5 ms·
I read a lot of Chinese fantasy fiction (xianxia and wuxia) online and its extremely common for the heroes of the stories to use potions or herbs or magical ing
by istorical 5y ago
I read a lot of Chinese fantasy fiction (xianxia and wuxia) online and its extremely common for the heroes of the stories to use potions or herbs or magical ingredients to increase their powers and abilities. Something unique about them though is it seems super widespread in these stories for the main character, neutral factions, and enemies / evil factions alike to exhaust discovered resources to extinction, with the main ethical / moral crisis being whether to distribute them according to power or according to fairness. Fights over how big one's share of the pie is are common, and 'evil' characters are often those that express greed by demanding an unfair share. But the question of whether it's a good idea or a moral choice to harvest an entire field of 1000 year old ginseng or stealing all of some rare previously thought to be extinct Phoenix's eggs vs tending to the field and harvesting only a small crop or only taking the resources of older birds rarely comes up.
There are plenty of other cultural differences in these stories but overall I'm always left wondering whether some of these reflect broader cultural attitudes or if this is like if someone tried to get a deep understanding of western culture by reading Spiderman comics and that's it.
- lupire 5y agoIs Game of Thrones an accurate model of USA culture?
- justinclift 5y agoMaybe Scottish history (give or take a few dragons)? ;)
- supp 5y agoYes, actually it is in a lot of ways.
- vmladenov 5y agoThe White Walkers were a direct criticism of the US public and government’s inaction on global warming.
- ericmay 5y agoNo it’s not. And it would be an unfair and silly comparison anyway.
- vmladenov 5y ago> No it’s not. From the man himself: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/16/t-magazine/george-rr-martin-qanda-game-of-thrones.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/16/t-magazine/george-rr-mart... > And it would be an unfair and silly comparison anyway. Your personal opinions on the allegory don’t affect the author’s intent.
- mlindner 5y agoGame of Thrones is set in Europe and is heavily inspired by real european history (Hadrian's wall, the war of the roses, etc).
- ptaipale 5y agoGame of Thrones is set on fictional continents (though yes, inspired by some actual European history). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fir...
- thepasswordis 5y agoGame of thrones certainly is an articulation of US cultural norms, yes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journey
- Wameaw 5y agoI'd think the culture of games and MMORPG had more influence. I've seen multiple spins on the scenario you've described, in which some scenarios the exhaustive approach is justified (the half-D world is on the verge of collapse, or about to fall to a corrupting force which will decay the resources, etc.); is reasoned (if the protag leave the sustainable portion, their opponent or enemy will plunder the rest, basically 0-sum game); is sustained (instead of harvesting everything, they transfer the resource to their own half-D, or if it's non-competitive, they do leave sustainable parts). Then other genres of the wuxia and xianxia type where the protag is the leader of a faction, and have the faction resources (garden, mines, etc.). I think you are thinking too deep into this. Reading a popular novel doesn't mean the readers agree with every action or idea the protag or the author take/presents, popular novel are more like fast food, maybe this fry is a bit too salty, maybe that fry is not salty enough, maybe the cola is lacking ice, etc.
- pimlottc 5y agoSorry, what does "half-D" mean?
- istorical 5y agoYeah it's true they don't always fully exhaust resources, but I wonder if the fact that such a large percentage of these worlds (comparatively to western fantasy worlds) are seen as 'well this is all gonna be gone soon anyway whether through natural effects or the actions of another bad actor so we may as well just abuse these resources anyway' doesn't reveal a slight bias compared to western attitudes. One could perhaps look at the behaviors of Chinese tourists at buffets as another example: https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/976211.shtml https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/976211.shtml But it's just a curiosity since as you say, it's not a representative sample and it's just a genre of fiction, not some real psychological / sociological study. I've also heard the explanation that this particular behavior could be a reaction to recent history - in particular the famines that China went through in the 20th century. People still have through direct experience or through their recent parents of grandparents that experience of literally starving. half-d? = half dimension / pocket dimension? don't know what half-d is.