The strange attraction to dragons

[Farseer]

That may be part of it, Fool-ish, being able to live vicariously in a world that has dragons (or assassins or pirates) and enjoying it without having to be personally afraid of being, say, abruptly killed.

Indeed. Such things seem attractive when we believe we are completely safe from them. Take wolves. I have never seen one 'in the flesh' and yet I'd happily sit here and tell you that they are my favourite animal for more reasons than I have time to relate. There are no wolves here, and much water and many miles between them and I, and thus I can safely admire them from afar...be they in truth or fiction. What they do does not affect me depsite my hearing of what they do to others.

Dingoes though, are different. Also members of the canine family, do I 'love' the dingo as I do the wolf? No. Why? Likely because they live in my vicinity and thus they affect me. I don't have to worry about wolves eating sheep or cattle or me (!) but I do have to worry about dingoes. I am also daily surrounded by their bad press, try as I might to ignore it. If nothing else, one does not grow up in the 80s as an Australian child and not become affected by the Azaria Chamberlain case. I have followed it for what feels like my whole life. ** This is not to say that I hate dingoes or want to destroy them for eating sheep or some-such (!!)...it's just an illustration! **

Similar to the wolf, I don't have to worry about dragons, assassins or pirates so I can safely be fascinated by them.

Hmm. This also brings bushrangers to mind. Kind of like pirates of the bush, they were/are often glorified and have been/are often written of sympathetically in Australian texts. No doubt the further from their presence in history that we journey, the higher in esteem we seem to view them and their antics. Held up at gunpoint tomorrow and the majority of we Australians would not be so ambivalent I'm sure!