DRAGONS ANYONE?
Before George Martin's mythological rewriting of the war of the Roses, with it's violence and anti heroes, there was JRR Tolkien, who loved Dragons and defended fantasy as a way to remember heroism that still existed in today's world but was often overlooked.
He reminded the critics of Beowulf that having a dragon was not to be dismissed as trivia but as part of the mythology of brave men fighting evil, and as a veteran of WWI's Battle of the Somme, he pointed out that such heroes still existed (this was when pacifists had for years dismissed the heroism of these soldiers, similar to how pacifists rewrote the real story of the need to fight in Vietnam by ignoring the atrocities of the enemy, and worse, ignoring the genocides that resulted in America's withdrawal in the name of peace.)
so do dragons exist? Of course not. But the need to have stories of those who fight dragons is real, hence the modern St George heroes of Tolkien, X men etc.
the history of such heroes fighting monsters go back as far as Gilgamesh, and it pretty well universal: Because mythology is about telling us the meaning of the world. This can be used for good or for evil of course, but it is interesting that Tom Shippey points out that the most popular genre of modern times is fantasy.
https://thetolkienist.com/2012/10/12/75-reasons-tom-shippey/
So what is the history of Dragons? I post a few lectures on the history. Ironically, Dragons in China are the symbol of the emperor: the benign control of the state that uses the dragon to keep enemies of the state under control. Hmmm...
And of course, the importance of heroes fighting dragons was the subcontext to Jordan Peterson's analysis of Trumpiboy's X men, pointing out how this mythology helps him attract young men who have been ridiculed and marginalized by intellectual leaders in the last 20 years.
but when you have dragons, you have dragon killers: The original is St George of course:
here is another discussion of Dragons;
Puzzle solving murder mysteries
so a shy author of puzzle books gets drafted into impersonating his brother to get evidence on why his police detective brother disappeared. What could go wrong? Uh, maybe because he keeps getting grabbed by his collegues to investigate real murders.
That is the premise of the latest BBC series Ludwig.
A delight for those who like quirky detectives solving cozy mysteries.
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