 August 27, 2013 - 12:25am | I was thinking about what types of books, shows and movies each race would enjoy the most. This also includes poetry, journalism, academic works, etc. This is what I came up with: Dralasites Most other races would find their favorite movies boring and comically stupid. There is little or no action, and void of any romance or pathos. Much of the drama would be about conflicting ideas and finding a resolution it, or finding philosophical fulfillment. I most cases, visual art intermixes with the written work, that requires an understanding of both to comprehend the entirety of the work. One form of Dralasite storytelling deals with highly complex ideas conveyed though talking animals and moving objects. These stories tend to be too complex to the other races, but they have become highly popular among Human preschoolers. S'sussu No mater what the genre is, their movies always focus on personal achievement and gaining the upper hand on all others. Emotion, morality and prose are all absent, and tends to be too dry for most other races to get into. The individualistic nature is also off-putting to Vrusks. Vrusk Their movies tend to come off as long, slow-paced documentaries to other races. Such stores tent to focus on an organized body - government, corporation, etc. - then a single person or a small gang. Such cast could easily be in the hundreds, with no real focus on any. Humans may enjoy them for educational reasons, but many could become overwhelmed by the large cast, or all the small social queue that only Vrusks would pickup offhand. Their stores can easily suffer form blatant corporate bias, and an obsession on Vrusk aesthetics through prose or too much set decoration. Yazirian Regardless of the genre, their stories focus on a protagonist and antagonist - be it an action story with a hero and villain, to a medical drama with a researcher fighting a mysterious epidemic - usually in keeping to their nature. Although they could enjoy the latter, they usually the former. Like humans, they share a natural propensity to create and idealize powerful, larger-then-life figures, like mythological heroes, costumed superheros and over-the-top action movie stars. This trait is absent with the other races. As noted, the only other race that could relate to their stores are Humans, and even still, Humans don't always take their works too seriously. To Humans, their sense of romances comes off like an Atlas Man ad, and the hero's motives tend to come off as self-righteous or egotistical. Humans Although they have the widest forms of storytelling, they value emotion, moral justification, conflict and final resolution above all other concepts. The heterogeneous nature of humanity has allowed for a number of writers/poets/journalists/etc. to find a place in non-human circles. It is not unusual for a human artist to create a work of abstract art that would motivate Dralasites to endless debates over its meaning. Or a book writer, that produce long-running series about a pan-national conflict that was looked over by most humans, but quickly became popular among Vrusk readers. So have anyone else though about how they convey stores? |
 August 27, 2013 - 7:26am | I think this is a good ground work in general but one thing I'm sure of is that genres of writing change over time and that perhaps it might be better to talk about how a dralasite would write a romance, a history, a satire and etc. Take for example the Bible; it has 5-6 categories depending on who is explaining them: history, poetry, prophecy, gospels, and epistles. and to a certain extent you could talk about subgenres like the Apocalyptic literature which is a distinct writing genre from a narrow time period in history and only represented in the Book of the Revelation. When I think of a dralasite satire I really think of a Mel Brooks film- Blazing Saddles, History of the World, Space Balls and etc. A dralasite history would be more concerned with motives and ideas behind what happened. Human history by comparison decides on one official story and tells that (history written by the victors) whereas I've learned that the American Civil War was not as simple as "freeing the slaves" because I read memoirs and journals by actual participants getting first hand views of event rather than let a historian or author tell me what to believe. A dralasite romance is not about love between individuals per se in the humans sense but a love of ideas espoused by individuals and dralasites would have their own version of Shakespear's "Much Ado About Nothing" where to dralasites from diametrically opposite sides of a debate come to love and respect the ideas of the other and in a very dralasite fashion fall in love yet their respective philosophies keep them at odds- Perhaps this is a blend of a Shakespearian Comedy and tragedy. To that end the greatest dralasite romances have an element of comedy like Much Ado About Nothing and an element of tragedy like Hamlet. I expect that the vrusk have those who love to study literature of other species enjoying it for its own beauty and intellectual stimulation. