Knight of Ranko wrote:the kingdom is global, is my usual assumption, but the city only exists in tokyo.
The standard of living is high and people are content globally.
Its ok to allow a little irony to enter in.
Sailor_Chaos wrote:I've been considering writing a one-shot humor story in which H.P. Lovecraft (who has been known to be a vocal xenophobe) is transported to Crystal Tokyo by means of a temporal anomaly and the rest of the story is basically poking fun at his xenophobia. My problem though is I'm not quite sure how to portray Crystal Tokyo in an unironic untopian sense, I'm also not sure if Crystal Tokyo is just within Japan only or if it is global, can anyone help?
Maximara wrote:
I'm not sure if Crystal Tokyo can be portrayed in an unironic utopian manner especially from Lovecraft's Western 1920s-30s POV.
Another problem is all the foes of the Sailor Senshi can be argued to reinforce Lovecraft's xenophobia: Beryl used youma who are generally not of this world while being possessed by something not of this world, the aliens (it you are using the anime), Wiseman, Mistress 9, and Pharaoh 90 might has well stepped right out of a Lovecraftian novel and the same is true of the Chaos entity that seems to behind them and everybody else (except for the aliens).
Also you have the issue that the fact Neo-Queen Serenity is Japanese is going to taint anything Lovecraft sees ala Yellow Peril. Throw in the Cleaning (the Cleansing of evil = elimination of free will is a common fanfiction trope) and any concept of Crystal Tokyo being a utopia goes right out the window and it becomes more like Huxley's Brave New World (1932) which is decidedly dystopian in nature.
Finally there are the themes in Lovecraft that show up in Sailor Moon as well: Non-human influences on humanity, Fate, and Civilization under threat.
Sailor_Chaos wrote:Hmmmm your Brave New World analogy does give me an idea though I'm not entirely sure how to be satirical without coming off as racist when poking fun at his xenophobia. Plus of course I'd like him to come off as seeing wrong in his beliefs to at least some degree rather than being proven in them.
Ellen Kuhfeld wrote:When you have Pharaoh 90 lurking about, you don't need racism to work up a fine frothing xenophobia. Nor is xenophobia necessarily a thing that needs to have fun poked at it! Xenophobia is bred into us all the way down to the reptile brain. There's something strange in the neighborhood? Do you think it might want to eat us? Don't forget -- a lot of the early hominid fossils bear marks of being gnawed by leopards and such. That's only a hundred thousand years or so back. It's not the sort of thing a species forgets easily.
Strangeness might be dangerous. Best to be cautious until we figure it out. It could be a Death Phantom plot, or maybe a Great Old One.
Sailor_Chaos wrote:I think you're missing the point, Lovecraft's xenophobia revolved around his fear that any outside HUMAN cultures would destroy or corrupt the Anglo-Saxon culture of America. The reason I think it transporting him to Crystal Tokyo to both poke fun at and disprove his idea is that it shows a Japanese culture creating a "perfect" world.
Sailor_Chaos wrote:I think you're missing the point, Lovecraft's xenophobia revolved around his fear that any outside HUMAN cultures would destroy or corrupt the Anglo-Saxon culture of America. The reason I think it transporting him to Crystal Tokyo to both poke fun at and disprove his idea is that it shows a Japanese culture creating a "perfect" world.
Users browsing this forum: No registered users