War, or Bush’s folly, is not a subject to be glib about. If we’ve learned anything from the, “Greatest Generation” it is the folly of lunging headlong into the so-called glories of life-and-death struggles. Bullets do not fade. Some wounds never heal. World War I was called the “War to end all wars,” yet in reality, that couldn’t be the farthest from the truth. Centuries of conflict, intertwined within the lives of the maimed, the slain and the paupers, have taught us the harsh reality of war. It is harsh. It is unforgiving.
Yet, despite it all, fantasy is rooted within this animalistic culture of violence. Look at Age of Conan, yet another game spawned from the primal need to inflict as much gore and hurt on your fellow opponent. Darkfall, one of the more anticipated MMORPGs, promotes their graphics engine by stating, “You can see the wounds on other’s faces,” as if seeing the blood seep from an open sore was a good thing.
In seeing this, there is only one truth. Fantasy and War are intertwined. Conflict, like any story worth telling, is delved into the complexities of nations doing combat on the fields. This is the answer to the question, the deprecating truth that our mother’s don’t want to admit. So far, war is necessary in any great imagery of fantasy. What would Modisett’s Recluse Saga been without the war between Order and Chaos? What would Tolkein’s masterpiece been without Sauron?
Cool for games, not so much for the variety of fantasy.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Friday, April 11, 2008
Getting Away With It
I never read the whole Robert Jordan series. And, while this may not preclude others from berating me with, “Your not a real fantasy fan” hate mail, it doesn’t mean that I don’t respect what he meant to the fantasy genre as a whole. I have read parts of his series, hell I got the first novel in his “Wheel of time” epic FREE from a bookstore that was trying to promote his third novel. But what nags me about Robert Jordan was that languid, buildup style. You know the one, where it takes FOREVER to get to the point, but once you get to the point, it’s a GREAT point.
Sure, the first time you glossed over that kind of style, a la Tad Williams, it seemed like an immersive world … but after the 10th novel of that kind, it does seem to run a tad bit overdone. So, in memory of the late James Oliver Rigney, Jr., I picked up my old copy of “The Eye of the World,” in hopes of recapturing that old magic that, I confess, I had when I gave his world a try the first time around.
To fully express my experience, let me set the stage. There’s a term in the film industry that a friend shared with me once, telling me about the word, “Shoe Leather.” In this, it refers to the times when the camera will show a character walking into a scene, with no real dialogue, for a couple of seconds. The purpose, as my friend aptly explained, was to make running time flexible, so if they were short or long they could cut and add these scenes appropriately.
This is when I realized, especially with the fledgling authors of fantasy who sparked a legion of fantasy fans, that some of these authors were sooooooo long winded. I mean sure, lets get to know the world, but COME ON, I don’t need to know every freeking facet of the world.
Back in 2005 I bought L.E. Modesitt Jr.’s “The Wellspring of Chaos”. For those who aren’t aware of LEM, he is the KING of child-hero fantasy, and also shoe leather extraordinaire! His novels are the type of novels that are the staple (even over LOTR) in middle-school’s collection of fantasy novels. So, in this novel, which I foolishly bought in hardcover, the WHOLE novel is about one thing … and that’s KILLING TIME! Reading LEM was always a guilty pleasure of mine, but this novel went too far. This was literally a book of the main character going from port to port and trying different types of fowl, then at the end killing a wizard.
Maybe it’s just me, but like many creative aspects of our society, reader’s tastes have changed. I just can’t get through those longwinded dialogues anymore, or the blatant chapters in books where it’s ONLY info dumping. Not that I’m saying I could do better, but COME ON! Gives us a bone here! Gone with the Wind, however a classic, isn’t the type of acting we want in our modern day movie stars. Happy-go-lucky superheroes aren’t the type people will relate to in today’s information-driven society.
Yet .. I’m still hesitant to pull the trigger on these long-winded type of books … because the payoff is so good. When I picked up George R.R. Martin’s first novel for the first time, I only got past the first 20 pages then put the book down. It was only months later, when I gave the book another chance, that I got past the infodumping and fell in love with his prose and style, and, for the first time in years, end up actually being surprised by what his fantasy characters did.
Can epic fantasy still be “epic” even without the longwinded tangled web of buildup? Is there a line between epic fantasy and just another D&D novel? Maybe time has unraveled the cobwebs and facades, blown past all the word counts and leaflets and truly faced us in the mirror and revealed epic fantasy for what it really was. Perhaps fantasy was truly a one hit wonder and that these days, with the flouring information superhighway, mythology based stories are a thing of the past.
