Had a thought, wanted to write it down
I was reading about the idea of neo-medieval settings in an essay about video games, and it was talking about why people were interested in things like Lord of the Rings and Warcraft. Obviously this applies to more than just video games, but what the writer proposed was interesting.
Basically they said that a lot of , but a lot of fantasy/neo-medieval games have the fundamental theme of keeping feudal society in tact. There is an element of truth to this, no matter what fantasy world you're talking about. Even Tortall, which is very forward thinking and progressive by the standards of our society, basically functions by keeping the monarchy in tact and conforming to class standards, even as the world works towards defying gender standards. So the author was basically asking what sort of appeal these medieval settings have for modern people. One of the things they said was that it had to do with the idea that our society feels like it has lost its values, and therefore tries to return to a time when things were simpler and ideas of noble actions were regarded very highly. This is kind of disturbing for a lot of reasons, and I don't think it applies 100% to fantasy, because oftentimes, modern ideas are applied to those medieval-esque settings as the values they're fighting for (for instance, medieval Europe might not have had much of a sense of human rights, but your fantasy world with magic and dragons is more evolved than that). Still, it was an interesting idea.
I was just re-watching The Corpse Bride, and it got me thinking about the appeal of the Victorian setting in fiction. It sort of made me think, "Well, if the neo-medieval setting is about applying old values to modern ideas, the neo-Victorian setting seems to be about applying new ideas to old values." Like, a lot of neo-Victorian fiction plays with the idea of marriage and choosing partners, which is kind of appalling to a lot of modern western sensibilities, so a lot of modern fiction dealing with that time period seems to have to deal with how terrible arranged marriages are, and our society's favorite works from that time period are the ones that seem to defy those standards.
Just a thought. Not a solid one by any means, but I did want to write it down and see what you all thought. There are a couple of reasons I don't like it myself, since it all hinges on the idea that fantasy as a genre is highly militaristic and supports classism, which while there might be a kernel of truth there, the rational part of me calls BS on generally. Still, it was interesting applying that argument to other historical or historical-esque settings in modern fiction and seeing how they stack up.
PS: There really, really needs to be a Tortall or Emelan MMORPG. If I ever get $600,000 of discretionary income, I know which writer I'll be writing letters to first.
Basically they said that a lot of , but a lot of fantasy/neo-medieval games have the fundamental theme of keeping feudal society in tact. There is an element of truth to this, no matter what fantasy world you're talking about. Even Tortall, which is very forward thinking and progressive by the standards of our society, basically functions by keeping the monarchy in tact and conforming to class standards, even as the world works towards defying gender standards. So the author was basically asking what sort of appeal these medieval settings have for modern people. One of the things they said was that it had to do with the idea that our society feels like it has lost its values, and therefore tries to return to a time when things were simpler and ideas of noble actions were regarded very highly. This is kind of disturbing for a lot of reasons, and I don't think it applies 100% to fantasy, because oftentimes, modern ideas are applied to those medieval-esque settings as the values they're fighting for (for instance, medieval Europe might not have had much of a sense of human rights, but your fantasy world with magic and dragons is more evolved than that). Still, it was an interesting idea.
I was just re-watching The Corpse Bride, and it got me thinking about the appeal of the Victorian setting in fiction. It sort of made me think, "Well, if the neo-medieval setting is about applying old values to modern ideas, the neo-Victorian setting seems to be about applying new ideas to old values." Like, a lot of neo-Victorian fiction plays with the idea of marriage and choosing partners, which is kind of appalling to a lot of modern western sensibilities, so a lot of modern fiction dealing with that time period seems to have to deal with how terrible arranged marriages are, and our society's favorite works from that time period are the ones that seem to defy those standards.
Just a thought. Not a solid one by any means, but I did want to write it down and see what you all thought. There are a couple of reasons I don't like it myself, since it all hinges on the idea that fantasy as a genre is highly militaristic and supports classism, which while there might be a kernel of truth there, the rational part of me calls BS on generally. Still, it was interesting applying that argument to other historical or historical-esque settings in modern fiction and seeing how they stack up.
PS: There really, really needs to be a Tortall or Emelan MMORPG. If I ever get $600,000 of discretionary income, I know which writer I'll be writing letters to first.