The fantasies of a fantasy world

[skip.knox]

This just occurred to me. The people who live in a fantastical world -- let us for a moment populate it with the usual suspected -- would themselves have legends and would themselves have fantastical beasts.

They probably wouldn't have stories about magic, per se, but they would have stories about things wondrous. Visits from gods. Visits to other planes of existence (heavens, hells). Extraordinary beasts.

It could be fun exploring the fantasy stories of elves, the mythologies of dwarves, and so on. Maybe in those stories, humans are among the incredible.

 

[Ireth]

This just occurred to me. The people who live in a fantastical world -- let us for a moment populate it with the usual suspected -- would themselves have legends and would themselves have fantastical beasts.

They probably wouldn't have stories about magic, per se, but they would have stories about things wondrous. Visits from gods. Visits to other planes of existence (heavens, hells). Extraordinary beasts.

It could be fun exploring the fantasy stories of elves, the mythologies of dwarves, and so on. Maybe in those stories, humans are among the incredible.

Speaking from a human perspective (of course), I wouldn't think elves or dwarves would put any kind of awe upon our race. We are typically shown as the "mundane" race, as opposed to the specialness of elves and others. An exception to this would be the Narnia books, where humans were an object of fascination on their first appearance in Narnia, which was otherwise mostly occupied by animals. Later on, when the line of King Frank and Queen Helen had died out from interbreeding with dryads and such, humans (specifically the Pevensies) were the subject of legend and prophecy.

 

[GeekDavid]

I'm gonna play Devil's Advocate here.

If you have fantastic creatures in your world, why would you need to invent stories about different fantastic creatures?

 

[Nihal]

I'm gonna play Devil's Advocate here.

If you have fantastic creatures in your world, why would you need to invent stories about different fantastic creatures?

Because they're sentient. That's what we, sentient beings, do when we cannot explain something, we speculate and theorize and imagine, always trying to bring order to the chaos.

 

[Svrtnsse]

Neil Gaiman wrote a short story about this at some point. It was about a guy in a magical fantasy world who was ridiculed by his peers for wanting to write fantasy stories. At the end of the story was an excerpt from the story the guy had written and it was about some guy reading the morning paper and putting a slice of toast in the toaster.

 

[GeekDavid]

Because they're sentient. That's what we, sentient beings, do when we cannot explain something, we speculate and theorize and imagine, always trying to bring order to the chaos.

That's what humans do. We know that because we are human. Who knows what Elves, or Dwarves, or Hobbits, or Klingons, or Romulans, or Cardassians do? We're not Elves, etc, so we can't really say how they think. They may have a completely different way of handling something they cannot explain.

 

[Svrtnsse]

That's what humans do. We know that because we are human. Who knows what Elves, or Dwarves, or Hobbits, or Klingons, or Romulans, or Cardassians do? We're not Elves, etc, so we can't really say how they think. They may have a completely different way of handling something they cannot explain.

We know, because we made them up, so they behave like we want them to.

If I say my elves fantasies about kitchen appliances then they do. I guess I won't say that though - it's a bit silly.

 

[Nihal]

Yes, they can have a different way of handling it—or not.

I don't see how this possibility rules out the option of they having a mythology of their own, or worse, should keep a writer of inventing fantastic stories told by fantastic creatures just because they're already fantastic to us.

 

[GeekDavid]

We know, because we made them up, so they behave like we want them to.

If I say my elves fantasies about kitchen appliances then they do. I guess I won't say that though - it's a bit silly.

But assume for the sake of the argument that somewhere out there in this wide universe that we haven't explored yet that there are real elves. How can we say these real elves would think or react?

 

[Svrtnsse]

We can't, but that's not going to stop me from trying.

 

[GeekDavid]

As I said, I was just playing Devil's Advocate. I actually like the idea, but having someone argue the contrary helps to develop an idea, I've found.

 

[TrustMeImRudy]

If you have fantastic creatures in your world, why would you need to invent stories about different fantastic creatures?

'Cause those creatures aren't fantastic anymore. Within the world where they exist and have always existed they are normal everyday occurrences. You guys don't think the animals we have are fantastic? They are, and many people thought so. Most of the fantasy creatures we have are misinterpretations of real animals. I see no reason why a fantasy world race wouldn't have the same thing occur to them.

And yes, this is assuming they think in similar patterns, although not with the same interpretations or actual thoughts as, we do, since we are incapable of assuming otherwise.

In the Silmarillion the Elves view humans as very very strange. Mythic in a way I suppose since they are the younger race and were prophesied, and because they are mortal and fade away, the idea of which was so alien it fascinated the elves at first. So yeah, they were pretty legendary.

 

[Quillstine]

That's what humans do. We know that because we are human. Who knows what Elves, or Dwarves, or Hobbits, or Klingons, or Romulans, or Cardassians do? We're not Elves, etc, so we can't really say how they think. They may have a completely different way of handling something they cannot explain.

Can you imagine what the Romulans said after they first encounter the enterprise. They were like, All the stories are true...People with red blood are real! Next thing you going to tell me is they actually keep dogs for pets!

 

[GeekDavid]

Can you imagine what the Romulans said after they first encounter the enterprise. They were like, All the stories are true...People with red blood are real! Next thing you going to tell me is they actually keep dogs for pets!

I know... that must have been some real confusion on that bridge.

 

[Feo Takahari]

I read part of a book once called Learning the World. The aliens in the story could naturally fly, so whenever they tried to build flying machines, they modeled them (unsuccessfully) on their own wings. A major idea in their science fiction stories was that someday, somehow, a brilliant alien scientist would invent flying vehicles (most likely as military troop transports.)

 

[Mythopoet]

I've read many fantasy books that touch on the legends, myths and various beliefs of their fantastic races. It not anything new.

 

[DassaultMirage]

There is magic in my story, but time travel and reincarnation are still "fantasies" in this world.