(no subject)

[rhivolution]

Right, so I found this post, Gods and Monsters, by vito_excalibur, really interesting from a thinky perspective, both in interpreting the Terre D'Ange books but also from the questions posed at the end.

quote begins I'd quite like to see fantasy books in which the power religion wields is like the one it wields in this world: a great and effective social power, but not one in which clerics actually receive powers or knowledge from the gods. quote ends

I don't agree with the person in the comments who insists that active faith/religion is considered a necessary trope in fantasy, but I don't really have the energy at the moment to argue.

Comments

[azuire]

I would argue that any sort of fiction that concerns itself with human characters would have an equivalent trope. either that faith system would be entirely a social construct, or there would be elements of truth mixed into hundreds of years of social discourse. because said discourse tends to warp and change things. a lot. is it entirely necessary? probably not. but it would exist in some form or the other. passive faith/religion would be nice to make the worldbuilding more complete, though. why do we not have nice things like this!

of course, if you'd like your fiction served with a dash of alien civilisations, you can argue more strongly against the trope, especially for their culture(s) :D

*toddles off to think some more*