Terror, or Ruminations On Dragons

[tlvop]

People in these days speak of terror often. They speak of flames and death and suffocation and men with axes and machine guns, they speak of cold creeping cancer, of minds turned against themselves, of that ever present danger of loss.

It is an old, tired terror. It is a terror less of the thing and more of that which promises to follow—the constant litany of but I am too young to die.

That is not what terror used to be. Terror used to be long, sinuous muscle, arched back and arched neck and arched wings, covered in scales the size of small plates. Terror used to wise, angry eyes and poisonous breath and long, fearsome fangs.

Terror used to be real, used to reach back to the hindbrain and wring tears from the bravest of men, forcing heroes to their knees out of sheer ancestral horror, overwhelmed by what stood before them.

This is terror: unbridled, untamed, and undimmed by ages past.

This is the dragon.

Comments

why do I not have a dragon icon?

[cupenny.livejournal.com]

With so many fantasy books through the last few decades focusing on dragons to some degree (and I'll even mention dear old Puff), dragons, lately, have gotten 'safe'. Even when they're burning up the whole world and leaving nothing but ash, they are known- and since we fear the unknown, dragons are just another monster to deal with.

So much, that they usually aren't monsters anymore. They're allies and mentors and friends.

We don't have that fear, that wonder- that fear-of-god awe that dragons used to inspire. "Here there be dragons"- the uknown at the edge of the map, the edge of the world. The creature the size of a mountain that could hunt down the roc and leviathan that might- oh fear!- might notice us.

Humans have filled in those edges of the map, and did our best to tame anything that could be called a dragon- and I think in doing so, we've lost our respect for anything unknown and greater than ourselves. Considering what we've done to the world, I think we still need that.

*snugz* Thank you for reminding me of it.

Re: why do I not have a dragon icon?

[dictator-duck.livejournal.com]

This is why I asked you to share your thoughts. Because you always do it so well! And you have such great thoughts. Yes, a lot of it is the taming of the world, the mapping of those unknown places, that keeps fear from really being real. <33. Share what's on your mind more often! I love to hear it, you know I do. And you can actually SAY it, instead of be all sideways and ficcy. *giggles and loves*