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

[llennhoff.livejournal.com]

Lawrence Watt-Evans Lords of Dus series has as it central character Garth the Overman. Overmen are literally modified humans, sorcerously created several ages ago by powerful human wizards. I think Overmen (or at least Garth) are slightly less intelligent than humans on average. When I asked him in person Watt-Evans disagreed and just thought Garth was naive. It is possible he suffers mostly from not having an RPG background - during the initial event which sets off the whole series I was almost literally shouting "No! Don't do it!."

I've only read a few of the Harry Potter books, but other than Harry himself what examples of psychological toughness do you see? I remember thinking the wizards lacked creativity in general and found their resistance to technology absurd.

[llennhoff.livejournal.com]

The next is Tolkien's hobbits. They're read as humans, and explicitly described as a branch of humanity

Treebeard thinks they are something entirely different, and adds them into the long list (First name the 4, the free peoples) as such. Is the origin of hobbits mentioned in the appendices? It has been a few years since I read them.

[carbonel]

An overt example is the "angels" in Sharon Shinn's Samaria books.

[(Anonymous)]

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.

This sort of variation is actually possible within our family. Compare common chimpanzees to bonobos. Interestingly, hobbits are the only race in Tolkien's world, other than the Great Spiders, to be or ever have been matriarchal -- as bonobos are the only great ape to have female-dominated societies. Even more interestingly, bonobos were only discovered to exist as a seperate subspecies after Tolkien's death.

Though bonobos, of course, are much more violent than hobbits.

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.

This could be a side-effect of the gene for magic-use.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Honestly, human resiliance has a far, far greater range than you might think. Sure, an AVERAGE human would be unlikely to come out being an orphan locked under the stairs for their entire childhood . . . but real, live humans have grown up in equally horrible conditions and come out sane. Harry's remarkable for that, but not inhuman.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

If you are thinking in terms of apparently modified for plot/genre premises, rather than overtly modified, there is a whole literary clade of private detectives who have statistically implausible resilience to being repeatedly hit on the head.

[gildedacorn.livejournal.com]

>I don't think a human could have come out of Azkaban sane.

It's not clear that wizards came out of Azkaban sane either. Sirius Black came out *functional* (which, I agree, is, more than any human probably would have), but he had any number of neuroses. (Some of which would have been better dealt with if he hadn't been stuck in his mother's house with Snipe snaping, I mean Snape sniping at him.)

[orangemike.livejournal.com]

Martin's Game of Thrones world was used in an article I read once to serve as a classic example of a crapworld (I think that was the term used: a world in which there exists little nobility, little honesty, little faith or decency, and in which all the expectations of cynics come out true*) within the fantasy genre.

*(Imagine a hardback copy of Atlas Shrugged slamming into a human face— forever.)

[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.

[avram]

Are hobbits clearly less violent than humans? Tolkien describes historical hobbit wars (there's that bit about the invention of golf).

[kgbooklog.livejournal.com]

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?

I think it's because we're viewing humanity not just through the author's eyes, but through the perspective of what they need/want for the story they're trying to tell. (And that "unified tone" is a big part of why GRRM was never one of my favorite authors; I want to see some contrast in my art.)

Watt-Evans' Ethshar series is another example of humanity which is remarkably good-intentioned and reasonable (in one book he gives thousands of people super powers, and we only see three chose to use them for evil).

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

You're too optimistic about the real world. Martin's world has as much religion and philosophy as it's source material, and similar levels of Truth, Justice, and Freedom(tm).

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Most Heinlein books appear to have humans in them, but on closer inspection they are some genetically modified race whose tendencies don't line up with what humans do. For example, in the Free Mars one, tribes are ridiculously self-loyal and non-contentious, and the opposition folds because the heroes temporarily have the upper hand. Giving up like this is a trait I rarely see in governments.

I think Ayn Rand falls into this category too...?

[henrytroup.livejournal.com]

Well, there are Cherryh's azi, who are definitely biologically human and psychologically manufactured.

There's the race in Left Hand of Darkness, and a few others in Le Guin.

Aguably Vernor Vinge's characters are the inverse of Martin's - they're a touch too rational to real be human. I'm thinking particularly of The Peace War here.

LE Modesitt has some cool stuff here

[tahkhleet.livejournal.com]

First is his "Magic of Recluce" series where the people of Recluce are an odd, powerful small island (about about a week or two to walk across it on foot on a good road) based on something that is pretty much "magick for social engineering". Basically, the people of Recluce are all taught to work low level but effective magick to ensure prosperity, lack of disease, and public order. Everyone is taught that the most important thing in life is to do everything thoughtfully and with attention to detail. People who show in a sufficiently demonstrative way are exiled. (it can be as big as killing someone or as small as refusing to learn to do your utmost best at woodworking because you find it boring)

This btw, was after the founder using order magick that infallibly told him if someone was lying or not to kill any "bad apples". There were only a couple of dozen people on the island (a guard post of a greater kingdom) and he took it over and got a good "seed" and made sure his successors knew how to do the magick so they could tell if someone was being corrupt or dishonest. Only people powerfully adept in order magick were allowed to rise to prominence. And order magick itself punished them for being dishonest. the dissonance in their heads was too painful.

Now, this isn't quite a utopia. There wouldn't be a series of novels about it if there weren't. The world outside Recluce is horrible in major, catastrophic ways but Recluce itself has some pitfalls. Lack of imagination and flexibility is a major one. The guy who invents the order-magick based steam powered, iron hulled ships that keep Recluce safe...he was kicked out for not giving up his "mad dreams about using controlled chaos to power an engine". Yet without his contribution, they would have been conquered by the chaos wizards' nation. (interestingly enough ,that nation is _also_ atypical and has something of the same systematic oddities.)

He also does a fascinating series called the Corean Chronicles which involves a race of what can only be called "Classical Greek Ubermensch Vampires". Their society is based on sucking the life force of a planet out by their inborn psychic powers to do things like make items that never fall apart as long as there is a biosphere to power the change made to the item. They don't die of old age. But they trash planets. 2-3K years and a planet is DONE. Its a lifeless husk. Sounds pretty villainous? Well, the second trilogy (the "So and So's Choice" books) addresses just what it's like from the vampire's side of things. There's even a virtuous vampire protagonist. Their society has strongly Neiztschean overtones, an obsession on "achieving" and creating "cultural wonders". Their art, music, food, architecture and literature are fantastic. However, the moral hollowness of their society is described in a sociological manual which the author quotes periodically. It basically describes how every time they use up a planet, the switch to a new one almost inevitably results in a civil war that threatens the whole exodus itself o_O