The wrong kind of details: the components of wonder (aka lmp's rant)

[Birdland]

OK, this may be apropos of nothing, but:

a little flying unicorn...

Kinda gilding the lily, aren't we?

These kind o "made-up" mythological characters just annoy the crap outa me.

Now take the Uunicorn. You combine the legends of the Egyptians, the Chinese, Medieval Europe, and throw in the narwhal tooth for that element of "well, maybe...", and you've got yourself a darn, fine mythological beast on your hands.

You can take that mythos and put it in unusual situations, surrounded by strange characters, and it stands firm. It has a history. You know what it is capable of, you can draw on its background to build its character. And your readers have a couple of thousand years of stories and legends to endear that character to them.

Now what do you get when you cobble together a bunch of disparate "cool" looking physical characteristics to make up a brand new beast? A mythological mutt, that's what. (And usually, just too cute for words. [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img] )

The same thing can happen to "human" characters. Tolkien based most of his heros on Northern Europe and Anglo-Saxon legends. These legends all have a common base, so whatever physical characteristics he gave them, whether Elf, Dwarf, Man or Hobbit, you were aware of their history and background. They stand firm. And they become real to us.

So what do you get when you cobble together a hero from Beowulf, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Marvel Comics, and a a 70's film antihero? A mish-mash, that's what. Another mythological mutt who can behave in any of a variety of ways, because their background is so disjointed. And in the end this very variety actually serves to make the character boring. It is as if the author were able to select their emotions and reactions as if he were choosing from a Chinese restaurant menu" "one from column A, one from Column B."

OK, that was a rant, and maybe it didn't make much sense, but what I'm trying to communicate is right on the tip of my tongue... [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img]