Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mallus" data-source="post: 124789" data-attributes="member: 3887">Actually, it created people who were an order of magnitude less likable than Martin's characters. The Borgias come to mind, as do a whole host of Popes.I don't want to go down the road of arguing taste. But it strikes me as odd that someone would read the literature of the fantastic and expect to find characters that are comforting and nice and safe --by their own 21st century, assumedly middle class or higher, often suburban standards. Don't we read about these fantastic otherworldy places and cultures to encounter people other than our co-workers and the sales clerk at the mall?The morality of 'grittier' fantasy doesn't disturb me half as much as the moral disconnect that goes on in most more traditional fantasy novels. There's war, but little suffering. Killing but no blood. So far, no-one here has argued for the removal of violence from fantasy novels. Isn't the sanitized portrayal of mayhem a morally repugnant thing in and of itself? I'm not arguing that all fantasy be in the mold of "Ice and Fire". Back in the day I loved David Eddings. The Belgariad is epic fantasy meets "Friends". But its a little creepy to think those books are also a massive war story where the entire moral character of that universe is on the line...</blockquote>