Friday, January 29, 2010

My Thoughts on Elric

For those of you who don't know, Elric is the albino sorcerer who stars in some of Michael Moorcock's writing. Moorcock is essentially one of the giants of early fantasy, like Tolkien.

What struck me the most about his work on Elric, is just how very cliche it all is. Which made me laugh because the only reason it's cliche is because everyone has been copying him for the last 50 years. There's nothing new and original in the Elric works because everyone else stole from it. We write what we know, right?

It was interesting reading and going "yep, that's Arthas" (if you don't know who Arthas is, go play some Warcraft you heathens), or "yep, that's just about every adventure story ever".

What I was not really prepared for was the forerunner of Emo. I was reading along and Elric broke down into one of his (I found out) rather recurring emotional fits. I was not prepared for a dark, evil, his-blood-is-so-ancient-you-like-couldn't-even-understand sorcerer to break down and cry. I remember actually saying outloud to the cat (because no one else is around and hey, I don't like admitting I talk to myself--which I do) that I couldn't believe that Elric was so freaking emo.

How could this happen to me? I made my mistakes.... ok I'll stop now.

But still, it's been fun reading one of the forerunners of the fantasy genre, and despite the fact the work didn't age the best, it's still an interesting read. If nothing else for the sheer perspective on the evolution of fantasy.

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