Laura 'ad astra' Ackerman writes...

Another try at sending this out-

I just typed up a particularly long question that didn't post and got lost, and I was foolish not to copy it somewhere before hitting submit. I apologize if it turns up later and this becomes a double post, and also if I can't get rid of the autoformating in Word and it looks a little screwy. After losing that long a question I am not taking a chance working directly into the web page.

It has been a long time since I posted a question... of course it has been a long time since I have been caught up with your answers. After reading all of the new responses, particularly those dealing with Oberon and Titania, a question has come to mind. [Actually two, but how many new ways can you ask, "What did Titania whisper to Fox?"? That question should almost have its own section.] The short form of the question is this: Just how different are Oberon's hildren from humans? I am not referring to physical or magical characteristics, but rather do they think in a quantifiably different way than do humans?

The long version of the questions comes after the long digression:

A while back a friend practically shoved an anthology into my hands and insisted I read a particular article. I believe it was called, "Hamlet in the Bush". The gist of it was that a young anthropologist found herself with an indigenous culture for a long boring stretch. [She had thought the off season would be a wonderful time to get to observe their culture. Had she asked them they would have told her the off season is the off season because the weather is so miserable that they cannot even visit the next village. They spend the time drink the local equivalent to bear waiting for it to pass.]

Before leaving she had had an argument with a friend. She argued that at base all humans are the same and once you do some explaining to take care of cultural differences, a great work of literature would be recognized as such by all people. The example that was bandied about was Hamlet, so he gave her a copy as a going away present.

With nothing else to do she sat in her tent and read it over and over until the locals asked her what on Earth she was doing. They were a non-literate culture and to them reading papers meant reading boring legal documents. Even a white person could not be so daft as to spend weeks doing so. She seized upon it an opportunity to test her theory and they, being a story telling culture, were happy to oblige.

She immediately ran into two problems:
-1-They didn't have a concept of "ghost". Zombie, yes. Evil spirit in false guise, yes. But the idea of a dead person's spirit hanging around this world was simply ludicrous to them.
-2-They thought Claudius was a great guy. He acted as an exemplary uncle and brother-in-law, although he waited a bit long in taking care of his brother's household. [Three whole months! And with only one wife to tend the fields!]

In the end they loved the story (with their corrections) and thought she was on her way being a great storyteller, (being female aside). They also told her to be sure to tell her elders that they had been good hosts and had corrected her misremembering lest she continue in error.

I think her premise held, but she hadn't realized how far cultural difference went. The more complex the story, the more it was tied to its own cultural assumptions and the harder it is to explain to another culture.

Back to Gargoyles-

In Gargoyles the basic emotions seem pretty much universal. Gargoyles, humans, New Olympians, and even Nokar and Matrix as far as we have seen them, display them. Love, hate, curiosity and fear, as well as slightly more complex emotions of protection and loneliness are clearly expressed and are more easily understood than some lost cultures of our own ancestors. Are Oberon's Children fundamentally different, or if we can imagine long enough the effects of great power and incredibly long lives we can empathize without too much brain-sprain?

There are great works of speculative fiction that try to understand the mind of The Other. Zelazny had a whole series of stories of robots worshiping and trying to understand the long last human race. I recently read a great book called "Exogesis" (a post-modern Prometheius) by Astro Teller dealing with how a newly emerged AI might think and how humanity might respond. If I would list every book I could think of on the topic I will never stop typing and will eventually have feel the urge to start listing plays and movies as well, (and probably have to deal with Frankenstein, and I am not fond of the book. It is hard to like a book when you hate the main character. Perhaps the movies were right to make the monster the lead character. :).

It all boils down to this: Are the Children of Oberon "the Other", or something very much like ourselves?

Boy this is long! sorry.

Sapphire writes...

Is New Olympian society a Patriarchal society in which males are in charge or is everyone equal regardless of gender? as a woman I get really offended when some men say that woman belong in the home, as a comedian on t.v. impersonating Artimis greek goddess of the moon and virgins once said 'all right girls down with men" I totally agree with her, right Matt (not the cartoon Matt but the Matt on this question server)

Anonymous writes...

Who has more power in terms of electricity a Labyrinth mutate or Jove of the NOs?

