[Dragaera] Boing!

[Davdi Silverrock]

On 9/6/06, Joshua Kronengold wrote:
> Davdi Silverrock writes:

> >"Faerie", in the context of Dragaera, means one thing.  In the broader
> >context of most fantasy, it means something very different indeed.
>
> Actually, in the broad context of fantasy (as opposed to mainstream)
> it's pretty accurate -- Dragaerans are very close to what traditional
> "Thomas the Rhymer" fairies would be like if run through a Raymond
> Chandler blender.

If Doctorow had written something like "think Raymond Chandler, by way
of Thomas the Rhymer", I wouldn't have kvetched.

> Fantasy readers (as opposed to mainstream ones) think Books of Magic,
> Thomas the Rhymer, Tam Lin, Stardust, and Tithe when they think of
> "Faerie", not Tinkerbell and fairy godmothers.

And more recently, /Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell/.

Still, it depends on the context.  Doctorow's readers *aren't*
necessarily familiar with the good fantasy works you mention, so I
think he should have kept that in mind.

And there is still the issue of the phrase "animal-like", which still
makes *me* think of anthropomorphic furries.

Perhaps I am overly-sensitive to appallingly twee new-age connotations
of the term "faerie folk" because I have just recently read this:

http://www.webcomicsnation.com/spike/playing_with_dolls/series.php?view=archive&chapter=11929

I may need to scrub out my brain now.