How do you like it?

[Jesi]

This is a question I'm wondering as I finished Vampire Academy yesterday - Do you prefer your mythological creatures as hundreds of years of storytelling fashioned them - that is to say *monsters*, or do you prefer them as modern man has created them - misunderstood human-people too? Following this, do you prefer your fairy tales as Brothers Grimm wrote them, or as Disney?

[Letitia]

Great question! I'm going to have to think about my answer though. Do I prefer the monsters I'm used to or ones that are more human? I can say that even the misunderstood current monsters sometimes kill, so are they any better than the scary monsters we grew up with? I know that's not an answer, but like I said, this will require more thought than I'm used to putting in on a Friday night.

[Esther]

I have never been a fan of fairytales but love greek tragedy.
I feel that today's fantasy creatures are edging away from the black and white moral perspective of fairytales where monsters or just horrible and scary.
Modern fanatsy is more like Greek Tragedy where people face moral dilemmas and impossible choices.

[Jesi]

@Letitia - I have a response ready to go for this, but I need to check with you before posting, to make sure we're on the same page. You say that the misunderstood monsters sometimes kill. I can't think of a modern example of that, except when they're killing "the bad guy." Can you give me an example?

@Esther - I've always loved both (fairy-tales and greek tragedy)! I agree that today's fantasy creatures are veering away from the black and white, but I have to wonder... does this make the monsters more human? are we "selling out" the "otherness" of these creatures in an attempt to put moral dilemmas into a creature that could just as easily be human? Is there a *need* to make these creatures into "different humans?"

[Esther]

Jesi wrote: "...are we "selling out" the "otherness" of these creatures in an attempt to put moral dilemmas into a creature that could just as easily be human? Is there a *need* to make these creatures into "different humans?" ..."

I'm a great fan of True Blood and the Sookie Stackhouse novels but one thing that attracted me in Twilight was the real threat involved in drinking someone's blood, it wasn't just a fun snack offered you by your latest love interest.