Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Fantasy, Part Four

FANTASY, Part Four, Humans
'As you all know and agree humans originally come from monkeys, chimps, apes etc...'  Sorry, I couldn't resist.  This is the real opening sentence for this post 'Humans have been around for approximately six thousand years, when God created the world and all in it, including man'.  Though man can be a fantasy element, they are also a real species, as you may have guessed.  Since they are real I think I should cover the basis before going into their fantasy counterparts, though their counterpart is for the most part the same. 
 'Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."'-Genesis 1:26
 And thus man was born!  Or rather created.  And then the story goes on to say how Eve was created and they walked with God in the garden.  But then the snake enters the scene, and we come to the fall of man, the entry of sin into the world.  And from thence forth man is basically sinful, it is now our nature.  So we must have a Savior to cover our sins.  He is Jesus, the Son of God, and He is God, and He is the Holy Spirit.  The Three are One.  If you don't understand, then, well, that's a topic for another day.
Jesus came into the world to save us from our sins.  And though I could continue and I would like to some other time, this post is on another topic.  (If you would like to learn more please consult your local pastor or youth pastor, or shoot me an email at smr411[at]gmail[dot]com, though the former would probably be better :D)

So, back to sin.  If man in the real world is basically sinful, is man in fantasy also basically sinful?  I would say yes.  Although there are some books that have a goal of showing what sinless man might look like, namely Christopher Hopper's White Lion Chronicles.  But in most other books humans are naturally sinful.  The reason for this being, quite simply, we don't understand what a sinless human is, and from a worldly perspective, we wouldn't even know that there ever were sinless humans (the only sinless humans were Adam and Eve, though there sinless nature didn't last) and thus it is natural to write about humans as sinful in fantasy.

So, then there's the question of other species, such as dwarves and elves, are they sinless?  Well, no.  The above paragraph is true for them as well.  The reason for this being that dwarves and elves are based off the image and characteristics of humans.  And we've established that humans are basically sinful, so naturally, if dwarves and elves are based off humans, they are basically sinful as well.  Okay, done with my little sin sermon.

There really isn't much else to say about humans, I would expect you, my readers, to understand humans.  Though I've been corrected for assuming things before, nevertheless, there is one more element of humans in fantasy.  

Humans in fantasy are usually the largest race.  And if they're not the largest, they are the most public, that meaning other races are usually hidden under mountains or secluded in their forests.  This, like many things, is not always true, but for the most part, it is accurate.  So, that's about all I can say on the subject of humans. 

I have a race in mind for the next post, but if there is a race you want me to cover please drop me a comment.

And on another note, the poll is now closed, I personally like this one, and apparently you guys do too by the results.

Edit:  For those that don't know me well enough to understand my sense of humor, I was being sarcastic in the beginning, I in no way at all believe in evolution.  The earth was created by God, and God continued to have a hand in it since it's creation.  But that's another post...

9 comments:

Nolan said...

Ooh... that gave me an idea. Elves could be ANGELS!!! =P

Anyway, I've always wondered about wizards in a Christian view. This topic could go on for posts and posts, but it's still good to cover a little bit =)

Unknown said...

Funny you mention that. I'll be doing a brief post on that, trying to give both sides of the equation, but I'm hoping to post a much more in depth article on it in one of the pages on this blog called Viewpoint. But that could be months until I do that.

Nolan said...

One person I'd really love to ask about this is J.R.R. Tolkien. He just came right out and said Gandalf was a wizard! He didn't say he was just someone who "God" gave magical powers.

My view is that it's fine if the book is an allegory. You can do more as long as it has a deeper meaning than the actual words on the paper.

Unknown said...

I may be misunderstanding you, but the deeper meaning in the books of JRR Tolkien was that the allegory for God in his books gave Gandalf his abilities. And, actually, Tolkien disliked the word magic and wizard, but he couldn't find a word that described the abilities the Istari and elves had in his books, so he had to settle for the word 'magic', but it doesn't accurately describe the phenomenon that takes place in his books, it's just the most accurate word in the dictionary. But that would be a different post, one that I may do.

Cacia said...

Oh, I'd love to read your views of Tolkien's work.
I appreciated the deep culture and underlying allegory that he founded his books on, and I'd love to hear another's view on things like the Istari and Maia, and other more exclusive fantasy elements.

Ya know, Tolkien studied language and words a great deal, and coined a few words of his own (mathom coming to mind). I'm almost surprised that he didn't create a word to use to describe the 'magic' of the Istari.

Unknown said...

I'd love to post them some time, if I post them it will be under the previously mentioned "Viewpoint" page, and not on the main blog, though I will probably let people know during a post that I put it there.

I'm not sure why he didn't either. I think it may be that the element of 'magic' in his books and the term in general is just so touchy and complicated that Tolkien would have trouble trying to recreate the word to fit his special kind of 'magic'.

Precentor said...

*gasps* Sarcasm! :O Where?!

*coughs* On to this comment section, I am not uber interested in getting another Tolkien, "Gandalf magic or abilities" article :P I have talked it over somewhat, but ol' Steadfast would do a good job so i will read if I must ;)

Unknown said...

Actually, I agree Millard. I've written one already and read part of a few books on the topic but it was requested that I do a post on that topic. I will try to keep it light, if anybody wants a more in depth look on my opinion of Rowling vs Tolkien[not just magic, I touch on some other topics of their works] go to the Viewpoint page, it's the furthest right page link on the page link list thingy.

Precentor said...

Alrighty :)