Is it really Monday?

[maderr]

It's a good day so far, which makes me nervous. Woke up on time, get to wear jeans, get to spend at least the morning, if not the whole day, downtown (filling in at another site) and whether I'm here or at my office I get hotdogs and brats etc for lunch!

Because it's Opening Day. Which I don't care about insofar as I get to wear jeans and get yummy stuff for lunch.

Man, it was pitch fucking black when I left the house O_o Stupid daylight savings. Also, traffic was nil so I had an entire hour to kill when I finally got downtown. Whack. Usually that trip takes a bare min of 45 mins. So I had to go chill in Starbucks. It was agony, let me tell you. Reading a pretty good book of short stories, will relate more when finished.

My books should be coming today *hums* Can't wait! Then I can finally squee with ki-chan over Sir Thursday.

There is zero to do at this job right now. And once we finish sorting the mail (it has yet to arrive), there will again be nothing to do. Technically after that's finished I can go back to my office, but it's Opening Day so the chances of anyone or anything getting out of downtown anytime soon in laughable.

A comment that I have yet to write elves got me thinking about the genres/cliches/whathaveyou that I've yet to tackle. Feel free to add to the list, which is meager as I've only just started contemplating:

*zombies
*real life video game (if you get what I mean)
*elves
*ghosts (I don't know that Christian really counts)

Have I ever mentioned I positively love this icon to death?

In other news, this place blocks Penny Arcade but not livejournal *laughs*

Comments

The elven, elfen, elvaan, elf, elve, etc. lore is . . .

[(Anonymous)]

The elven, elfen, elvaan, elf, elve, etc. lore is . . .

A thick quagmire of cliché that yet manages to be diverse enough to allow for significant variance among author interpretation. While very much similar, and almost worth mocking for the same reasons, a Tolkien Elf is by no means the same as a the Elves featured in Eregon by Christopher Paolini.

And it's hard as fuck just figuring out how the hell you're supposed to rewrite the word "elf" to suit the varying quantities they come in. I've seen flame wars start on forums just cause two fan boys couldn't stay happy unless the f's and v's were in all the right places.

Elven cliché though in general? First and foremost they are above all hippies. Tree lovin', grass growin', bunny huggin' hippies. In some novels they're also mass murdering, spell casting hippies, but bark bumpers none-the-less. This is probably the most significant cliché, since this appreciation for nature and all forms of life tends to lead into the deeper aspects of each authors elfen lore.

Are they defenders of life cause of their affinity toward it? Or do they have this affinity cause they defend it? Do they even defend it? In some fantasy settings the elves are the passive aggressive types, with only a few heroic notables throughout the authors story-line. More classically though, as with Tolkien, they are capable of violence on a mass scale.

They respect the land, they have this "old school" aspect to them. That is to say, they're always presented as older than the other plot relevant races. This age is conveyed in their affinity for stories, vast collections of written works from dead authors, their tendency to have lives spanning centuries, and a vast array of rituals and societal stipulations that have held them in a firm caste for the various millenia they have existed.

So far we have: Too old, too fucking Green Peace, blood thirsty despite vegetarian, and too many damn spellings for Elf.

Another key note is that they are almost always shown to be the BEST. For whatever reason, the elven physical form, though often portrayed as tall and lanky, is apparently as anime-esque cover for a damn professional weight lifter. Seriously, I can't count the number of stories where elves are feared and respected not simply for their age and beliefs, but because they're all god damn Jet Li's.

They not only excel at individual combat, often taking hundreds of foes single-handedly, but they also make for one hell of a war machine. They're peace loving, song writing hippies, but damned if they don't get in some war games between centuries. Cause when the big Plot Point comes, a huge billion of them walk out of the woods in formation to open up a can on the enemy base.

There is a good bit more to add . . . but that's all I can fit at the moment, and I'm off to finish a paper.

-F.

[mailechan.livejournal.com]

Christian counts! Well...if you include ghosts with the powers of an archdemon...and who has a gargoyle as a partner...er, maybe you're right.

If you've got time, you could write me something with peanut butter?