Lawprof Dave Hoffman has an interesting interview with fantasy writer Patrick Rothfuss on the portrayal of law in the fantasy genre.
Rothfuss makes the interesting point that there is nothing antithetical between having a functioning legal system and a society that believes in and uses magic. After all, ancient and medieval legal systems functioned in a society where most people took the idea of magic seriously and believed in the existence of demons, witches, monsters, and so on. The real reasons why civil law doesn't play a big role in fantasy literature area combination of 1) the relative ignorance of most fantasy writers about law and legal systems, 2) the fact that legal disputes are usually not a good way to advance a fantasy plot (as Rothfuss implicitly points out), and 3) the strong demand of much of the fan base for "action"-oriented plots that feature lots of violence and sorcery. However, as Hoffman and Rothfuss discuss, that may be changing with the rise of more "realistic" fantasy literature in recent years; "realistic" not in the sense that the authors' imaginary worlds conform to the laws of science as we know them, but in the sense that the story is set in a more fully developed and internally consistent society. This has already led to a more realistic and sophisticated treatment of political systems by fantasy writers. The same development might also impact the portrayal of legal systems.
Related Posts (on one page):
Not true. Though I haven't seen any systematic survey evidence, I know of lots of conservative and libertarian fans of the genre (and former D&D players). I myself am both a genre fan and one-time D&D player, yet no one would mistake me for an "extreme leftist" or even a moderate one.
Of course they're lefties.
May I mention "Magic, Inc." by the very not-leftist Robert A. Heinlein as an excellent example of law in fantasy literature. I bet his estate could make a tidy sum off an "All I Need to Know about the Law, I Learned from Reading Heinlein" book.
As for the matter of the political nature of SF/F and its fanbases: in science fiction we can leave out the too-obvious example of Heinlein's works like Starship Troopers and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and you still have settings like David Weber's Honorverse or the works of L. Neil Smith, Poul Anderson, some of James Hogan, and so on. These authors are successful because they have a dedicated fan base interested in their ideas, and they're interested because they're NOT all liberals.
As for fantasy, the pickings are slimmer but you still have works like Terry Goodkind's The Sword of Truth Series, which borrows liberally from Ayn Rand or even Pratchett's Discworld series in which the "narrator" has quite a lot to say on the nature of government, most of it trending toward the libertarian point of view.
I can't recommend all the authors and books I've mentioned above (some, frankly, are excreable) but I DO recommend you do some reading in these genres and meet more of their target audience before you comment on them again. You'll be surprised at what you'll find.
To quote the above, of course they're leftists. It's a classic leftist belief that, "I'm better than everyone therefore I should be in the elite group who's in charge and makes all the decisions for the hoi polloi."
The judge is ready to strike down Massachusetts's witchcraft laws to prevent an injustice but Alvin, the defendant, gives an impassioned plea against judicial activism.
With the Sci-Fi crowd a lot of them are NASA-fetishists, so they often have an overly optimistic view of the state.
There are some interesting trials in the works of Jack Vance, for example, in Araminta Station and The Face.
Pratchett's Discworld series in which the "narrator" has quite a lot to say on the nature of government, most of it trending toward the libertarian point of view.
Heh. As a liberal, I'd read Pratchett's books as expressing a fundamentally leftist point of view, to the extent they're real-world political at all. It's all in the interpretation, isn't it. Anyone who's a fan should know the bad news, though -- he's just been diagnosed with early-onset Altzheimers. Lousy, awful, terrible thing to happen.
Similarly, I personally know quite a few people in the hobby games community, both players and professionals. Quite a significant number of them are conservative, libertarian, or thoroughly apolitical. Granted, the liberals are a majority, but the same is true in, say, computer programming.
They are excellent Holmes-esque stories set in a world where magic works, and the Dr. Watson character is a Forensic Sorcerer, leading to many discussions of the use of magic for collecting evidence, how being under magical influence affects ones moral and legal culpability for crime, etc. They are great stories.
Very enjoyable book, and I highly recommend it.
That's funny, I tend to think that's the way libertarians and conservatives think (i.e, I'm better than everyone else). It's almost like both of us are projecting our stereo-types on the political groups we disagree with. Funny that.
For what it's worth, most role playing gamers I've known have tended to conservative or libertarian, or at most liberaltarian viewpoints, but I was never a gamer, so my perpsective may be skewed.
I tend to think that sci-fi and fantasy have a lot of over-lapping fans, but if I had to guess, I would think the fantasy appeals more to liberals, and the sci-fi more to conservatives.
Steven Brust's Dragaeran novels -- The Vlad Taltos books, and the Khaavren romances -- have several issues that revolve around the legal system he has created. But be warned: he is not a conservative (a self-avowed Trotskyite)
What about the trial in "Alice in Wonderland?"
Not to mention "The Barrister's Dream" in "The Hunting of the Snark."
Almost all of the D&D players I know are consevatives and most of them are either active duty military or veterans. Too top it off most of these conservative D&D players are also computer programmers.
BTW, count me in among the non-lefty D&D crowd.
If TV counts, Buffy the Vampire Slayer has had at least one major plot about the law: a slayer kills an innocent (well not that innocent, he worked for the Mayor) mortal in her pursuit of vampires. Is she guilty of murder/manslaughter? Does she have to answer to mortal courts, or is she above the law?
I think many fantasy worlds will naturally be set up with "older" forms of government--monarchies, oligarchies, etc. That means that you'll be hard pressed to find concepts that parallel or channel our own modern legal system or public institutions. If you want to count things like treaties as law, however--which, in fairness, they are--you'll find them in all manner of fantasy literature. "The Accords of _________" is practically cliche in the genre at this point.