werebeasts

[ex_pippin880]

Werewolves and other werebeasts and transforming animals and humans -- what are your thoughts? Where does your suspension of disbelief start wavering? Do you prefer magical or genetic transformations?

Does a large mass difference bother you? Do you stay awake at night wondering how a woman with a menstrual cycle could safely and regularly become an animal with an oestrus cycle? Do placental mammals turning into birds or marsupials make you go "err" at the story? Do you get annoyed when the animal forms have human intelligence/morals, or even abilities like telepathy?

...Is this something you've never thought about because you're not weird like me?

What are your favourite stories with werebeasts?

Comments

[ilthit]

If I'm reading about werewolves, I've already happily left suspension of disbelief behind! I've only read about one genetic "werewolf" that I can recall - Taura from the Vorkosigan series (not an actual transforming werewolf, just referred to as such) - and it was plausible enough, but I think a pseudoscientific explanation for werewolf transformation might hurt my suspension of disbelief more than a magical one, just because we already know some of the ways in which science works and getting it wrong would just be jarring. Of course, depends on how it's presented and how well it's written. (Yeah, I have trouble watching Star Trek sometimes. Suspension of disbelief is a difficult skill sometimes, but still totally worth it.)

Assuming a transformation takes place magically, it still bugs me if, say, a pregnant woman can transform into a dragon and back without affecting her pregnancy. NO it shouldn't WORK... even if it's magic.

[lurkingcat]

I think I prefer magical transformations to genetic transformations because it's easier for my brain to hand wave away things like mass difference and other potential physical impossibilities*. I've always worried about what would happen if a pregnant swan maiden changed from human form to swan form.

Having accepted that a werebeast can change form I don't really get annoyed if the were form retains the thought processes and abilities of it's other form - it's already magic, so why not? Telepathy sometimes feels like a convenient get-out clause in a story. It's often more interesting if the cat/dog/reindeer retains human thought processes but has trouble communicating while in the were form.

The thing that does throw me out of a story a bit is clothing. Character transforms to werelizard, scuttles off and does it thing. Character transforms back to human and is fully clothed again. This only just works for me if it's a magical transformation and I still wonder if there's come kind of vast shared portal wardrobe space where all these were creatures leave their clothes to be picked up at the other end of their transformation.

*There is also a bit of my brain that is willing to deal with comic book genetic transformations with "None of the rest of the science here makes sense, so why should this?"

[nightmareink]

At least in the Animorph books (I read them as a kid), clothing doesn't morph with them (unless it's like skin tight, but I think that's just the author's way of going "I don't want my characters to be naked upon turning back to human") and they had to deal with the being naked upon turning back problem.

...I never did finish reading those books.

[sanssommeil]

Posted on a full moon, no less! :)

[lea_hazel]

If it's transformation, I prefer magic to pseudo-science. I can sci-babble my own magic quite effectively (e.g. "pocket dimension" for all the extra mass) and most sci-babble explanations take up much more space than magi-babble ones. With magic, you just give the rules and stick to them, and add in an occasional nod to the mysterious forces of the universe.

I prefer willful transformations to uncontrollable ones, for story reasons. Then there are times when you can't transform or times when you have to transform back, but there's no "I lost my baby because of my cuuuurse!" angst.

What interests me about shapeshifters and werewolves in particular is the social psychology aspect, so how wolf-forms interact with humans is negligible, because they can interact with each other. Psychologically, I like them to have a spectrum of emotions that's affected by animalistic concerned, but not ruled by them completely. I especially dislike when the animalistic side is used to justify certain sexual practices. I can buy that being a wolf part of the time makes werewolves value things like family and hierarchy, but once we get into women submitting to random strange men because of alphaism or whatnot, I get cranky and leave.

Yeah, I like for people to own their fetishes. One day there's be a para-ro novel where the heroine says, "And then I let him tie me up and order me around because I like it."

[holyschist]

I can buy that being a wolf part of the time makes werewolves value things like family and hierarchy, but once we get into women submitting to random strange men because of alphaism or whatnot, I get cranky and leave.

And a lot of times that stuff has NOTHING to do with actual wolf behavior! Someday I want to see a para novel where the werewolves act like wolves, not extra-violent humans.

[holyschist]

I can suspend disbelief for the most part (and magical explanations are better for this purpose than pseudo-science). What bugs the shit out of me is societies of shapeshifters, especially werewolves, who act like humans but all their behavior is put down to the "wolf" in them or whatever (case in point: brutal, inflexible, sexist werewolf societies).

I have yet to read a book about werewolves or soul-bonded wolves in which the wolf traits were actual WOLF traits and not just nastier human traits.

[smeddley]

I'm pretty good at suspending disbelief if something is well (entertainingly) written. But it has to be a conscious decision, because if I do start to wonder and think there's no going back and it'd ruin a lot of stories for me. :(

Honestly? The the only 'werebeast' story I can think of that's stuck with me is one about a post-it-note werewolf. Seriously.

Oh, I take that back, there's one other, I listened to the audiobook of some horrid story and the reader kept pronouncing it 'weir-wolf', which drove me insane. But I've blocked that one out because the story sucked.

[aphenine]

I'm with the people who prefer magical transformations for the same reason that most people here have stated: that it's already quite fantastical and any attempt to pseudo-science it just makes any of the other glaring flaws more gaping.

I've never been particularly bothered with having human intelligence/morals although occasionally telepathy bugs me. Again, if the magic system is plausable enough, then it doesn't bother me. Particularly if the magic system has some kind of spirit magic associated with human thought, because then it's easy to feel that thought is independent of the brain, human or animal, or any part of the physical form.

I've always liked the Eddings Belgariad transformations, because they worked well with the magic system and because I liked the way the wolves interacted.