tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3770861767173688889.post4558612765459975969..comments2023-04-26T00:55:44.495-07:00Comments on Fantastic Worlds: Retro Review - The Leeshore (1987) by Robert ReedJordan179http://www.blogger.com/profile/04175992431854812417noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3770861767173688889.post-13634963356651036622012-09-28T16:29:54.810-07:002012-09-28T16:29:54.810-07:00Gary Gygax also mixes and matches in his 'Worl...Gary Gygax also mixes and matches in his 'World of Greyhawk' - the original roleplaying setting for Dungeons and Dragons.<br /><br />With his history degree, he could make up new cultures by taking characteristics of two or three his players didn't know much about and mix them together into something new.luaghahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17771831351721057474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3770861767173688889.post-37504593674671211792012-09-22T17:33:22.447-07:002012-09-22T17:33:22.447-07:00Yes. Both Drake and Stirling have both used natio...Yes. Both Drake and Stirling have both used national stereotypes directly and mix-and-matched them. One writer who does this even more is Harry Turtledove: he modeled the Videssans <br /><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videssos<br /><br />rather directly on the Byzantines, Vaspurakans on Armenians, the Makurani on the Parthians, and the Yezdians on the (Medieval Christian view of) the Arab Muslims, complete with their worship of a God of Evil.<br /><br />Then in his Darkness series<br /><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Darkness_Series<br /><br />he mix-and-matches physical, cultural, linguistic and political attributes to loosely restage the Second World War between magic-using Powers as the "Derlavi War." For instance the Algarvians are red-headed and green-eyed, speak an Italianate language and are the political analogue of Nazi Germany; the Kuusamo look East Asian, have a low-key businesslike culture and a Finnish-like language, and are the political analogue of the United States of America, and so on. Here I think Turtledove was not only trying to keep the analogues from being too obvious, but also making the explicit point that appearance and language do <i>not</i> dictate political orientation, a belief which would have enraged either Adolf Hitler or King Mezentio of Algarve.<br /><br />We don't really find out enough to know if the Asiatic Federation is nice or nasty overall. Moon is a brutal man, but there are brutal men in all the real-world militaries (and Moon's not as cruel as he pretends to be). The secret elite were pretty ruthless in their treatment of the Alteretic VIP prisoner, but then this <i>is</i> a war in which the Alteretics enslave or <i>eat</i> their captives. And so on: I personally don't know how nice the <i>United States</i> would be after barely winning a war which rendered the Earth's surface uninhabitable with the survivors being forced to live in overcrowded mass shelters.<br /><br />Anyway, it was interesting to see the trope apparently averted.Jordan179https://www.blogger.com/profile/04175992431854812417noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3770861767173688889.post-134757518718033202012-09-22T15:58:39.491-07:002012-09-22T15:58:39.491-07:00The inversion of the "Yellow Peril" trop...The inversion of the "Yellow Peril" trope reminds me of the Raj Whitehall novels by Drake and Stirling, in which civilization is maintained by the (Hispanic) <i>Gubierno Civil</i> and (Arab Muslim) Colony, while the blond, blue-eyed "Namerique"-speaking barbarians control the various Military Governments. Wombat Rampanthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03701990675489671528noreply@blogger.com