Perhaps we, as fantasy authors and fans, were just getting away with it – that all fantasy has to follow a certain pattern or else no one will buy into it. Here’s hoping someone comes out of the woodwork with that wild style, and then we can finally stand up and say, this is how new-age fantasy should be written.
Sure, the first time you glossed over that kind of style, a la Tad Williams, it seemed like an immersive world … but after the 10th novel of that kind, it does seem to run a tad bit overdone. So, in memory of the late James Oliver Rigney, Jr., I picked up my old copy of “The Eye of the World,” in hopes of recapturing that old magic that, I confess, I had when I gave his world a try the first time around.
To fully express my experience, let me set the stage. There’s a term in the film industry that a friend shared with me once, telling me about the word, “Shoe Leather.” In this, it refers to the times when the camera will show a character walking into a scene, with no real dialogue, for a couple of seconds. The purpose, as my friend aptly explained, was to make running time flexible, so if they were short or long they could cut and add these scenes appropriately.
This is when I realized, especially with the fledgling authors of fantasy who sparked a legion of fantasy fans, that some of these authors were sooooooo long winded. I mean sure, lets get to know the world, but COME ON, I don’t need to know every freeking facet of the world.
Back in 2005 I bought L.E. Modesitt Jr.’s “The Wellspring of Chaos”. For those who aren’t aware of LEM, he is the KING of child-hero fantasy, and also shoe leather extraordinaire! His novels are the type of novels that are the staple (even over LOTR) in middle-school’s collection of fantasy novels. So, in this novel, which I foolishly bought in hardcover, the WHOLE novel is about one thing … and that’s KILLING TIME! Reading LEM was always a guilty pleasure of mine, but this novel went too far. This was literally a book of the main character going from port to port and trying different types of fowl, then at the end killing a wizard.
Maybe it’s just me, but like many creative aspects of our society, reader’s tastes have changed. I just can’t get through those longwinded dialogues anymore, or the blatant chapters in books where it’s ONLY info dumping. Not that I’m saying I could do better, but COME ON! Gives us a bone here! Gone with the Wind, however a classic, isn’t the type of acting we want in our modern day movie stars. Happy-go-lucky superheroes aren’t the type people will relate to in today’s information-driven society.
Yet .. I’m still hesitant to pull the trigger on these long-winded type of books … because the payoff is so good. When I picked up George R.R. Martin’s first novel for the first time, I only got past the first 20 pages then put the book down. It was only months later, when I gave the book another chance, that I got past the infodumping and fell in love with his prose and style, and, for the first time in years, end up actually being surprised by what his fantasy characters did.
Can epic fantasy still be “epic” even without the longwinded tangled web of buildup? Is there a line between epic fantasy and just another D&D novel? Maybe time has unraveled the cobwebs and facades, blown past all the word counts and leaflets and truly faced us in the mirror and revealed epic fantasy for what it really was. Perhaps fantasy was truly a one hit wonder and that these days, with the flouring information superhighway, mythology based stories are a thing of the past.
Perhaps we, as fantasy authors and fans, were just getting away with it – that all fantasy has to follow a certain pattern or else no one will buy into it. Here’s hoping someone comes out of the woodwork with that wild style, and then we can finally stand up and say, this is how new-age fantasy should be written.
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
The Mechanics of Change
Let’s face it, fantasy is in the doldrums. And, as much as I’d like to believe that movies such as Prince Caspian will force epic fantasy to the forefront, the more I feel that the movie will take fantasy a step backwards. Not that it doesn’t look like a good movie, but I feel myself skeptical of how it will feed us anything but the usual hero-fantasy dribble we’ve been force fed over the past few years.
Rise-to-power fantasy has been following a particular trend that seems almost SCREAMING for change. What am I talking about? Let me lay it out for you.
Lord of the rings started, as many know, as a children’s storybook. It captured the imagination of Tolkein’s extensive mythology background, and played on that to create a quaint little story of overcoming monsters. Not that this is an overall bad premise, but in all respects it was a forgettable one. But, like all great fantasy that came after it, it grew darker and darker. With each telling, the world shaped into an unforgiving world … a world of dark desires where greed rules all and heroes are defined as men who define common logic. Men who’s morals, based on nothing really, drive them to uphold what we define as “good” and sane. So, as the story goes, the story went from childhood tale, to dark after it sucked you in.
How about Harry Potter? Any fan will tell you, comparing the first book to the rest of the series will reveal that the first book is farrrrrrrr on the “light” side of the things that the books that preceeded it. So, in that respect, it followed the Tolkein template to perfection.