Anonymous writes...

Who was Helios decended from?

Anonymous writes...

1. Was the Ekidna in New Olympus a descendent of Echinda of mythology?
a.If so which one of the monster children was she descended from?
b.Why doesn't she look anything like Echinda who had the face of a human?

Anonymous writes...

Does Daedalus exist in the Gargoyles Universe? If so was he a scientist or was he a magic user?

Anonymous writes...

How did the first Talos work? Gears? Magic?
Who created it?

Anonymous writes...

You said that the ancestors of the New Olympians were the Olympians. Are these Olympians the gods who sat on Mount Olympus or are these Olympians something else entirely?

Sapphire writes...

Taurus said that Elisa Maza was the first human to visit New Olympus in over 2000 years meaning that around the time Christ was born, a human must of accidently stumbled on to New Olympus can you give discription of what must have happen to this human when he accidently dicovered the secret island?

Anonymous writes...

Why does Terry's mother become the UN ambassador to New Olympus?
What exactly is his mother's profession?

Sapphire writes...

Did the New Olympians made any great advances in the field of genetic engineering? Are New Olympian scientists at present capable of turning someone like Matt (not the cartoon Matt the Matt on this question server that always trys to condidict me) into a mutate like Sevarius did with Derek?

Sapphire writes...

Some monsters in Greek Mythology were once human for example Athena the Greek goddess of wisdom turned Medusa a very beautiful woman into a snake haired monster because Medusa had a love affair with Poisiden. I was wondering are any of the New olympians desended from humans who were turned into monsters by the fay?

Anonymous writes...

If Proteus is a villain for NO then how does he get off New Olympus to menace our protagonists or does he stay on NO?

Anonymous writes...

Why does Terry and Sphinx fall in love with each other? Afterall Sphinx isn't even human?

Anonymous writes...

Why would the Eternal looking NOs think that humans would worship them?

Anonymous writes...

What other New Olympians were you planning to introduce besides Ekidna, Medusa, Chiron, Jove, Helios, Boreas and his son?

Anonymous writes...

What are Talos and Taurus's function in the show? Are they also ambassadors to the UN?

Anonymous writes...

How does Terry become the ambassador to New Olympus?

Anonymous writes...

You said that Sphinx was a student so what does she study?

Anonymous writes...

You once said that you had a medusa character in NO that was eventually replaced by Sphinx. So did you take out the medusa character because you wanted to show that there were also human looking NOs?

Anonymous writes...

So have you planned a crossover with the casts of Pendragon, Bad Guys, Gargoyles and New Olympians appearing in the same episode?

Sapphire writes...

When the New Olympians moniter humanity do they moniter events like someone getting dressed or taking a shower? If they do I bet they get to see a lot of heaveanly bodies.

tee hee

matt writes...

obviously Elisa told Matt about many of the World Tour adventures (i.e. Hunters Moon- Easter Island Statues) did she tell him about the New Olympians? did she tell any other humans? did Goliath and co. tell the trio and Hudson about the New Olympians?

Basilisk writes...

1. In the GARGOYLES universe, is the classical Greek legend of the Minotaur (as being born from the union of Pasiphae, Queen of Crete and wife of Minos, and the white bull sent by Poseidon) true?

2. If you consider the Minotaur "a New Olympian before the term existed" or something like that, and if the answer to the above question is yes, do you see the white bull as fae? Assuming you consider

3. What about Chiron? Do you see him as the son of Cronus and the nymph Philyra?

Jim R. writes...

1. If the New Olympians are slightly more advanced than humans, why do they not take an interest to explore space? Or go somewhere else, like a new planet, to get away from humans if they fear them? I mean surely they could build something to liftoff without possibly getting detected by our satellites (if they even know that we have satellites in orbit and that we've already been to the moon and back).

2. Or is this only a human trait to explore? If so, does this make the New Olympians similiar to gargoyles, since gargs don't really seem to take an interest in exploration either?

3. And lastly, if you would get your show back, would you explain better the past history relations between mankind and the Olympians, because I'm kinda interested to know really why the Olympians left the humans, and why no human who lived then left any trace of the Olympians existence. (I know there could be a massive story behind this)