I am going to write something very close to the post you restacked! I love the concepts behind that and I am convinced that RPGs are one of the most educative tools we could use with young players!
Hmmm...while I agree with a lot of the issues he's pointed out about the modern state of fairy stories, I think he's reaching with the Anansi example: admittedly it's been awhile since I read it, but I don't recall Gaiman subverting a story or making it post-modern in that instance, he was simply relating a traditional African folk tale, and if a folk tale has persisted through tradition then it's smart to assume it's got a legitimate lesson. I don't recall anything about complacency or the people not understanding that the tiger was still dangerous, and there's nothing particularly subversive about outwitting a brutal bully. And Anansi himself comes across as the butt of the joke in a lot of the stories, where his tricks are just as likely to backfire on him (reinforcing the lesson right there).
Again, I think Enlowe needs to be a little clearer, because it doesn't make sense to cite a traditional folktale as an example of modern subversion.
Ironically, Gaiman himself expressed this in the novel Coraline - about a girl who goes into what she thinks is a lighthearted, safe fantasy world only to find that it's a mask for a literal demon that intends to devour her and will lie and violate it's own rules whenever it can to do so. It's tragic that he apparently learned nothing from the stories he told.
The Distributist addressed this in one of his recent vids where he touched on the allegations. To paraphrase the vid: "Didn't you think any of the moral lessons you were playing with in any of your stories were true? Didn't you take anything at all from the tales you wrote? Did you really think you could turn wrong into right if you just told a good enough story? Didn't it ever occur to you that there were real moral truths that wouldn't bend - and real demons out there?"
In my original essay, I compare Gaiman's Anansi story with the two-man con idea from American Gods, and I suggest that maybe Anansi--the original not the Gaiman character--was involved in a two-man con with tiger.
But I tried to make it clear that this was not what happened in Anansi Boys. I guess I was not clear enough.
I am going to write something very close to the post you restacked! I love the concepts behind that and I am convinced that RPGs are one of the most educative tools we could use with young players!
He links to my original Defending the Wood Perilous articles, I believe. Which are also on the subject.
And I should say, I agree about RPG
Send me the link if you write the article.
Hello, here we go!
PS to be honest I am writing another post very close to this one... I will end it in a day or two...
https://viviiix.substack.com/p/role-playing-games-are-about-role
Thanks!
Sure! Will do!
If you have not read my original essays on the topic that Nick refers to, you can find them here:
https://ljagilamplighter.com/2018/02/03/defending-the-wood-perilous-part-one-we-live-in-a-fairytale/
Hmmm...while I agree with a lot of the issues he's pointed out about the modern state of fairy stories, I think he's reaching with the Anansi example: admittedly it's been awhile since I read it, but I don't recall Gaiman subverting a story or making it post-modern in that instance, he was simply relating a traditional African folk tale, and if a folk tale has persisted through tradition then it's smart to assume it's got a legitimate lesson. I don't recall anything about complacency or the people not understanding that the tiger was still dangerous, and there's nothing particularly subversive about outwitting a brutal bully. And Anansi himself comes across as the butt of the joke in a lot of the stories, where his tricks are just as likely to backfire on him (reinforcing the lesson right there).
Again, I think Enlowe needs to be a little clearer, because it doesn't make sense to cite a traditional folktale as an example of modern subversion.
Ironically, Gaiman himself expressed this in the novel Coraline - about a girl who goes into what she thinks is a lighthearted, safe fantasy world only to find that it's a mask for a literal demon that intends to devour her and will lie and violate it's own rules whenever it can to do so. It's tragic that he apparently learned nothing from the stories he told.
The Distributist addressed this in one of his recent vids where he touched on the allegations. To paraphrase the vid: "Didn't you think any of the moral lessons you were playing with in any of your stories were true? Didn't you take anything at all from the tales you wrote? Did you really think you could turn wrong into right if you just told a good enough story? Didn't it ever occur to you that there were real moral truths that wouldn't bend - and real demons out there?"
That is 100% my fault.
In my original essay, I compare Gaiman's Anansi story with the two-man con idea from American Gods, and I suggest that maybe Anansi--the original not the Gaiman character--was involved in a two-man con with tiger.
But I tried to make it clear that this was not what happened in Anansi Boys. I guess I was not clear enough.
Here is my original essay he is referring to:
https://ljagilamplighterwright.substack.com/p/and-all-the-powers-of-hell