Now Prince Caspian comes along, apparently born of that same light, that same old adage. And, while I love that these classics are brought to the screne, I feel it may put the final nail in the fantasy coffin. That fantasy only falls into a neat little box, and can only draw in audiences by appealing to CHILDREN first and foremost, that fantasy in and of itself cannot appeal to the adult crowd. Sounds familiar? It should.
Margaret and Tracy Hickman reviewed their dragons of autumn twilight animated “movie” on their podcast a couple of months ago. In it, they describe their disappointment on how the producers dumbed the book down, focusing not as much on the characters and creating a tone that concentrated more on the aesthetics rather than appeals of emotion.
The problem, in my eyes, is that fantasy doesn’t have any real outlet to inspire change. Star Trek created fans, and challenged the normalcy of Science Fiction, breaking the common mold by inspiring those that came after it to appeal to a broader audience. No longer was Science Fiction a simple Saturday morning cartoon. The comic industry went through a similar change in the 50s, when there came a gradual transformation from goofy cartoons to sex-appealing, adult themed graphic novels such as “The Dark Knight Returns”, “Camelot 3000” and “The Watchmen”.
So, what does fantasy have? NOBODY! Did anyone watch that horror that was Eragon? How about that girl-infested girl with the bear movie that tanked? Or how about In the name of the King, featuring BURT REYNOLDS as a king! I mean GOOD GOD! Sure, its hard to change. Why would an executive fund a money based on a premise that has no real example in the fantasy realm to go on? We know HP made money, so why in the world would we do something else? Sure, LOTR was semi-adult theme, but it still had a child character in the center role. So, in this respects, I can’t entirely blame them.
Then again, outside the world of media, there is such a book that defines that fantasy needs. I’m sure you all know the author. Yes, friends, George R. R. Martain gives us hope. Let us pray that, someday, it might find itself on the silver screen.
Rise-to-power fantasy has been following a particular trend that seems almost SCREAMING for change. What am I talking about? Let me lay it out for you.
Lord of the rings started, as many know, as a children’s storybook. It captured the imagination of Tolkein’s extensive mythology background, and played on that to create a quaint little story of overcoming monsters. Not that this is an overall bad premise, but in all respects it was a forgettable one. But, like all great fantasy that came after it, it grew darker and darker. With each telling, the world shaped into an unforgiving world … a world of dark desires where greed rules all and heroes are defined as men who define common logic. Men who’s morals, based on nothing really, drive them to uphold what we define as “good” and sane. So, as the story goes, the story went from childhood tale, to dark after it sucked you in.
How about Harry Potter? Any fan will tell you, comparing the first book to the rest of the series will reveal that the first book is farrrrrrrr on the “light” side of the things that the books that preceeded it. So, in that respect, it followed the Tolkein template to perfection.
Now Prince Caspian comes along, apparently born of that same light, that same old adage. And, while I love that these classics are brought to the screne, I feel it may put the final nail in the fantasy coffin. That fantasy only falls into a neat little box, and can only draw in audiences by appealing to CHILDREN first and foremost, that fantasy in and of itself cannot appeal to the adult crowd. Sounds familiar? It should.
Margaret and Tracy Hickman reviewed their dragons of autumn twilight animated “movie” on their podcast a couple of months ago. In it, they describe their disappointment on how the producers dumbed the book down, focusing not as much on the characters and creating a tone that concentrated more on the aesthetics rather than appeals of emotion.
The problem, in my eyes, is that fantasy doesn’t have any real outlet to inspire change. Star Trek created fans, and challenged the normalcy of Science Fiction, breaking the common mold by inspiring those that came after it to appeal to a broader audience. No longer was Science Fiction a simple Saturday morning cartoon. The comic industry went through a similar change in the 50s, when there came a gradual transformation from goofy cartoons to sex-appealing, adult themed graphic novels such as “The Dark Knight Returns”, “Camelot 3000” and “The Watchmen”.
So, what does fantasy have? NOBODY! Did anyone watch that horror that was Eragon? How about that girl-infested girl with the bear movie that tanked? Or how about In the name of the King, featuring BURT REYNOLDS as a king! I mean GOOD GOD! Sure, its hard to change. Why would an executive fund a money based on a premise that has no real example in the fantasy realm to go on? We know HP made money, so why in the world would we do something else? Sure, LOTR was semi-adult theme, but it still had a child character in the center role. So, in this respects, I can’t entirely blame them.
Then again, outside the world of media, there is such a book that defines that fantasy needs. I’m sure you all know the author. Yes, friends, George R. R. Martain gives us hope. Let us pray that, someday, it might find itself on the silver screen.
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