#i've been thinking about this since i reread chunks of 'the fairy's daughters' last week | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

fictionadventurer · 2 years ago

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I love setting fantasy around and after WWI. It's such a good combination. WWI was a loss-of-innocence on a societal level. There had been this assumption that technology and progress could solve all our problems and make us better people, and then WWI comes and shows us horribly and violently that it does not, and then in the aftermath we have to deal with what this means for us as a society and as people.

Throwing magic into that is a perfect thematic fit, because magic and technology are basically the same thing--people trying to impose their will upon nature. It can do good things or terrible things, but the issue is not necessarily the technology or the magic itself, but the hearts of the people using it, the cost to bring it about, the drain on resources and the effect on the environment and people. In the aftermath of a major conflict, we have to take a long hard look at ourselves and the choices we've made and will continue to make. Are the benefits worth the cost? What is the true nature of man--can we ever trust ourselves again? Have we progressed to a better stage of humanity or reverted back to beasts? There is just so much to explore there. The WWI connection has been built into the genre ever since Tolkien, and it continues to be relevant to our modern world.

#random thought of the day #adventures in writing #fantasy #wwi #history is awesome #i've been thinking about this since i reread chunks of 'the fairy's daughters' last week #i started writing that not long after 'rilla of ingleside' first sparked my wwi interest #and i didn't know nearly as much about the war back then #i managed to hit upon a core truth that makes the central story pretty compelling #like there are big issues with the story on a logic and character level #but the core thing is that the fae have cut off contact with the human realm after seeing what horrors they were wreaking with technology #but the humans distrust my half-fairy girls because they're afraid of what they can do with magic #the girls fit in nowhere #and neither side realizes they're both making the same mistake #trusting or distrusting a certain method of imposing one's will on the world #and forgetting that it comes down to the choices of the person who has access to the technology or magic #and that theme is strengthened because it's a twelve dancing princesses retelling #so the story pivots around one human man who is trusted with a powerful magical item because he has a good heart #and my explanation here is really bad #but what i'm getting at is that the history weaves together with the fantasy here in really cool ways #because the specific conflict of post-wwi lends itself really well to this magical setting #i've also got my story idea where the spanish flu is replaced with a plague that gives people animal-shapeshifting abilities #so people are literally having to grapple with their beastly natures #which plays out a different aspect of the post wwi conflict #and no matter what form it takes wwi is just a really good setting for fantasy hence the above post #that refuses to put the words in my head into sensible order #i hope maybe a little of this makes sense

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