Oh yes. I've noticed that a lot of fantasy seems to ahve been written on the assumption that everyone is as healthy and pretty as we are today, for as long as we are today. The writers don't seem to get the meaning of the term "pre-industrial."
Have you noticed that Tolkien specifically stated that the people of his protagonist races (the Elves, the Dwarves, the Men of Westernesse, and the Hobbits) were long-lived by modern standards? It's occurred to me that one reason he did this was to give his characters lots of time in which to make life decisions and hence make them more like people from the (industrial) society in which he and his readers grew up and lived. Also from the Inklings, C. S. Lewis made his protagonists in the Narnia series children (and in some cases youths), which is another way of getting around the same problem.
A lot of fantasy is very unrealistic about the economic and social effects of pre-industrial technologies. I think a lot of the hatedom directed towards GRRM's A Song and Ice and Fire stems from the fact that GRRM is much more relaistic about these factors.
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Have you noticed that Tolkien specifically stated that the people of his protagonist races (the Elves, the Dwarves, the Men of Westernesse, and the Hobbits) were long-lived by modern standards? It's occurred to me that one reason he did this was to give his characters lots of time in which to make life decisions and hence make them more like people from the (industrial) society in which he and his readers grew up and lived. Also from the Inklings, C. S. Lewis made his protagonists in the Narnia series children (and in some cases youths), which is another way of getting around the same problem.
A lot of fantasy is very unrealistic about the economic and social effects of pre-industrial technologies. I think a lot of the hatedom directed towards GRRM's A Song and Ice and Fire stems from the fact that GRRM is much more relaistic about these factors.