I have orcs in some of my fantasy worlds, but not all of them. Furthermore, I don't like using orcs except in very specific circumstances where I portray them in a certain way (similar to how orcs are portrayed in Skyrim is my preference, spliced with Tolkien-esque orcs).
Writers and artists in the 21st century, in my opinion,
have a responsibility to avoid using racist stereotypes - especially
when portraying fantasy races like orcs. Or if they do use a stereotype,
they also have an obligation to subvert it so that the meaning is
changed.
J. R. R. Tolkien popularized orcs in fantasy fiction,
but he was using them as a metaphor to represent the Nazis and to be
representational of the horrors of war.
Since then however many
critics of Tolkien's work have pushed the idea that his orcs represent
people of colour or so-called "primitive cultures". This portrayal of
orcs as something loaded with racism and cultural superiority is
something I actively want to avoid, and thus even in my settings where
orcs do exist (eg. Korovia) they primarily live in Loqland, in the city of Molloch (which is itself a reference to the film "Metropolis").
Thus
my orcs are essentially a mixture of the workers of Metropolis who
serve their evil overlords, the warfare themed orcs of Tolkien, and also
like the orcs of Skyrim, where they are more technologically advanced
and intelligent. So smart orcs, still brimming with the thirst for war,
but serving their evil overlords in the factory city of Molloch... But
not necessarily evil themselves and some of them do break away or flee
from Molloch. (But that is another story...)
So yes, they exist,
but I am deliberately avoiding using them except in the right
circumstances. Eg. There are some time traveling orcs that appear in one
short story: "A Hound Named Hunter", which I admit doesn't sound like a time travel story, but you have to read it to understand.
The
other problem with orcs is that they are so tied to Tolkien's work that
if you use them too much then it draws comparisons to his books.
But
if I use a different kind of humanoid race, like minotaurs, then I
don't really have that same problem. This is why when I create Korovia
in 1999 I made minotaurs to be one of major races of the region. (That
and I really like minotaurs, having previously used minotaurs in 3
novels I wrote during the 1990s.)
And again, my minotaurs are an
intelligent and technologically advanced race... Plus in Korovia they're
usually vegans, pacifists, spiritual and practice martial arts. Eg.
Check out the four minotaurs that appear in my novel "The Coven's Wolves".
Are
all minotaurs in Korovia pacifists and vegans? Nope. There are those
who 'break from tradition', so to speak, like one such minotaur in my
upcoming book "The Exorcist's Dagger" who forsakes his vows as an Ironskin and becomes a prizefighter.
How we portray races in our books is important. Even the races we normally wouldn't think about as being potentially racist.
Eg. Elves and halflings.
In my book "The Demon's Sacrifice"
the elf Gyburn and the halfling Kaeto don't get along, with both
characters being racist against the other. What happens to the two
characters during the novel is meaningful in my opinion. No spoilers
here. You will have to buy the book to see what happens.
Civilization
versus 'perceived barbarism' is an ongoing theme within the Adventures
of Wrathgar, wherein the main character is a so-called barbarian from
the Snowfell Mountains and he is traveling through the civilized regions
of Korovia looking for his missing father. People often see him as a
dumb barbarian and treat him as such, despite his intelligence and
skills. Wrathgar, to his credit, doesn't lose his temper when dealing
with such people. Despite his name, he rarely ever loses his temper.
(But when he does it is spectacular...)
As a writer I
feel my work has meaning, and while I use fantasy as the method to
convey that meaning, I could just as easily be writing science fiction
or westerns to convey the same meaning. The setting doesn't matter so
much as the message I am trying to get across to the reader.
Writers and artists in the 21st century, in my opinion, have a
responsibility to avoid using racist stereotypes - especially when
portraying fantasy races like orcs.
If you want to learn more about my books I recommend visiting the following sites:
amazon.com/author/moffat
fiction.charlesmoffat.com
You can also follow me via:
twitter.com/charlesmoffat
instagram.com/charles.moffat
facebook.com/charlesmoffat.fans
youtube.com/c/CharlesMoffatToronto
