From: djheydt@kithrup.com
In article ,
William Vetter wrote:
>Michelle Bottorff wrote:
>> William Vetter wrote:
>>
>>> J.Pascal wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Contrast cliche or stereotype... they might exist "for a reason" but are
>>>> generally experienced as lazy and usually inaccurate. "No, I don't have
>>>> to actually explain how this guy is the villian... didn't you notice
>>>> that he's a priest?"
>>>>
>>> That's a tradition. In _The Canterbury Tales_, Chaucer has the
>>> Alchemist-Priest, and in the Summoner's Tale, we learn the place in
>>> Hell for friars is up Satan's asshole.
>>
>> I thought that was exactly what she was complaining about. Doing
>> something because "it's a tradition" and for no other reason, and not
>> bothering to support the underlying reality of it in the story.
>
>I was thinking the other day that Grendel breaks into the mead hall at
>night to slaughter thanes because he is a monster, and when we are
>confronted with a monster, the reader wants the brutal Viking Beowulf.
>That is what we call storytelling, and what we call writing is when we
>give Beowulf a crippled wife and a hound with three legs; and we give
>Grendel a backstory in which his mother the witch molested him and fed
>him spoiled weasel meat.
Grendel's backstory is that he is hereditarily cursed, being
descended from Cain. He can't live with the descendants of Seth
(Adam's third son) in comfort and light, and his envy drives him
to malice and destruction. You may not care for the theology,
but you can understand the psychology.
--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
Should you wish to email me, you'd better use the gmail edress.
Kithrup's all spammy and hotmail's been hacked.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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