Faeries

[brighoff at lexecon.com]

How 'bout this:  Faeries are the spirits of babies killed because they were
unwanted.  In earlier times, this was done by straight infanticide, or late
term abortions.  Today, such methods are illegal and seldom done.  The baby
is aborted at a much earlier stage fo development, and thus has a cruder,
less human personality (or lack thereof).  Thus, while earlier 'faeries'
became tricksters and helpers, the ones 'born' today are more alien in
outlook.  This is why there are fewer faerie sightings and more alien
sightings.  They are both caused by the same phenomenon, but develop
differently.

I don't really want to wade into the 'how gritty is your UA' argument, but
I will say why I like this version of faeries.  First of all, it goes far
in explaining them.  They are child-like, capricious, and have a massive
chip on their collective shoulder.  Sure, faeries are often nice to humans,
but mostly they're bad news.  They reward only the innocent and punish
those who want something from them.  Second, I've always seen UA as largely
symbolic.  The Occult Underground is an analogy for the world at large.  It
explores substance abuse, commodititation of sex, alienation and other
issues.  The magic is just to concentrate and objectify such issues (and to
make it interesting to play).  Sure, you could play a game where one of the
PCs is a destructive alcoholic, but it's hard to do without turning into a
Lifetime original movie.  But, by playing a game where one of the PCs is a
destructive dipsomancer you get all the pathos with demons to boot.
Faeries become symbols of society's collective guilt for abortion and
infanticide.  I don't want to turn this into an abortion debate (God, I
don't want to do that), but I think that because it's such an emotionally
charged issue, it makes good storytelling (harsh, but true).  Let's face
it, UA is not a game that shies away from big issues.

Ben Brighoff






Gregory Paul Stolze <holycrow at mindspring.com> on 02/26/99 09:47:54 AM

Please respond to UA at purpletape.cs.uchicago.edu

To:   UA at purpletape.cs.uchicago.edu
cc:    (bcc: Benjamin C Brighoff/Lexecon)
Subject:  Re: Faeries




At 10:47 PM 2/25/99 -0500, Paul C Duggan wrote:
>
>What are they?
>
>I'll go over the edge and affirm beyond the "souls of dead infants" that
>they are the souls of aborted fetuses. There has been an upswing of
>interest in them since 1973 or so.

 I dunno.  My brain just balks at the idea that there are MORE faeries
running around now than there were two centuries ago.

-G.
1899 Phrenologist: Your son has the sloping forehead of a sexual deviant:
better put him in an asylum.
1999 Gene Therapist: Your fetus has the "date rape" gene.  Better abort.