November 2024 – Geek Gab

The au courant Twitter dustup is about “Cosy Fantasy,” books where all the epicness is drained away from Epic Fantasy and monster protagonists set up not!Starbucks in the fantasy city of not!Portland and the monsters are the good guys and the humans are the bad guys.

One claim made in defense of this nonsense that it’s a return to the warm-hearted fantasy stories of the past, like Winnie the Pooh. The problem is, these stories were about charm and whimsy, example: the Mary Poppins books. Cosy Fantasy is different.

Whimsy focuses on the delightful and light-hearted. It requires an innocence, or at least a purity of heart, and speaks to innocence. Whimsy focuses on the good and beautiful, the peaceful and fun.

Whimsy is very British, not that Americans can’t do it, but we generally don’t in books aimed at adults. We do whimsy in books for children. And even our children’s books are more Aesop’s Fables than whimsical tales meant to delight.

Disney movies used to do whimsy, ages ago. Herbie the Love Bug is a very whimsical movie.

Hobbit: Whimsical in many places. The dwarven song, for instance.

Whimsical tales are books and movies full of that sort of, well, what overly serious people call nonsense. Light-hearted and beautiful in their way.

Modern day “Cosy Fantasy” isn’t about charm and whimsy, because modern writers generally can’t do charm, and can’t do whimsy. There is precious little light-heartedness or innocence in modern society.

Modern Cosy Fantasy is the infantilization of Fantasy. It’s taking great and epic beings of pure evil, and pretending that they’re nice and sweet and cuddly. That’s not focusing on the good, that’s denying that evil itself exists.

The book at hand (which shall go unnamed) was about an Orc barbarian, a “good” orc, settling down in fantasy not!Portland and setting up a fantasy not!Starbucks. She hires a “good” succubus and a ratkin baker.

Orcs brutalize, murder, and cannibalize themselves and other races. They are, by any measure, evil.

Succubi are literal demons from hell, who exist to seduce men and women (stealing from them any chance at an eternal destiny in Heaven) and kill them, and sometimes steal their souls. They are directly and obviously evil.

And rats are the epitome of vermin, carriers of disease and filth. Responsible for killing a third of Europe during the Black Plague, and (in large cities) for biting infants, children, and adults while they are sleeping.

Whimsy is innocent. You cannot be a cannibal rapist murderer torturer orc and be “good.” And portraying such a creature as good is not innocent. It’s denial.

Whimsy is pure-hearted. A “good” demon of sexual debauchery isn’t pure-hearted. It’s denying the essence of what that demon is: corrupt. And when the orc finds she has feelings for the succubus and they become romantically (and probably sexually) involved, this is well over the line of not whimsical.

Whimsy focuses on the fun and delightful. And while I personally love Ratatouille, and there is a little whimsy here and there in it, pretending that a ratkin in a D&D Fantasy world is anything but a malicious and disease-ridden filcher is, once again, not good. Vermintide speaks to the power of the archetype quite eloquently.

Orks, succubi, and plague-carrying rats are powerful and iconic archetypes. They are great villains. Turning them into chai tea swilling hipster coffee baristas or multiculti Gen Z college students attending a college prom (as Dungeons & Dragons recently did) robs them of their power and terror and isn’t whimsical.

Covering up monsters, pretending that a beholder isn’t functionally insane, that a mind flayer doesn’t eat human brains, that a demon is just another person but with red skin, isn’t about innocence. It’s about denial.

Denying the existence of evil means infantilizing Fantasy. And it isn’t a Good thing.

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You MUST find a path up the mountain, and that requires looking ahead, planning, and following through.

This (right) is from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and is absolute balderdash, at least for men. Men, you MUST find a path up a mountain, and that requires looking ahead, planning, and following through.

People who don’t plan thoroughly for an Everest climb, who don’t bring enough oxygen or prepare adequately for weather or avalanches, die on the mountain, and their bodies become permanent signposts that better prepared, less “zen” climbers pass on their way to the summit. People with a mission, experience, goals, and a plan to reach those goals may not always succeed, but they die far less often than people who wing it and trust to karma.

Men, choose a mission. In fact, choose at least two. Set long-term goals, and make your life about achieving them. Be flexible but be directed and goal-oriented.

Your first mission should be eternal in nature: worship God and follow the gospel of Christ. This will provide the framework and foundation for everything else. Life makes more sense, and everything comes into balance when you put God first.

Your second mission differs for everyone but should be compatible with the first. Pursue an Olympic dream, become a singer, rise in your company’s ranks, become a millionaire by 30, join the military and make General, publish your Epic Fantasy series, whatever you choose.

But no matter what you choose, mean it. Pursue it. Work towards it regularly. Never do anything to impede it. Pick your mission, make it your ultimate goal, and do the things necessary to achieve that goal.

Now, not EVERYTHING you do has to be in

obvious
immediate, or
direct

service of the mission (you cannot work all the time), but NOTHING should be in opposition to it. Never do anything that impedes your goals.

Learn your strengths, try a lot of things to discover your talents, and pursue your interests, but try a lot of things because you may discover new interests that way, too. And remember, never pick up interests or pick missions that violate the First Mission.

But also, don’t be too stringent or doctrinaire about that as well. A lot of time, we can guilt ourselves out of doing things that might be harmless or even great, by being overly severe in our interpretation of the gospel. Always let your conscience be your guide.

Sometimes you will fail at interim goals. You’re imperfect, it happens. Also, if you’re challenging yourself, you will fail. Failure is a part of learning and growing. That includes failures in pursuing the First Mission as well.

Pick yourself up, pray for insight, analyze your mistake, learn what you can from it, and MOVE ON. For violations of the First Mission, repent as your church mandates.

Always remember: no individual failure will doom the whole endeavor. Keep on going, and you can eventually succeed.

When you achieve your mission, pick another. If it becomes clear you cannot achieve it—sometimes you just lack the innate talent to make it in the NFL, sorry fellas—pick a new mission. If you can’t be a writer, maybe you can make it as an editor. Or a publisher. Or maybe you’re better suited to a career as a screenwriter, or a technical writer.

Masculinity requires mastery. Women find a skillful man decidedly attractive.

Work to master your particular field, work to build good habits of character (grooming, getting to bed early and rising early, personal cleanliness, etc.), good habits of morality (daily prayer, scripture study), and you will find your confidence in yourself as a strong, masculine man will improve. Even if you’re physically not impressive, you can master yourself, and this will lay the groundwork for success in pursuing other goals. And confidence is always attractive.

Working towards your mission will require you to develop skills. Interpersonal skills, writing skills, running or football passing skills, singing or guitar skills, whatever you’re working towards. WOMEN LOVE MASTERY. It’s inherently masculine.

Don’t idly wander from rock to rock or leaf to leaf, and hope to make it up the mountain. Survey the path, make a plan, and carry it out.

Now, unexpected events will occur, and some may seem to take us away from our goals. In the long run, you will find they either direct us toward better goals or advance our goals better than the simple, obvious, immediate path.

Have faith in God’s plan for you. He has one, and if you’re pursuing goals in consonance with your First Mission, he will help you move towards them.

Remember: A MAN ON A MISSION WILL ACHIEVE MASTERY, and such a man can do great things.

God loves you, Jesus is the Christ, and the Book of Mormon is true.

Month: November 2024

Fantasy For Those In Denial

Men, Missions, and Mastery