Confession · 2:32pm Apr 30th, 2013
I really loathe fluff "Humans in Equestria" stories.
I don't think that counts as an actual confession because I doubt it's all that unusual. However, after re-reading Chuck Finley's articulation about why he despises misuse of the "Comedy" tag on stories, I figured "hey- everyone else has opinions, why don't I try some of this articulation stuff"?
I dislike 'fluff' humans in Equestria pieces for one really big core reason- I find the idea of a human being getting magically transported to an alien world to be a terrifying and disturbing prospect. Most HiE fics of the sort I'm referring to play the human landing in Equestria as wish fulfillment of some sort- be it romance or friendship or OMG I get to meet the real Princess Celestia, most of the 'fluff' HiE fics I've read just dive right into the cuteness and novelty of being in the land of Pony. By their nature these stories tend to skip over the really obvious existential questions (am I hallucinating? what's going on here?) or give them quick, handwaved answers, because the point of the story isn't really exploring any of the potentially interesting questions arriving in a cartoon world raises- the point is to get to the fluffy bits that the author wants the reader to fantasize happening to them. The icky stuff is best ignored or shoved off to the side. To an extent, I can forgive skipping doubts about sanity or 'how did I get here' in favor of childlike wonder- Equestria is a fantasy kingdom, if I were dropped off in Narnia or Calabria* or Columbia for that matter, I know the first thing I would do would be to run around exploring for as long as I possibly could.
But after that, I would be very scared and very lost. The reason I think that landing in Equestria would be a fundamentally disturbing experience is that I don't think most authors who write this kind of story take into account the massive culture shock which would accompany it. Even assuming familiarity with the world of Equestria and some of the creatures therein, here's a short list of things we still don't know about the land of magical pastel equines:
-How their economy works- we can assume it's some form of capitalism based on every episode involving Sweet Apple Acres selling things ever, but what skills are actually valued in Equestria? Does the fact that your career is essentially predetermined by your cutie mark mean that the structure of education is fundamentally changed to reflect this? Assuming the story is about a human being trapped in Equestria, what kind of work are you going to do in order to fit into this new society?
-Calendar structure (beyond an off-hand comment about "a hundred moons")
-Artistic history
-History of the country in general beyond some key moments
-Equestrian science and its current studies
-(big one here)- Equestrian pop culture beyond Canterlot as fashion central and The Wonderbolts as home team of flying. Imagine a world where no one piece of art you've absorbed in your entire life- from Spiderman to The Scream, from Les Miserables to Mystery Science Theater 3000- is completely alien to the inhabitants. Imagine the dollar, sunk forever. McDonalds is gone. If you are not fainting yet, Douglas Adams was completely wrong.
-Cultural religious structure (is there one?)
This is just what I could come up with off the top of my head, I'm sure brighter minds could add more. The thing is that all of these elements could be addressed by a writer taking time to properly build the world, so the problem is not that we, the readers, are not aware of them. The problem is that a character entering the world of Equestria would not know these things, no matter how many episodes of the show they've watched. There would be an adjustment process, a discovery process. If you transplant a character to a new world with no sense of culture shock whatsoever, you aren't doing it right. That doesn't necessarily mean your story has to be dark or edgy. My standout anime of the current spring season is Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet, which deals with a lot of these stranger-in-a-strange-land themes- but does it in such a way that the alien world that it's set in seems vibrant and full of life. Also it has evil giant-breasted pirate queens getting into a fight with a super robot built to take on Cthulhu's minions.
If you are not already watching this series, consider that sentence the highest possible recommendation.
The thing about culture shock and adjusting to a new world is that they are by far the most interesting, compelling parts of being dropped in a new plane of existence as far as I am concerned. We should be allowed to explore the world with the main character, feeling the things they feel, seeing the things they see. All of the things they see. And a new world should not always be a happy place.
*Oh, for those who aren't nerd enough to look it up or don't know about it already- Calabria is the fictional setting of the tabletop game Ironclaw. The attention to detail in the lore of the various noble houses, their history and traditions, their religions, etc. is phenomenal enough for me to recommend picking up a PDF copy of the book even if you never intend to play in or run a game.
Agreed on lots of this, which is why whatever its flaws, I love Oh, To Be Old Again as a fic. A dude ends up in a pony child's body and deals with the claustrophobia, alienation, frustration and everything else that this entails.
More broadly I think, when someone uses a piece of writing as wish-fulfilment tripe rather than to tell an interesting story, it's going to be tripe however you slice it.
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God in heaven is it ever.
I thought about expanding this post to complain about what I'd consider the other major dealbreaker for HiE- the humans are often bland, uninteresting, or otherwise not compelling enough as characters for me to care whether or not they die horrible, screaming deaths- but I was busy and kind of wanted to get the post up before I second-guessed myself into deleting it. I lose more things that way.
Aside, that feeling when you realize that you forgot to clarify the more obscure fictional setting you threw into your list of fantasy kingdoms. Asterisk now actually leads to an explanatory footnote now. Ba-derp.
I think the bigger danger (and more hilarious approach) is incorrectly assuming familiarity and having that come back to bite you.
We know Equestria is very similar to (American) Earth in lots of ways, but we don't know if it's EXACT.
We know there's currency, farmers markets, and haggling; how one haggles can be a very complex cultural thing.
We know they have days, nights, weeks, months, and years. The structure of their calender follows at least two familiar seasons. But what if they have five day weeks? What if they have leap months because of pegasi scheduling? I could go on.
I don't mind glossing over culture shock to serve the story (I don't read fluff fics anyway). It's when you assume familiarity and that doesn't cause problems later on that I consider the real missed opportunity. That was the only thing Turnabout Storm did well.
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I'll need to read that one eventually. Phoenix Wright fics have burned me though. Burned me very badly.
I try not to read fluff, but I have a masochistic compulsion to give everything a chance. Absolutely masochistic.
I'd consider familiarity jolts to also be part of culture shock- I guess my bigger problem is that stories like this need to remember that there's going to be dissonance. It doesn't matter how much of a utopia Equestria is, growing up on earth in a particular culture, certain things become normalized. You're not going to adjust to a new one on your first week out. Or month. Or maybe even year.
Hell, just the fact that Equestria's structures are all built to accommodate creatures who go about on four legs would have to suck sometimes. Lower ceilings in earth pony/unicorn dwellings, probably?