Tough Traveling is an interesting and thought-provoking meme started by Nathan @ Fantasy Review Barn: each week Nathan chooses a topic from The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynn Jones, and challenges everyone to come up with a list of books featuring that trope.
Come join the fun!
This week’s topic: UNIQUE FLORA
If you know of a plant that is either not on earth, or doesn’t act the same way in fantasyland as it does on earth, then you can consider it unique.
Triffids: From John Wyndham’s Day of the Triffids novel, they are carnivorous plants able to move that take advantage of humanity after a weird meteor shower has left most of the population blind. Triffids can literally uproot themselves and walk on three stumpy “legs”, while the long, whiplike stem ends in a poisonous stinger, the Triffid’s means of attacking hapless humans.
Inkvine: a creeping plant found in Frank Herbert’s Dune universe. Native to Giedi Prime, the home planet of House Harkonnen, it is used as a whip to subdue the slaves: the victims of an inkvine lash are marked by dark red “tattoos” that cause pain for years on end. Gurney Halleck, the master of arms of House Atreides and young Paul’s instructor, bears such a mark on his face from the time he was held captive in the Harkonnens’ slave pits.
G’Quan Eth: in the Babylon5 universe i’ts a plant indigenous to the Narn homeworld, and it’s used in Narn religious ceremonies where it’s burned as we would incense. Since it’s difficult to grow and quite delicate, it requires costly measures to transport, but it’s also very prized by the Centauri who drop its seeds in alcohol to obtain a powerful narcotic. For this reason, it’s been declared illegal on the Babylon 5 station, except when used for religious purposes.
Ents: it would be impossible to talk about special plants without mentioning these creatures, from JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. They are tree-like creatures able to move and talk, gifted with immense strength and said to be the most ancient race in Middle Earth. Their role is to be shepherd to the trees and protectors of the forests, and their most famous representative is Treebeard, who plays an important role in the War of the Ring.
According to GRR Martin’s A song of Ice and Fire, in the North of Westeros you can find Heart Trees: usually placed at the center of a Godswood (a secluded place of religious worship), they are white-barked, red leaved Weirwood trees with a face carved in the wood of the trunk. These trees’ sap is red as well, and flows from the cuts that represent the face’s eyes, so that it’s said the Heart Trees are weeping tears of blood.
And last but by no means least, a recent encounter: Groot. He’s an alien, tree-like creature not unlike Tolkien’s Treebeard, who made his first appearance in the Marvel comics and then received world-wide acclaim in the movie Guardians of the Galaxy. He appears at first as nothing more than hired muscle, but soon shows his softer, gentler side and is able to convey a great deal of meaning with the only sentence he ever utters: “I am Groot”. It’s impossible not to feel a great kinship for this creature because, after all… we are all Groot!
OMG, why didn’t I think of Groot! Excellent inclusion.
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Thanks! It was a last-minute addition and I too wondered why he didn’t come to mind sooner… 🙂
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Great choices. Groot especially!
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Groot for president! 😀 😀
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I’m loving that Groot is on these lists this week – I can’t believe I didn’t think of him. I am Groot.
Lynn 😀
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We all are! 😀 😀
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Adding to the Groot praise! 😀
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John Wyndham’s Day of the Triffids is one that has hung around my radar for quite some time. A popular book around my reading circles.
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I’m not sure if it still can hold up to more “modern” audiences, but I remember it made a big impact on my imagination back when I read it – a few decades ago…
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Oh duuuuuuude I can’t believe I forgot Day of the Triffids. That book was awesome. It was a while since I read it, but that’s no excuse – it’s practically a classic, in my mind.
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Reading other people’s choices in these weekly memes I have the same kind of reaction when others mention books or characters I *should* have thought of…
So you’re not alone in this! 🙂
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Dune… the book used to be on the tp of my wish list, but slipped further and further down until I almost forgot it… that shall be my little reminder 😀
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In my experience, people split up in two groups about Dune: they either love it or hate it – no middle ground… I hope you will be in the first group! 🙂
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Heh, Groot’s an excellent choice 🙂 I haven’t read the comics (I’m not much of a comic book reader) but I enjoyed the movie a lot.
Those inkvine plants sound evil. But “prison camps” is another topic we could cover for TT 🙂
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I never read the comics either, and the movie was my first encounter with Groot – but it was enough to love him/it!
The idea of prison camps for one of the next memes is more than intriguing…. 🙂
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