Mianthroperspection - Stepping out of the human in your fantasy writing or "How does a dragon really feel?"

Mianthroperspection is art of writing from the viewpoint of an animal or an inanimate object and it is something that fantasy writers have been doing for a very long time. But until now it has gone unnamed or mislabeled as anthropomorphism.

 

The Roots of the word

It is a merging of two Greek words: Mi for not and anthro for human; and the English word "perspective". So Mianthroperspection would be the art of writing from a non human perspective.

To understand this tool of the fantasy writer let's first take a look at anthropomorphism. It is the attribution of human characteristics to inanimate objects or animals and a good example of this would be the owl. We assign wisdom to the owl and in many fantasy stories he acts accordingly. Often he wears glasses and is very aristocratic in nature and behavior and he is always a cornucopia of wisdom. This is classic anthropomorphism and it helps us understand ourselves. But the important thing to remember here is that we have assigned human characteristics to the non-human owl. We haven't tried to examine how the owl really feels, or what he, as an owl, really thinks? And this distinction is where mianthroperspection comes in.

Mianthroperspection steps right out of the human being and steps right into the animal or object in question. It attempts to describe what the animal or object might feel or think, and it is a manifestation of imagination in its highest form because it is a total separation from the human viewpoint. And it is in this contrasting opinion that we get a fresh look at being human. A good example of this would be the typical viewpoint of dragons in many fantasy stories. Dragons are often described in stories as living for thousands of years, sometimes tens of thousands of years and writers have stepped out of themselves and into the dragon in terms of how a dragon thinks about time. If a dragon lives this long wouldn’t it have a different view of time? Wouldn’t it see time differently than we as humans see it? A writer would imagine that a dragon would see the passing of time very differently than a human would see it. How would a dragon feel if it had to wait a day for something? How would it feel if it had to wait a year for something? How about if it had to wait a hundred years?

Remember this in your writing. Do not just assign human values and opinions to the non-human characters you write about. Step into their lives and try to feel and understand how they might feel and understand life from the reality of what life is like for them. It will stretch your imagination and it will add a truly unique perspective on the characters – and by adding a contrasting point of view it will shed a unique light on your human characters.

 

 

 

Will Kalif is a webmaster and the author of two epic fantasy novels.

You can download and read his novels in print or audio format on his website at StormTheCastle.com

Or you can check out his website devoted to epic fantasy at: Epic-Fantasy.com

 

 

 

Reviews

[TLK]

Do we really need a word for this? We could just call it "a non-human perspective".

Any time a politician speaks we get one.