What Happens Next: A Gallimaufry

melancholic romantic comic cynic. bi & genderqueer. fantasy writer. sysrae on ao3.

Allegorical Racism

Last night, it finally struck me that fantasy writing is inherently racist. You would never expect Tolkien’s dwarves to ride horses, nor his elves to dig tunnels through the earth. Such things are simply not done by those races.They stay within their very narrow scope of definition…

And I call this type of racism “allegorical” because it is not generally thought of as racism, but rather a vector by which more profound truths are to be revealed. There’s no malice, just storytelling. By reducing each race to even less of a caricature than the worst Earthly stereotypes, the author provides a parable about human life. Tolkien’s dwarves are hard-working but riddled by avarice; his elves are wise to the point of folly; humans are filled with limitless courage and not much else.

- Thomas Bellknap, Game of Thrones, Fantasy and Allegorical Racism

(Source: dragonflyeye.net)

  1. fozmeadows posted this