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Post by EdoBosnar on Mar 27, 2018 16:09:37 GMT -5
That's a nice interview.
I read some of the early stuff, including a prose adaptation of the first story/quest from the comics, ages ago. It's something I'd like to get back to and read in its entirety, but like Bearded Batman above, I just have so much other stuff to read that I wonder if I'll ever get around to it in this lifetime.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Mar 27, 2018 16:28:54 GMT -5
I've read the first half-dozen or so issues of Elfquest in one format or another. Another one of those books I say I need to get back too and that gets pushed aside for something else. It probably doesn't help that that type of fantasy isn't really my thing any more.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Mar 27, 2018 16:48:04 GMT -5
Since I've only read a bit of Elfquest and that probably 30 years ago...is it polygamy or polyamory? Because the difference is significant.
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Post by brutalis on Mar 27, 2018 17:13:50 GMT -5
Since I've only read a bit of Elfquest and that probably 30 years ago...is it polygamy or polyamory? Because the difference is significant. I want to say polyamory. It isn't so much they have or take more than one mate/partner but more that they don't restrict themselves and allow sexual/emotional relationships with others while they have a mate/partner... |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Mar 27, 2018 22:35:20 GMT -5
Since I've only read a bit of Elfquest and that probably 30 years ago...is it polygamy or polyamory? Because the difference is significant. It's Polyarmory, really. The elves of elfquest mate for life (which is a really long time, sometimes literally forever) with a 'soulmate' that they share their soul name with... one can only have children with this soul mate (there might have been one exception to that, but whatever). Outside of that, the elves pretty much practice free love.. there are a couple cases where 3 of them form a family group and all share their soul names, but that's not the norm. I certainly never felt like that was a major plot point, though it is described in detail over the course of the various series. You're welcome to be uncomfortable with it Shax, but you're missing out on a great story  |
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Post by rberman on Mar 27, 2018 23:30:08 GMT -5
The polyamory is certainly not a major plot point, though it does come up now and again. I just saw it as one more way that the Pinis were trying to show that these elves are kind of feral by human standards, operating by their own alien moral code in a variety of ways.
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 28, 2018 13:12:38 GMT -5
I'd be interested to see a few tougher questions, like their history as a publisher of other people's work. I'd bet Mark Wheatley and Colleen Doran would have a few things to say about it, though it seems that more would be directed at Richard.
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Post by DubipR on Mar 28, 2018 13:17:25 GMT -5
The first 20 issues from WaRP are definitely worth reading. From there it sort of meanders but there's some good stuff in there.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Mar 29, 2018 13:02:26 GMT -5
I really enjoyed the original series up to the point that it became a mouthpiece for polygamy. I'm liberal in many respects, but that's one lifestyle I just can't be comfortable with. My heroes can be straight, gay, bi, or trans, but not polygamists. It's not that I'm protesting the work; I just can't enjoy it. I found the sudden and unexpected promiscuity unpleasant as well, especially after so much had been made about lifemates “recognizing” each other. It’s like the book wanted to say that sex and love have nothing whatsoever to do with each other. I can understand having sex without being in love, to some extent, or the dilemma of being in love with more than one person... But having sex with someone while in a lifelong relationship with someone else? That’s just not for me. Good thing I’m not an elf! |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Mar 30, 2018 7:21:25 GMT -5
I always thought They were going for a couple different things... one was definitely separating sex from long term relationships, certainly.
I think alot of it was simply showing that the elves had their own culture that was different from our own. It's easy to see other races like this as 'humans with pointy ears' or, as with Star Trek 'humans with funny bumps on their heads'... I think they were trying to avoid that.
While it's not something I practice, I had no problem with the elves having that culture.. I'm not looking for moral guidance when I read a comic, you know?
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Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
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Post by Crimebuster on Mar 30, 2018 8:22:33 GMT -5
I read Elfquest as a kid, while going to a strict religious school. I personally didn't have any problem with the treatment of sex, though it was certainly an eye opener!
I think it should be mentioned that different characters in the series treat sex and relationships differently. Not everyone is polyamorous or polygamous. My memory is a bit hazy, but I only recall one group of three that was actually poly, and that trio's relationship wasn't developed in the original series, but afterwards. While the Go-Backs were very open sexually and seemed to have a free love type society, most of the Wolfriders either had pretty traditional relationships, or weren't in committed relationships. Even during the famous "orgy" sequence, there were couples who chose to only be with each other, such as Strongbow and Moonshade. It seemed to me to be very much a personal choice, and as such, I didn't think there was any agenda pushing poly so much as accepting it.
It's personally weird to me, but I don't have an issue with it intellectually, and I don't personally have a problem with how Elfquest treats it either.
The other thing that I thought was happening here was an exploration of how relationships would be different when the people involved are immortal. Commitment takes on a different slant when it's literally forever, and for some characters - not all! - that leads to more fluidity. I think it's an interesting discussion, one also touched on, albeit briefly, in the recent Netflix series Altered Carbon.
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Post by Batflunkie on Mar 30, 2018 8:59:22 GMT -5
One of my favorite little touches of Valiant's original run in the 90's was Faith's absolute obsession with Elf Quest. And good for them! Not many people, let alone a married couple, can proudly say that they've had an comic that spans 40 years off and on
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Post by Rob Allen on Mar 30, 2018 12:04:33 GMT -5
A lot of people live the way the elves do. It didn't seem foreign or weird to me. I guess I've spent more time in poly environments than most.
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Post by MDG on Mar 30, 2018 12:44:35 GMT -5
I read Elfquest as a kid, while going to a strict religious school. I personally didn't have any problem with the treatment of sex, though it was certainly an eye opener! I've never read Elfquest since I have a low tolerance for Tolkeinesque fantasy, but I wonder if this issue was why the Pini's couldn't come to agreement w/ Marvel. |
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Post by Batflunkie on Mar 30, 2018 13:32:59 GMT -5
I've never read Elfquest since I have a low tolerance for Tolkeinesque fantasy. I'm the same way, was never really one for Tolkein's flowery prose. But then I read and fell in love with Thorgal and I've become a little more accepting of it |
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