John UM
A few days ago, an illustrator bird three threw a high opinion. When he saw someone on the front page saying that “the power of religion in the fantasy world is extremely weak,” he argued that religion originally had power above the medieval state, and that the net text ignored this power and exposed the author of the text. Or the modern Japanese have no knowledge and experience of religion
(https://twitter.com/tori33/status/1187554409242230789).
This assertion is very subtle and transcends my understanding. In the online novel “The Shield of the Brave”, the church has a pivotal influence on the world view and the development of the plot. In the series of teen fantasy novels Harry Potter, there is almost no religious existence. According to the logic of Bird III, I want to come to the author of “The Shield of the Brave”.アネコユサギThe “knowledge and experience” of religion far exceeds J.K. Rowling who claims to be a devout Christian
Moreover, the world civilization is very different. It is not only the monotheism of the Middle Ages and modern Europe and the Middle East. In the history of East Asian countries, theocracy has been subject to the control of imperial power for most of the time, and has become a tool for the emperor’s self-beautification. It is only natural that Japanese online novelists who grow up in such a cultural background have different perceptions of religious power from Westerners. What’s more, the traditional Shinto belief in Japan is an animism of “eight million gods” and no well-organized religious institutions. In many fantasy works, although there are no clears church groups to appear, there will be elements of folk beliefs such as “elf (not elf, but spirit)”, “pray”, “ceremony” and “personal sacrifice”. This is not a reality. Refraction of religion? It is required that all fantasy works must be copied from the template of the Christian Church to emphasize the power of religious power. Can we deduct an “only Western” hat?
And the light novel writer Fei Qianwen believes that perhaps, not the network language fantasy does not write religion, but the current writer does not want to touch religion. He pointed out that online novels are an extremely pursuit of “fun” media. Although many people want moderate realism, there are many people who do not need too vivid negative descriptions
(https://twitter.com/HizenHumitoshi/status/1188309528028176384).
The network novelist drifting on the Twitter has opened several brain holes on the religion in the fantasy works, but in the end, it is concluded that “deep digging does not mean anything” and “has nothing to do with the fun of the novel”, self-denial Lost. He even advocated that to write a fantasy work that the Japanese would like, it must restrain the existence of religion as much as possible
After all, this is a country that begins with a New Year’s visit and ends at Christmas
If the author really lacks “knowledge and experience” about religion, it is reflected in the works, may not describe religious forces, but stereotypes of religion
The game scripter and online novelist Yin Naner pointed out that compared with the “religious weak” works, the online novels that recognize “religious evil” will make him frown. This may also be one of the routines. When playing a group, it is often the case that it is seldom written to be evil in the setting, but the individual who plays is always ugly. He believes that this may be a strong taboo for people
(https://twitter.com/isikusu/status/1187589261509283840).
No way, under the influence of the enlightenment narrative, the exaggerated impression that the Middle Ages is equal to darkness and ignorance, and the church is equal to corruption and brutality has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. What’s more, in the era of atheism, the authors who want to describe the church as a great light, and the readers who want to see such a church, are afraid of being a minority
However, even if you want to write the church as a negative image, there is room for thought
When many people refute the argument that “the religious power of the network is too weak”, they all say that if the religion is set too strong, it will become the story of the religious war quagmire. In the works, the cartoonist Daxi Lane, who described the tragic religious war, saw this saying. It is a bitter smile: religion will lead to people’s enthusiasm and cause war and persecution. This religious view is too extreme. What kind of extreme comics have been read? ?
Daxi said, indeed, religious artists can actually use magic in fantasy works, especially if they can use the magic of healing, it may become a strong presence in society. In reality, there are also examples of religious people like Rasputin who use healing power as a weapon to gain power
If the religious power is strong, it may indeed cause war and persecution, but compared to these, the church has many champions, mobilizes soldiers to threaten secular powers or carry out blood revenge, master all kinds of privileges to save wealth, in the emperor’s election. It is more appropriate to obtain voting rights and expel the monarchs who are opposed to themselves
The feeling of reading the common different world fantasy works in Daxi is that the religious power in these works is weaker than the power of the state. In many works, most of the things are managed and controlled by the state. Just like in modern society, the rule of the state goes deep into every corner of society
Daxi also suggested that if you don’t know how to describe the magical fantasy world, you can read historical novels. It is not necessary to use religious issues as the theme, or to describe the forms of faith and doctrines in a tiring way, as long as every detail of social life is taken for granted in relation to religion. Just like the story of your long letter, you don’t have to write the instinct temple in detail
(https://twitter.com/kouichi_ohnishi/status/1188163936249470976)