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 27, 2013 - 8:07am | Ancient yazirian literature would have much in common with the epic of Beowulf (whereas dralasites would like something like the Epic of Gilgamesh). Protagonist and Antogonist locked in a mortal battle where good and honor triumps Due to the emphasis on honor and clan I would expect that a whole genre of literature arose that we might call the "two sons" genre that showed one following the path of honor and the other neglecting the path of honor or clan wisdom with one prospering and the other coming to a bad end. Within this genre there would be some variations with the bad son gaining redemption at the end, the good son helping the bad son gain redemption, the bad son comes to a terrible end or the bad son goes all Cain & Abel on the good son. while the genre would be formulaic in construction of the stories, you would not know how the story was going to end and yazirians would revel in surprise endings, telling and retelling good stories over and over. no doubt this genre of literature developed during changing times- perhaps during a time of rapid change and development in yazirian society with trends in urbanization or increased industrial development. a strong theme would be the old ways are best and the changes happening are suspect. The Star Exodus would have a major impact on yazirian society. They have lost their homeworld and experience tremendous disruption of society and clan life. the earlie colonizations of the yazirian planets in the Frontier were difficult and challenging. Yazirians would tell stories from this time involving the quest for meaning and belonging. recovering something "lost": a clan relic, a missing clan member, honor, etc. These stories are called ? Exoducian or something along those lines. Or Quest literature since its a protagonist in search of something. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 27, 2013 - 9:45am | Another important consideration is audience, who your audience is can impact how and what you tell in a story. Also the teller's background can affect how and what goes into a story. For example in the Bible there are 4 gospels. Mathew was a jewish tax collector and writing to Jews so his gospel is the most jewish and concerned with jewish ideas principly he seeks to emphasize Jesus as the king heir to the throne of David. He also has the most in his gospel dealing with money- parable of the lost coin and such. Mark is writing to the Romans and he focuses on action: straightway Jesus did this or that; his gospel has less talk and more action. Luke is a physcian and writing to Gentiles but more specificaly Greeks and his gospel emphasizes the humanity of Jesus, his is also refered to as the gospel of women since women appear in it more than any other. John's is written the lattest and at a time when certain agnostic beliefs are attempting to make inroads into Christianity and he emphasizes the divinity of jesus in his writing and in particular de-emphasizes himself by refering to himself in the third person or indirectly in the narrative and not naming himself. Thus who the author is, and who his audience is can have tremendous impact on a written document. Genre and purpose of the document can impact it as well. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 27, 2013 - 12:10pm | The warrior epic could certainly be a yaziriat literary tradition but that is actually a very human idea what if the yazirian epics were not focused on the individual but in stead on the clan and thus were called clan epics? The emphasis is the clan which as per some of our discussions in the core four project the clan actually replaces the family. Thus it would be more natural for the ancient epics to be clan epics that are rooted in ancient oral trafition. Crafted as a learning tool to teach new generations the history and values of the clan. Because some clan rivals get mentioned in a clan epic the rivalrys lasted millennia since each new generation of pups were weened on these stories. Though the clan epic is rooted in a simple oral history of an individual clan it does not mean all clan epics are devoid of true literary value. Some have become quite legendary and are of such ancient origin tgat many if not most yazirians claim descent from the clan mentioned in these ancient epics. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 27, 2013 - 12:24pm | Yazirian poetry grew out of clan gathering/fireside singing thus its very rythmic with traditional ryhme schemes that evolved over the millenia. Yazirians love poetry and song.
Something new has happened in yazirian society since they came to the Frontier. In the past outcasts and clanless were marginalized in yazirian society. But now they gravitate toward non yazirian colonies where issues of out cast or clan are largely irrelevant. A yazirian living in non yaz colonies is not pre judged by his clans past but is largely judged on his own merits. This has lead to a new literary tradtion labeled Exile Literature and poetry. If there is one defining element to this new tradition its that there are no rules to it. Yazirians living and writing in thia tradition find themselves free of rules and constrictures of the past as well as encountering alien literary and art traditions empowers them to take the best from those alien traditions and experiment with it. Exile literature is boundless and some of the poetry is greatly admired by the other species as its "less blood thirsty" than more traditional yazirian poetry. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 August 27, 2013 - 1:58pm | When I think of Vrusk entertainment images of Communist Propaganda films pop in my head. Possibly some of the Chinese Mao era huge epic dramas but also alot of the Soviet era TV and Film. You could throw in some of the Nazi propaganda films for the huge dramatic effects. The whole goal of the entertainment would be to enforce the idea of everyone for the group/trade house/company and the individual is not important unless the individual is giving everything for the group. Probably not alot of sequels as the main characters would often be sacrificing themselves for the betterment of the group. One big break from the Communist/Nazi idea is (and this is something many confuse about the Vrusk) they are not social insects like ants or bees but semi-social insects like wasps and some spiders. If they were true social insects they would have evolved into a huge world spanning group and been mostly one sex. Semi-social insects have the smaller competing groups which are the core of Vrusk society. Lots of small Trade Houses would give rise to entertainment with alot of competition either business or possibly violent confrontations. Intellectual fare would be limited unless it incorporates the theme of "give all for your group". Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
