Date: 03-Jul-94 04:18 EDT
From: Wintertree Software [73223,664]
Subj: Wildlife Slaughter
Richard & Wendy & crew -- I have here in my hands my 'ELFQUEST of the week', BLOOD OF TEN CHIEFS #7.
For the first time in many years of reading ELFQUEST... SINCE #5, I believe, of the wonderful old oversized black & whites... I feel shock and horror at what I just read inside.
I have always been a lover of wolves. That was what drew me to ELFQUEST for the first time: finding a storyteller who showed wolves as the wonderful part of nature that they are, rather than ravening fiends out of nightmares. But I do not reserve my love and respect for the natural world for wolves alone. And so I was horrified by what I found inside this issue.
I had never thought that I would find, in the pages of ELFQUEST, a picture, a two-page spread, showing the Wolfriders in a savage orgy of killing, slaughtering wild creatures without cause. And yet that is what I found. It is four in the morning now, but this has affected me so deeply that I cannot sleep. I expect I shall get no sleep at all tonight.
You are wise enough to reject the 'common wisdom' that depicts wolves as slavering, ruthless killers. Why, then, did you buy into the equally common -- and equally false -- beliefs about reptiles?
In case you truly know no different, kindly bear with me as I explain to you, as you might explain to a person who has only seen that famous scene with the wolves and the troika: Snakes do not attack humans (or elves) gratuitously. This is not out of any pure motives... it is simply because biting a larger creature is, quite simply, hazardous to the snake.
These snakes of yours, 'crossing our camp to reach their breeding grounds' (by the way, hibernating species normally breed in or near their hibernacula) could have been avoided very easily: by going, as the wolves did, into the woods, and letting them pass unmolested and unmolesting. Or, for that matter, by simply sitting quietly on a rock and watching them, what minds they have intent upon their hormones, slithering by.
Snakes do not hunt humans. Quite simply, they cannot eat us. To their tiny bundle of neurons, the world is arranged into a few simple groups: Not-moving-things...those you crawl on; small-fast-things... those you eat; and large-moving-things... they eat you. Snakes ignore the not-moving-things, eat the small-fast-things, and run away from the large-moving-things. Only when there is no other alternative will a snake take the risk of biting a large-moving-thing. Remember, this involves putting its head within reach of a potential predator; those that do this without very, very good cause tend to leave few offspring with similar foolish programming. With the possible exception of the tropical Bushmaster (on which the jury is still out) virtually the only way to be bitten by a snake is to make physical contact with it first, or to corner and threaten it. (Bushmasters may possibly be somewhat more liberal in what they consider a 'threat')
It is obvious that Nancy Springer knows little about snakes. (I was very surprised to see her name in the credits; I would have thought much better of her) For example, snakes do not -- can not -- hibernate in the mud of the 'MuchCold Water'. Unlike amphibians, they cannot exchange oxygen and CO2 through their skins; unlike turtles, they do not have a specialized cloaca for that purpose. (yes, to put it crudely, turtles can breathe through their asses) They hibernate on dry land, frequently in nooks and crannies of rocky south-facing slopes, or in burrows dug by other creatures such as rodents.
The story would have worked just as well if you'd given them fur, or dozens of little legs, or tentacles, made them capable of eating what they killed (cutting jaws?) and called them 'water horrors'. Instead, by the way you chose to do it, you have reinforced a myth, added to common disinformation, and encouraged the brutal and senseless slaughter of snakes that goes on in the real world.
Last week, in Acadia National Park, I found a beautiful little smooth green snake (Opheodrys vernalis), still alive, with its back broken by a hiker. This tiny creature, a predator of small insects, totally harmless to man, was left to die by someone who felt the same attitudes, believed the same lies, that I cried to read in BLOOD OF TEN CHIEFS. I cried because I expected better, I believed better, of ELFQUEST.
I won't close this letter by proclaiming that I am going to boycott ELFQUEST forever, burn my back issues, and stick pins into Pini-shaped voodoo dolls. I am too old, too tired, for idealistic foolishness. The stories are too good, and the art, while it can never equal Wendy's, is wonderful. (even if you *do* insist on coloring it!) But I will never again be able to feel the same delight in ELFQUEST that I have enjoyed for so many years, never again be able to feel that its creators share my love for the natural world and all that is in it. Like the loss of a friend, the loss of innocence, it hurts.
