see.<br /><br />The Vulcans on Star Trek seem to start out as "human but better" and even look like elves, but there's some golden age scifi ambivalence about them too. Yes, they have psychic powers, but the show seems to take a strong stand that their decision to focus on logic and cut themselves off from their emotions is ultimately to their own detriment. <br /><br />Pon farr feels like it fits in with this critique, Vulcans have evolved past animal-like desire for sex, but they still need to reproduce, and this gives rise to being overcome by madness and participating in dangerous and violent rituals once every seven years, which are arguably coded as much more "barbaric" or "animalistic" than Kirk's free-love view of sexuality. The whole pon farr spectacle is definitely the most decadent element of Vulcan culture.Annehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15493700749333105771noreply@blogger.com