Elric and Albinism

[Athenys]

I stumbled on these websites the other day and found the subject interesting to say the least:

http://www.lunaeterna.net/popcult/fantasy.htm

http://itsb.ucsf.edu/~vcr/Evil14Albin.html


Let's hope the Elric movie changes that...

[devilchicken]

That just had me thinking - has anyone done a story where the main character has a disgusting skin disease - like scabies or leprosy? All over herpes even ;-)

Probably wouldn't lend itself too well to a romantic form perhaps - but you never know...

Wasn't there a story in La Morte D'Arthur where one of the knights has to marry a hideous old woman, for some reason or other? And because he is 'honour bound' he agrees to go through with it.

[Athenys]

Albinos are eviiil :lol: ...Nah, I've handled too many lab rats to let 'pink' eyes frighten me . Btw, I changed the second link above to the specific section about how Albinos are usually portrayed in cinema...it's quite sad actually :( .

[Michael Moorcock]

We've had a discussion about albinism. Most human albinos have light eyes, but not red or pink ones. I've made this clear in my latest Elric novel, since I didn't want to suggest that regular human albinoes were given to sucking people's souls out with big black swords. The fat character you mention was Dr Faustaff of, I think, The Winds of Limbo.
The Fireclown was also pretty portly, as I recall. And isn't Thomas Covenant a leper ? Ballard had lepers in, I think, The Crystal World.
My memory isn't very good for that sort of detail. I seem to remember that Cabell had some ugly heroes and White's Arthur was, after all, called Wart. Steerpike of the Gormenghast books isn't exactly handsome, either. Also, even more vaguely, I remember Jack Vance having some ill-made knights, too. Not that albinoes are bad looking, of course. As pointed out above.

[devilchicken]

I forgot also forgot that Hawkmoon turned a little skanky in the Champion of Garathorm

[Hans von Hammer]

Roasted

i sometimes jam with with a punk-rock band whose bass player is an albino - oddly enough, he doesnt seem to have trouble with his vision, even though he is "cross-eyed" (i'm not sure that's the word - when the eyes are looking at different directions, even though they are in the same head...??? i wonder, do they see the world like we see it when we cross our eyes??i'll ask him...)

As for stories with skin diseased characters, i have not read any, but i have recently seen a VERY INTERESTING movie with Robert Downey Jr. and Mel Gibson about this writer with a skin condition that makes him look like that sometimes "white" Spawn,,, very disturbing. and a good movie, really bizarr, but a good movie.

[Hans von Hammer]

yeah, you're right - The Singing Detective... i could not remember it because here in Brasil they have the strange need to name the movies as they want = it is called here "Crimes de um Detetive", as in "Crimes of a Detective"... But sometimes i really like the portuguese "new" titles... theres this Clint Eastwood movie called "Two mules for sister Sarah" (Yak! what kinda name is that for a western?) which they translated as "Os Abutres tem Fome" as in "The Vultures are Hungry" - it does sound better...

[Mikey_C]

To digress even further, now we're on the subject of the Flintstones: has anyone noticed that the first line of Milton's "Paradise Lost" was written to the Flintstones theme?

Of Man's first disobedience and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree...

[Mario]

That just had me thinking - has anyone done a story where the main character has a disgusting skin disease - like scabies or leprosy? All over herpes even ;-)

Stephen R. Donaldson's Thomas Covenant has leprosy.

[xidrep]

Milton was heavily involved in the original scripting for 'The Flintstones', but was disillusioned by what he perceived as the trivial premise, feeling that there was insufficient exploration of the darker aspect of Barney's soul, and inadequate emphasis on the tragi-comic fate of the infant Bam-Bam. He is therefore only credited under a pseudonym.