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Nicholas Kotar

Fantasy inspired by Russian fairy tales

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Fantasy For Our Time: Cute Monsters and the Problem of Evil

Whatever happened to the good old days when we recognized that some things are ugly, some things are monsters and you can’t fix them?

In this episode, I address the increasingly prevalent phenomenon of cute monsters in fiction and why it is a symptom of a more significant breakdown of a concrete worldview in society. Monsters without teeth are really just a way to say that there is no such thing as evil; there is only misunderstanding.

The minimization of all monstrosity to nothing but a lack of tolerant understanding removes the task of human self-examination, seeing the potential of evil inside of us, and having the hope for redemption.

Malevolence is a force, simmering under the surface of all humans, and it is real. 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

The Children of Time series by Adrian Tchaikovksy

The BBC series “Silk”

Good Omens

Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun series

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Written by:
Nicholas
Published on:
May 30, 2022

Categories: PodcastsTags: dragons, epic fantasy, epic fantasy inspired by fairy tales, epic fantasy series, evil, fairy tales, fantasy, fantasy fiction, fantasy podcast, fiction, monsters, Nicholas Kotar, Russian fairy tale, Russian fairy tales, Sci-Fi, the problem of evil

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