BmdbruJ''S
cizssic SF
short story 'There
Will
Come Soft Rains",
for
example,
no
humai'1
beings
ever
a?l'ear;
the
dialogue,
you
can
call
it
is entirely
spoken by
machines
going through
their
programmed
day
a
nuclear
war
h2s
wiped
out thei:' owners.
However,
!he
story
is
about
those
owners,
because
t.lle
machi:les,
Llnough
their programming,
1cu""'
the people who built and ran them. The reader sees
the
mechauicarernn.ar.ts
of
their
daily
routines, !eall"-E what
they
ate for
breakfast,
how
kept
house
even their
favorite
poems.
J.n
fantasy,
however, people are not a!ways to be
found. Stereotypes
are
likely
to
rn
up
instead,
m
gmse
"archetypes".
"Archetypes"
means the
most
typical
example,
because
it
has
the
most
important
qualities
(Longman,
2001:
56).
Fighting-mad
barba:::ians,
nubile
and
willing
slave-girls,
brave
princesses, evil
wizards,
people.
The
intelligent
re!!Joler
will
not
accept
this;
he
or
she
der!'lands characters
she
or
he
car; believe
Of course, there
are
enough
less-than-intelligent
rea.deJ:s around
to
keep
a
good
many make-believe
characte:s
in
print.
Secortd: People
are
never
wholly
good
or
wholly
evil,
therefore characters should
never
wholly
good or wholly
evil
Characters,
like
real
people,
should
be concerned wit'l
other
things
beside
good
must not
all
just
good
guys
or
had
guys;
in
fact,
no
one
is
perfect,
elilTJ.nating stcre.')typical
good
guy, and nobody thinks
of
himself as
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