I recently wrote about the movie Wizards which is a movie that I very much like because it broke some of the stereotypes of fantasy and created new combinations. I have decided that I am tired to death of the old fantasy tropes. I am bored with reading about the faeries of European folklore transported into an urban environment virtually unchanged. Tolkienesque fantasy to me feels very outmoded.
Time magazine’s latest issue is about the disaster that is Detroit. The unemployment rate as of August 2009 was over 30% and the population is dwindling. Or is it? What could be claiming Detroit? Gremlins were invented in the last century. They were not traditional folklore. What new spirits haunt Motown and shuffle to the old beats? What wheels are turning? Who is drinking the blood of the whitetail deer in the metroparks? How is the foliage overcoming half burnt out and deserted crack houses who creak under the burden of the Virginia Creeper? What hammer taps are heard and who is making them?
We are the dreamers of dream and the voices to bring forth the new from imagination. We can create anything.
What if there is a rust flake who pisses on parked cars and causes the undercarriage to rust?
What if the green goddesses’ youngest children have been listening to the anger of the streets and are rising up with thorned arms and tendrilled fingers? Dancing to a more raucous beat than the quiet hush of meadow grasses.
What if every time you hear the sound of breaking glass another dozen shrieks are born that run off to incite violence to quench their blood lust?
What if the will-o-wisp has evolved into a screaming blue and red flashing symbiote that assists a nightcrawler who dons the uniform of a policeman and together they ride the night looking for isolated couples who they can prey upon?
Just some ideas. Up to the challenge to create more? Mine are just off the top of my head.