So let’s talk
about heroes, because a lot of the character of Sword & Sorcery
fiction comes through in the character of its heroes – or maybe
“protagonists” is a better word, since a lot of the main
characters in S&S are not heroes in the traditional sense –
they don’t stand up for truth and justice in the traditional way.
Sometimes they do it by accident, sometimes reluctantly. I would
call them heroes because they are larger than life, and the classic
ones are all of a definite stripe.
There is a tendency
in modern fiction to make heroes more “relatable” - which is
often meant that they are depicted as being much more like you and
me. A lot of the leads of fantasy stories start out as much more Joe
Average – or Jane Average – typical people with what are presumed
to be more typical life experiences that the typical reader will have
an easier time identifying with. I myself find this trend to be
often carried too far. After all, if you try too hard to appeal to
everyone, you end up appealing to no one. But the idea that a
character must start out more “normal” and then become heroic as
the story goes on is kind of ubiquitous.
Sword & Sorcery
does not cast its heroes like that at all. S&S grew out of the
pulp tradition, when heroes were almost if not
actually superhuman. After all, the pulp heroes like Doc Savage and
The Spider were just a small step between literary heroes and actual
superheroes, and nobody complained that The Shadow was not relatable,
he was just satisfying a very different need.
All the great S&S
heroes of the old days – Conan, Elric, Kane, El Borak, Fafhrd and
the Mouser – they all come to us more or less fully formed. When
we meet them they are not broody teens or humble hoemen, they are
adventurers already on the path with sword in hand. They are already
good at the things they are supposed to be good at. We don’t see a
Conan origin story, with him learning to fight and be tough, he is
just there, already brawny and hard-edged. The movies do give us
backstory, and I consider that one of the mistakes of the
interpretations. Humanizing these kinds of characters adds little
while removing what we liked about them.
Characters of this
type have largely fallen out of fashion these days. The only modern
characters who are of this same ilk are ones that hark back most
strongly to the pulp tradition, like James Bond, Jack Reacher, or Bob
Lee Swagger. These are all characters who come to us from some tough
military background, and who’s major character trait is the ability
to kick enormous amounts of ass. It is no mistake that characters
like this don’t always adapt well to modern works and worlds,
because they are conscious anachronisms.
So, my question is:
do S&S characters have to be this way? Is this an element of the
genre that cannot be dispensed with or changed? I would say no, and
in fact I think it is the adherence to this style of pulp character
that does a lot to make the genre seem dated and old-fashioned to new
audiences. I am not saying these kinds of characters are bad, but I
think the reflexive idea that Sword & Sorcery has to mean this
kind of larger-than-life, unstoppable hero should be looked at
closely.
What does a
character need for a proper S&S story? They need to be capable
of violence, they need to have a conflicted or morally compromised
nature, they need to be willing and able to endure hardship, and they
need to be interesting. They can be integral to the setting of the
tale or they can be an outsider, as Howard’s characters often were.
But the pulp standard of “The hero is awesome and will win because
he is awesome” limits your options, and risks reducing the story to
what Stephen King described as “characters who neither gain nor
lose power but simply wield it.”
Sword & Sorcery
is adventure fiction first, and fantasy second. It is less about the
tropes of magic as a metaphor for power than about pitting desperate
characters against harsh environments and harsher enemies. If drama
is character under pressure, then S&S actually presents great
opportunities for drama, as few genres place such emphasis on setting characters alone against terrible odds. With a series character your
options are limited, as the hero must survive to the next story
virtually unchanged, but when you free yourself from the constraints
of status quo, then the real power of the genre can shine through.
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