The strange attraction to dragons

[Narya]

Happy Year of the Dragon!

http://www.npr.org/2012/03/09/148295380/...be-dragons

What is it that makes dragons so attractive? Is it the fascination of having another race on intellectual par with us (or even above us)? Think about it... smart, flying, Tyranosaurus rexes popping in and out of our lives, randomly eating people and animals and destroying parts of our lives, is a pretty horrific idea. Who would want a world with dragons? Even if I had a dragon at my beck and call (the ultimate pit bull?) I would not be at all comfortable with the arrangement. Yet I can dream of it...

[fool-ish]

It's enough that we have to put up with one on here. Lord of the three realms or something, I think they're called

Siriusly though, I don't know what the dragon-love is all about. I certainly couldn't put up with all that self-righteous nonsense. Perhaps I just grudgingly admire them... from afar...very far!

[Narya]

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. Reminds me of the Michael Critchton book, "Timeline", in which several historians with a highly romantic idea of going back in time to an earlier age find out just how horrific and short life was back then. Same theme in "Jurassic Park", except that the dinosaurs are brought forward to our time.

But there is something glamourous about dragons. Perhaps the desire to be a dragon - intelligent, powerful, autonymous, and disdainful.

Tawny Man Series Spoiler

Though Icefyre seems very un-dragon-like in his loneliness and dispair.

[FoolishGirl]

But there is something glamourous about dragons. Perhaps the desire to be a dragon - intelligent, powerful, autonymous, and disdainful...

I must be somewhat immune to dragon glamour. I'm not enjoying the Rain Wilds Chronicles (have only read DK and DH) as much as the Six Duchies-centric books. I just don't feel much connection with the dragons. [sorry, 'thul beings/LOT3R!]

[Farseer]

Keep going...City of Dragons will have you salivating...well, this is the state it has me in and I'm still only in Chapter Four! It's GOOD STUFF!!!!

['thul]

*Breathes down Fool-ish' neck*
From far away, you say? How do you define close, little human?

[fool-ish]

Define close, you say? Anything less than an ocean away would be too close

[FoolishGirl]

Keep going...City of Dragons will have you salivating...well, this is the state it has me in and I'm still only in Chapter Four! It's GOOD STUFF!!!!

Will do! I need to go back and do a quick re-read the other two, before I proceed, so I can recall who is who...

['thul]

*taps Fool-ish on the shoulder with a very sharp claw*

you should admire from close by when you have the chance.

[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!