Modifying humanity

[nancylebov]

Three popular series with what seem to be human characters, but I'd say not exactly.....

One is George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. The people are somewhat less cooperative than real world people, and less interested in wisdom. It's set at a more or less Renaissance tech level (they have plate armor, but I don't know how well the rest of the tech matches up), but in the real Renaissance, people had religion and philosophy. I'm not saying they were extremely wise or kind, but they weren't as horrendous. Or am I too optimistic about the real world?

The next is Tolkien's hobbits. They're read as humans, and explicitly described as a branch of humanity, but they're clearly much less violent.

Rowling's wizards are psychologically much tougher than humans. As far as I know, a human (or muggle, if you prefer) would not have come out of Harry's childhood in as good shape as he did, though I'll be interested in comments about what's known about resilience. I don't think a human could have come out of Azkaban sane.

Any other notable examples of modified people? Or is it just likely that if a piece of fiction is going to have a unified tone, then some part of the human range has to be left out?

Comments

[subnumine.livejournal.com]

Hobbits are not particularly violent because Tolkien thought the rural English aren't. He was a linguist, not a historian, and he is thinking of the late nineteenth century, not Jack Cade or Ned Ludd.

The real difference with hobbits is that (as they must on Tolkien's premises) they are a humanoid culture with no religious practices whatsoever. They do not worship, respect, or (Frodo and other cranks excluded) know about the Valar; they have never been enough involved with Numenorean high culture to worship the One; being Christian would require revelation, which would be an anachronism; and they do not belong to any of the fraudulent cults of Morgoth or Sauron.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

IIRC, none of the humanoids except for the Elves and maybe some Numenor-influenced humans have religions.

It would have been consistent with Tolkien's other ideas for there to have been some sort of monotheism, or a not true but not entirely false religion based on the Valar, but I can understand that he didn't want to open that can of worms.

I don't know if there are technical terms for explanations from inside the story vs. explanations from outside the story.

From one angle, the hobbits are what they are because they're based on idealized Britons. From another, they turn out to be very satisfying to make stories about. I'm talking with a friend who was cheered up just by thinking about hobbits.

[kgbooklog.livejournal.com]

I don't know if there are technical terms for explanations from inside the story vs. explanations from outside the story.

Of course there are. (http://fanlore.org/wiki/Watsonian_vs._Doylist)