Re: Non-stereotypical elves was Re: Quick Intro

On Thu, 20 Feb 2003 16:06:18 -0600, Peter Clark <peter-clark@...>
wrote:

>On Thursday 20 February 2003 02:38 pm, John M. Dollan wrote:
>> The Elves, otherwise
>> called the Aewylin, are the ones I am having trouble with as far as
>> removing the stereotypical Elven image.  But I have time...
>        I hate elves. Seriously. (Yes, I know they are imaginary. But I hate
>imaginary elves.) They are always the same in modern fantasy and RPGs. Wise
>to the point of being absolute elitist snobs. Practically immortal, yet throw
>themselves into situations that are likely to get themselves killed. (Think
>about it: if you were practically immortal, wouldn't you be more careful?)
>Beautiful to the point that authors trip over themselves with adjectives.
The problem isn't with the elves, it's with unimaginative writers. There
isn't anything inherent in the idea of elves that they should be the way
you're describing them. Elfquest elves aren't much like Tolkien's elves
aside from being (nearly) immortal. Not every elf is wise or adventurous in
those stories, but it's probably just that the adventurous ones are the
ones that stories get written about in the first place.

Of course, there's the question of what exactly it means to be an "elf".
Pointy ears by themselves aren't enough (as exceptions like Vulcans and
Hylians demonstrate), and not all Elves are smaller than Humans (Tolkien's
for instance). Long life and some degree of magical ability seems to be
typically associated with elves. And although it might be hard to imagine,
not all elves necessarily have a preference for dental and alveolar sounds.
:-)

In my world, I'm having difficulty defining exactly what an "elf" is, since
I have a whole range of people who are all related to each other, but some
are more "elf-like", and others are quite different. They have pointy ears
and tend to be smaller than humans, which is about all they have in common.
I have a handful of Elvish languages that I haven't kept up to date in
years, but if I ever have time, I'd like to go back and revive some of
those old projects.

I think that humans are too often the center of attention, and it's at
least nice to see non-human characters in a story, even if they're not
always very original. I'd rather see a stereotypical elf than a
stereotypical human. But a non-stereotypical elf is even better.

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