- Jean McGuire
Since the letters pages of BLOOD OF TEN CHIEFS seem to be on their way to becoming not only a place to discuss the stories that we publish, but also a forum for ecologically oriented issues (which, by the way, pleases me greatly), I invite reader comments on the above letter. - RP
Subj: To RPINI/Scavella etc. re: wolves
94-06-11 19:43:55 EDT
From: LetherLace/AOL
Thanks for responding to my "info post" -- The subsistence hunters do have alternative - in fact, their sled dogs survive through the winter mainly on chum salmon fishing done throughout the summer. To give you the idea of how fragile the balance is... The government closed the chum salmon fishing season early because of low numbers, which snowballed into allowing subsistence residents/natives ONLY an extra two months of trapping and caribou hunting to make up for it. (Yes, that included trapping wolves.) They did watch that closely. It's hard to maintain a balance in that kind of environment - protecting future herds/catches/etc. and sacrificing a few more animals this season.
The tourism boycott was the "brainchild" of Earth First! and other radical groups. As an example of the "brilliance," they called up the Marine Highway ferry system and made hundreds of false reservations, hoping to drain the popular means of transportation of valuable dollars. What's wrong with that picture? The Marine Highway cancels ALL unpaid reservations thirty days after they are made! Department of Redundancy Department... The Sierra Club encourages support of tourism and therefore of the natives, and of letter writing campaigns. My previous post was just a reminder to those still of radical bent, that walking gently and acting wisely is sometimes better than getting in someone's face and beating your opinion into them. Thanks again - Richard, I hope you will use some of this info in your update.
Glad to. Just keep me posted. - RP
Just a comment on BLOOD OF TEN CHIEFS #6. Is
Huntress Skyfire somehow related to Ember? I mean,
both are redhaired, clever and crazy!
Kari Sorensen
<<street address removed from archive>>
The short answer is, yes. Somehow. The long answer will wait until we do the Kahvi mini-series later this year or early next year. There, that ought to stir up the ol' Go-Backs/Two-Spear muck again! - RP
Well, to all those who said, "If it's not Wendy,
it's not Elfquest," sorry you didn't bother to keep
reading! Steve Blevins' work in BoTC #6 is nothing
short of stupendous. He's one of the very few who
breathe uniqueness and individuality into every elf...
and human, and wolf, for that matter. The smiles of the
children, the feel of the snow, the physics of movement
- all right on the mark!
And Suzanne Dechnik's colors are the work of a master. The heat of the fire, the cold passiveness of the cloudy winter sky, shadows and textures all ring true. These two do for Skyfire's band what Wendy did for Cutter's - they are wonderfully alive!
Keep giving these guys steady work - we don't want them to get away!
Scott Norris
<<street address removed from archive>>
Shoot, I'd give 'em a place to sit, good lighting, and all the red M&Ms they could stand if they'd just move out here!
BoTC #6, I could not taste it. "Tale of the
Snowbeast" did not have the flavor of the original
story from the novel. It must have gone from the
blender to the microwave because it was shredded
and burnt to a crisp!
There was almost no narration in the story. Narrating a story is very important to me and without it, it seems the story flashed right by. Just a jumble of panels with no guide. Please put more narrated panels in future BoTCs.
Winford Enox
<<street address removed from archive>>
BLOOD OF TEN CHIEFS #6 was absolutely wonderful.
I have only one problem. You did not spend
enough time with each chief. It's like reading a really
good book's middle chapters only.
I still want to see more of Timmain and the firstcomers. How about showing us some of the important Recognitions? By this I mean Timmain, Timmorn, etc. And how the wolf blood spread throughout the Holt. Will we learn how the Holt got so small? It seems as if the Wolfriders' numbers were quite large.
Well anyway, the story was great and Steve's work was breathtaking. I am glad we're getting to see more of "the Way" and the impact of what Cutter has done with his quest on "the Way." I know that this is a "Wolfriders" book but is there any chance of seeing a young Savah and the Sun Folk as they crossed the Burning Waste? It would be nice to see.
Steven C. Leitman
<<street address removed from archive>>
Keep writing, and see you in 30! - RP