Tag Archives: folklore

Gimme That (Really) Olde Tyme Religion

by Gail Z. Martin

Last week I mentioned that it was nice to see the swell of books dealing with parapsychological abilities (clairvoyance, psychics, etc.).  Another trend I find exciting is the more nuanced way authors are presenting Wicca, Magick and Paganism.

There’s been  a definite evolution in the way the Craft is described, and the care taken to differentiate Wicca and White Witchcraft and Magick from the negative stereotypes.  I’m pleased to see that the Craft is presented in a positive, balanced way that clearly differentiates it from the bad spin haters have given it over the centuries.

With the growth in the number of people who are reexamining the Old Ways, whether that is the resurgence of Norse practice to the wide range of Druids, goddess-worshippers and others, it’s important for authors to get the details right.  The wealth of excellent handbooks available from publishers like Llewellyn make it inexcusable for an author to “just make stuff up” instead of being grounded in a firm understanding of how magical systems and ritual works.

Getting it right doesn’t require that the author be a practitioner; however, it does require approaching belief systems with enough respect to be accurate so as not to perpetuate misinformation.  If you know practitioners well enough to be able to ask questions and confirm interpretation, all the better.

Dealing with any religion in fiction is always tricky, especially if an author who is not a practitioner is trying to describe someone else’s beliefs.  When that’s the case, it’s especially important to tread carefully, research, and try hard to put yourself in the mindset and worldview of a practitioner even if it’s just for the duration of the writing project.  Make sure you understand the role of ritual and ceremony, especially if your own tradition does not value those elements.

It’s easy to spot writers who have very little experience with religious traditions other than their own.  (If an alien race that has never had contact with Earth has a religion where everyone goes to a white, pointy-roofed building on one day of the week and sit in rows to listen to someone up on the stage, you’ve just described Presbyterians in space, not an alien religion.)

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Which witch is which?

by Gail Z. Martin

While we’re on the subject of supernatural makeovers, I love what has happened with the witch/wiccan/clairvoyant theme.  If you’ve been following my posts on Shelfari, you’ll see that I’ve been reading quite a few series where there’s a strong female protagonist who is a witch/clairvoyant/medium/psychic-something.  It’s the new kick-ass female empowerment.

I think it’s interesting that, at least in the books I’ve read (and there are a lot I haven’t, so go easy on me if I’ve missed something), it’s always only the women who have the witch/clairvoyant/psychic powers.  The men are skeptical if not hostile, and sometimes threatened to the point of walking out on the relationship.  I’m betting there’s a psychological comment on our culture in there somewhere.

It’s also interesting that in pretty much all of the books (again, that I’ve read—which leaves lots out, I know), there’s always at least one good girlfriend who believes in the heroine’s unusual gifts and provides support and encouragement, as well as playing wingman for everything from breaking and entering to CYA on broken dates.  Supernatural powers as the ultimate female bonding glue!

I also enjoy seeing a wide range of psychic abilities presented in a way that is much more realistic (at least, according to my psychic friends).  Clairvoyance, precognition, channeling, astral projection and psychometry are just some of the gifts I’ve seen treated with respect and integrated into series in recent years.  Much better than just lumping everything together!

Interesting side note—judging from the books, psychic powers seem to go hand-in-hand with a love of shoes and/or a passion for vintage clothing.  Go figure!

The really great news is that according to Locus Magazine, there were 614 original fantasy novels published in 2010 from major publishers, and 384 paranormal romances, as well as 251 new horror titles.  Plenty to read!  Locus notes the trends for vampires, werewolves and zombies show no sign of ending.  Some off their favorite humorous titles: Eat, Prey Love, I Kissed a Zombie and I liked it, and my personal favorite, Hold Me Closer, Necromancer (if you don’t get it, hum the tune of Tiny Dancer).

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Whither the Werewolf?

by Gail Z. Martin

Werewolves are the new hot, hairy heartthrobs.  Whether it’s Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson series or the uber-handsome werewolves in MaryJanice Davidson’s Queen Betsy books, or Quentin in Dark Shadows, or even the tragic Remus Lupin in Harry Potter, werewolves are the bad boys you can’t help but love.

In many ways, the werewolf has always depicted the brutal side of male behavior. And the truth is, there’s nothing sexy about domestic violence.  (Read Tanith Lee’s take on the Little Red Riding Hood story in Red as Blood to turn this trope on its head.) Yet today’s werewolves manage to soften that brutality by focusing their aggression outwards against threats to the mate, rather than internally against their family.

