Fantasy and Technology

[laurion]

Fall, Mortality, and the Machine: Tolkien and Technology - Alan Jacobs - The Atlantic.

The above link is to an article discussing one of Tolkein’s enduring bequeaths to Fantasy literature - that technology is the enemy.  This still plays out in literatures and stereotypes today.  How many boffer larpers talk about what they do as a chance to

Comments

[lightgamer]

Much of the technology in the Kingkiller Chronicles is decidedly magi-tech, but it is consistently portrayed as a good thing and areas without it are characterized as "insular" or "bumpkinish." There's also some mundane technology which follows basically the same pattern.

[laurion]

Ah, good! I will add this series to my 'to read someday' list.

[umbran]

In most ways that matter, Star Wars is a fantasy work, but the trappings are all sci-fi. And, in that world, even the magi use technological laser-swords and starships!

However, the put-down to technology is a whole lot older than Tolkien. Remember that in her day, Shelley's work was pretty much a fantasy - it only today that we'd reclassify it. But Frankenstein is most certainly a technological cautionary tale.

[laurion]

Star Wars is only barely arguably a fantasy work. It's not hard sci-fi either though. That said, even there technology is seen as a tool of destruction. Let's look at the first movie. The pinnacle of technical achievement is being able to eliminate an entire planet in one go. The pinnacle of achievement for the good guys is being able to turn off the technology and hit the critical target using a non-technical, spiritual system instead. Even the one piece of Jedi representative tech, the lightsaber, is in principle an object of violent destruction. The bad guys get: deathstars, at-ats, force fields, and carbonite. The good guys get: living on natural landscapes, swamprats, tauntauns, ewoks, and emotions

[lilairen]

But not too many emotions! Emotions are the way to the dark side!

[umbran]

To quote Rod Serling, "science fiction - the improbable made possible; fantasy - the impossible made probable". By that measure, Star Wars is fantasy. Dude, the main story is about *wizards*, for cryin' out loud! There's a thin veneer of science imagery over a heart of fantasy.

As for Frankenstein - think of it as a retelling of the golem story, and the story's fantasy nature becomes apparent.

[dervishspin]

Charles DeLint?
His Newford world is not inherently technology = bad. It does contain a longing for a past age, or for The Other, but not with the assumption that The Other is superior or safer. Just different.

[laurion]

Hmm. I've always classified DeLint under the much narrower 'Urban Fantasy' genre. But I think I've only read one book and maybe a short story. Thanks!

[umbran]

Well, what classifies a thing for you as "urban fantasy" instead of "fantasy"?

[laurion]

Urban fantasy to me layers fantasy on top of modern urban life. Examples would be Dresden Files, Buffy/Angel, or even, *shudder*, Twilight.

I'm eliding them from this argument because they naturally embrace modern technology as part of selling the setting. But even there, please note that Dresden Files minimizes technology in the protagonist's life, and anything with characters that have lived for hundreds of years likes to play with idea that they have problems with modern technology. The eqivalent of the stereotype of octegenarians not getting the internet.

[ultimatepsi]

Bujold's Sharing Knife series is unequivocally fantasy, and takes place in a world of where growing technology could be a boon for both the bad guys and the good guys. In fact, one of the main conflicts of the series is how a group who uses traditional magic and how a group that uses evolving technology can live together successfully. I wouldn't call the series tech-positive, but it isn't tech-negative either. Different characters have different takes on technology, and on advanced magic/magi-tech.

[laurion]

Ok, I've only read one Bujold and that from the Vorkosigan line. Some day I'll get to more Bujold... *grin*

[benndragon]

Oddly enough, the boffer LARP I'm currently playing in has pretty advanced non-magical medical tech, akin in utility to modern battlefield medicine. I'm not sure if there's much in the way of other non-magical tech (there are no guns, for example), but that might be due to the combat focus of the LARP environment.

[laurion]

Not sure. There are boffer games that have guns. Wielding a gun, like wielding a boffer sword, relies on the skill of the wielder. The more logical reason is that if you model boff guns after actual guns, they tend to unbalance the playing field, just as actual guns did. But there may be some 15th or 16th centure gun interpretations that could be employed to keep a balance. Not sure how to do that in boffery mechanics though.

[benndragon]

Oh, I'm positive they could do nerf-like guns if they wanted to - they do archery quite well (arrows tipped with soft foam balls covered in a thin layer of latex/nitrile, bows with no more than 25-lb of pull, rules to discourage people from charging bow-wielders in-game as well as directly, etc.). My point was more than the LARP isn't as anti-tech as implied in the post, except possibly when it comes to guns (I actually don't know why there is good medical tech but no guns - it might be the same reason there are a bazillion kinds of elf: the GM likes it that way).