Marik2 said:
It really is.
I usually only like western inspired fantasies when it's done by a non westerner.
Sorry, but I see some ofthe most egregious examples of fantasy being Eastern in origin. Moreover it seems to borrow heavily from Western ideas of narrative devices and suspension of disbelief systems.
I
love Spice and Wolf precisely because it seems to utterly subvert Eastern tropes through a Western lens for that reason. Also because as a fntasy setting, with demigods and entirely fictional nations ... the focus is on Medieval European economics and the common lives of European merchants pre-15th century.
And the stories of which are usually a collection of financial crimes, schemes, mysteries and market manipulation (and politics surrounding economics) are in hindsight the
only example of Eastern fantasy I can think of that does that.
Which is odd, and kind of highlights the point.
Eastern fantasy seems more than egregiously a part of what I like to call
pure escapism fuel. And there's only so much of that that youcan watch before your brain turns to mush.
There's no magic in Spice and Wolf, the protagonists are in truth always bit players in a larger macroeconomic play, there is no central 'big bad' in the world. And as is repeatedly shown one of them is incredibly fragile like
the rest of us. And yet he effects change
like the rest of us by using commonly understood economic schemes to get ahead. The terms of victory are always couched not in terms of defeating someone, or changing the world, but how they made a couple of extracoinsout of a situation ... or how they manage to make personal milestones in their character development and interpersonal relationships.
And it was
brilliant. With clever plots, schemes, economic mysteries, and the cunning that the two leads use to difuse personal endangerment or escape the clutches of economic determinism.
And it is the only example of Eastern fantasy I can think of that does it. There's no wandering samurai, no evil villains, no convoluted threads of mysticism and occultism ... and because of that the writer holds themselves to a higher standard in illustrating ther world and
conveying real endangerment and cunning of the protagonists. Every story is a new financial mystery, scheme, or interpersonal relationship dynamic they need to suffer through, but also represent real character goals and interpersonal relationship dynamics.
For the longest time, Lawrence's only desire is to open up his own storefront, and actuallybecome a part of a community. No longer being a travelling merchant, but a
stationary figure of a community's economy. The capacity to not have to travel around selling wares.