So here’s my question—how domesticated can we make werewolves before they become puppy dogs?  Are we reflecting a desire to find a wolf—or a golden retriever?  And if the wolf is a little too scary, is a German shepherd or a pit bull good enough?

Don’t get me wrong—I think there’s room for people to want a broad spectrum of werewolves, from alpha males to Yorkies (well, maybe that’s going a little far).  And perhaps it’s no different than the trend to shift a vampire from being a monster to being a ultimate-warrior male who is tender at home and rips heads off out in the street (it’s business, not personal).

Yet in many ways, werewolves are traditionally more duel natured than vampires, because vampires never cease being undead, while werewolves are just like the rest of us except around the full moon.  I’ve always thought that real violence is more a part of the werewolf mythos than the vampire trope because a vampire can take blood without killing, and even provide an orgasm for the donor.  Getting gnawed on by a wolf, on the other hand, is more of a downer.

Is there a point to this rambling?  Probably not.  Just some random observations and a few unanswered questions.  I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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Vampire Trends: the more things change, the more they stay the same

by Gail Z. Martin

Ok, this will probably come as a big surprise, but I love vampires.  Yeah, I know, you already guessed.  If you’ve been following my recently read books on @GailZMartin or Shelfari, you know I’ve just read through all 9 of MaryJanice Davidson’s Queen Betsy books (the Undead and Unwed series).  They’re fun and sassy and light, and quite a hoot.  Just to give myself whiplash, I then started to read Hotel Transylvania by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, with her oh, so sexy and mysterious Count Saint-Germain.  Completely different in tone and setting, but very engrossing.  And just to round it out, my husband and I started watching the 1991 remake of Dark Shadows on Netflix, with Ben Cross as Barnabas Collins.

Which got me thinking—my how our vampires have changed.  The original Dark Shadows was a product of the 1960s, and the remake stayed pretty faithful to the plot arc of the original.  It had a vampire yearning to be human again long before Anne Rice’s Louis, and it’s interesting to me to see that even in 1991, the idea that Barnabas and Victoria could be together without him needing to end his existence as a vampire was completely beyond thought.  Of course, in many of today’s urban fantasy books, mortals mix with many supernaturals and taking a lover among the undead is no big deal.  The subtitle of Hotel Transylvania is “a novel of forbidden love” so in the 1970s, when it was published, there was still a bigger taboo against mortal/vampire love than there is today.

Then there’s the whole vampire gravitas thing.  Saint-Germain has it—he’s a serious kind of guy.  Sinclair in the Queen Betsy series also has it—it takes Betsy to lighten him up.  Lestat had macabre humor, but he wasn’t really a lot of laughs.  Barnabas would like to have some fun, but there’s the whole undead thing stopping him. (Speaking of which, in the remake series, why do they shoot scenes in broad daylight with blue sky and pretend it’s nighttime?)

So what’s the point?  Maybe only that some things have to remain the same for us to recognize vampires as vampires.  Daylight doesn’t bother Queen Betsy, but it’s still lethal for everyone else and she can drink anything but can’t eat real food.  Saint-Germain never eats food in public.  Barnabas grieves over having no reflection in a mirror.  Although authors toy with changes around the edges of the vampire mythos, the more things change, the more they do seem to stay the same.

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Myth and Folklore

by Gail Z. Martin

At the last couple of conventions I attended, I was on several panels about myth and folklore.  It was a lot of fun discussing how myth and folklore show up in fantasy, as well as how as writers we use myth and folklore to create our own stories.  We talked about modern myths and how myth influences the real world, both in terms of deliberate mythmaking and pop culture/urban legend terms.  For talking about stories that were thousands of years old, the conversation sometimes got rather heated!

I like to draw inspiration from myth and folklore because I figure that if something about a trope or archetype has captured human imagination for hundreds or thousands of years, it’s good.  So I enjoy adapting and adjusting folkloric and mythic elements to make them my own, and to fit them into the world of the Winter Kingdoms.

Of course the conversation came around to vampires, werewolves and magic, which are intrinsic elements of folklore and mythology.  I mentioned how I still chuckle about the one book reviewer who was very impressed that I had “used urban fantasy tropes like vampires and werewolves” in a medieval, epic fantasy.  Of course, urban fantasy stole the tropes from medieval folklore!

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