tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4646938055861575195.post7143076654655981867..comments2020-11-16T08:38:56.087-06:00Comments on SKULLDUST CIRCLE: Anti-heroic fantasyWilliam Kenneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10204333210111653382noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4646938055861575195.post-8905352280095031622013-05-02T21:06:04.091-05:002013-05-02T21:06:04.091-05:00If you're in to anime, there are a number of g...If you're in to anime, there are a number of good anti-hero anime including Deathnote, Code Geass, and Berserk.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4646938055861575195.post-90671838999188743862012-06-01T10:28:01.090-05:002012-06-01T10:28:01.090-05:00I'm sick of anti-heroes. Just plain tired of ...I'm sick of anti-heroes. Just plain tired of them. I read "Lord Foul's Bane" when I was eleven, and hated Thomas Covenant all the way through six books. Now I wouldn't bother reading them; I tried to revisit a couple of years ago and gave up after a couple of chapters. The world is really cool, but I just don't like any of the main characters. There has to be somebody near the action to like, or who cares what happens to them? <br />That is not to say I want to read about angelic characters. Spice them with human frailties by all means. But enough with the bad guys! It's as much a cliché as saving the universe.<br />Conan, Elric, Fahfrd & the Grey Mouser, Severian, Vlad Taltos and others stand out; writing a good anti-hero is many times harder than writing a hero, but if well done, it works very well. Mostly you get epic failures, and it's well past boring. I've had the fourth Martin book sitting on my shelf for a couple of years. Stopped reading Jordan in the middle of book 5. I just don't care about anybody in these books (among too many others) to wonder what happens next. Why do I want to read about how horrible everybody in the world is? I can read the newspaper if I want that deception. <br /><br />Fact is everybody in the world is not vile and evil. Cynicism is a pose, a form of self-righteousness. We all know it, no matter what we pretend, or we could never eat a bite of food at a restaurant or drive a car. We couldn't wear clothes made by we don't know whom, use a computer assembled overseas from parts made in a dozen countries, or pay for groceries with a debit card. We trust literally millions of people with our lives every day. So how does cynicism fit into that? It's no different from a Church Lady looking down her nose at sinners--hypocrisy to the max.Renaissance Nerdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13952798313519783430noreply@blogger.com