[fantasy babble]
Mar. 16th, 2006 07:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reenkaObservations upon reading epic-style fantasy again:
» It seems like I can swallow made-up (well-written!), especially polytheistic, religions a lot more easily in fantasy 'cause there's almost always actual proof; as in, the gods do stuff in the material world in a consistent and observable fashion whether or not you're a believer-- if still a bit haphazard (headstrong??) with the miracles.
Even if it's little stuff-- a small miracle like an amulet that works or a prayer-offering that is visibly 'accepted' or an Oracle that actually tells the truth-- in all the recent fantasy I've read, I've noticed that there are unbelievers, but that's more by inclination (not spiritually inclined) or nurture than pure skepticism. I mean, there are skeptics, but again those are just 'salt of the earth' type people who don't care moreso than they don't believe. It's kind of... nice. I catch myself thinking 'if I wasn't a wizard, which I would almost certainly be, I would be a priestess if only I could see proof of the gods like that'. It's a nice respite of sanity in that those priests that aren't greedy or corrupted are... actually on the ball. Generally. Serving your favorite god just got a lot more exciting when the god gives you feedback (and often actual power); I think of it as the lure of fandom, except spiritually!!
Not for the first time, it annoys me that real life != fantasy novels.
» You don't need to be an Oracle to tell that the proverbial tumor in the belly of the current fantasy field is that everything has a sequel (or 10); not that I'm immune to the addiction when I actually like the book. Far from it!
I've just read-- well, devoured-- Lynn Flewelling's 'The Bone Doll's Twin' and the second book, 'Hidden Warrior', and I'm torn between wanting the last book in the trilogy right bloody now and thinking that if I did read it now, that would rob me of having something yummy to look forward to in late June (one hopes). It's the old to-WIP-or-not-to-WIP dilemma, except with fanfic authors there's a sort of feeling that 'well, this author may write another shortfic with this pairing meanwhile' or 'well, I can read another dozen fics of this pairing too', whereas with books that don't have fanfic worlds for them especially, you're really stuck, and doubly so if you just need to know what happens, dammit! And I really really do, because this book is just so great it's sort of burbling by itself in my head as if -I- wrote it! It's an uncomfortable feeling, but you could also argue it's why I love to read. Savoring things slowly is for sissies!! Haha.
At the same time, I feel chagrined 'cause this is like the lowest common denominator of reading, right-- and this addictive need to just gobble it all up also seems to be what the publishers want, so I feel... rebellious as well :/
» It occurs to me again and again that there's definitely a special joy in finding intentional gay (well, 'slashy') content in a book that's not about gay romance or whatever. That element of surprise, of sudden reward is something I really enjoy about well-done hetero romance as well, but too often that's announced on book-covers or made just too obvious by the set-up (like, with hetero romances, most of the time you can tell rather quickly this will be 'one of those couples', and sometimes I even have several candidates for different sorts of resulting couples that gradually narrow to one). With gay couples, it's almost always wished for but utterly unexpected. I just beam with happiness even thinking of stuff like the barely mentioned gay romance in Lois McMaster Bujold's 'The Curse of Chalion', forget the raging full-out gender and sundry queerness of Flewelling's books.
This sort of brings up a similar dilemma of to-WIP-or-not-to-WIP, because the more society changes & writers include gay content in 'normal' books, the more you'll see trends emerge and see predictability increase. Alas.
» It seems like I can swallow made-up (well-written!), especially polytheistic, religions a lot more easily in fantasy 'cause there's almost always actual proof; as in, the gods do stuff in the material world in a consistent and observable fashion whether or not you're a believer-- if still a bit haphazard (headstrong??) with the miracles.
Even if it's little stuff-- a small miracle like an amulet that works or a prayer-offering that is visibly 'accepted' or an Oracle that actually tells the truth-- in all the recent fantasy I've read, I've noticed that there are unbelievers, but that's more by inclination (not spiritually inclined) or nurture than pure skepticism. I mean, there are skeptics, but again those are just 'salt of the earth' type people who don't care moreso than they don't believe. It's kind of... nice. I catch myself thinking 'if I wasn't a wizard, which I would almost certainly be, I would be a priestess if only I could see proof of the gods like that'. It's a nice respite of sanity in that those priests that aren't greedy or corrupted are... actually on the ball. Generally. Serving your favorite god just got a lot more exciting when the god gives you feedback (and often actual power); I think of it as the lure of fandom, except spiritually!!
Not for the first time, it annoys me that real life != fantasy novels.
» You don't need to be an Oracle to tell that the proverbial tumor in the belly of the current fantasy field is that everything has a sequel (or 10); not that I'm immune to the addiction when I actually like the book. Far from it!
I've just read-- well, devoured-- Lynn Flewelling's 'The Bone Doll's Twin' and the second book, 'Hidden Warrior', and I'm torn between wanting the last book in the trilogy right bloody now and thinking that if I did read it now, that would rob me of having something yummy to look forward to in late June (one hopes). It's the old to-WIP-or-not-to-WIP dilemma, except with fanfic authors there's a sort of feeling that 'well, this author may write another shortfic with this pairing meanwhile' or 'well, I can read another dozen fics of this pairing too', whereas with books that don't have fanfic worlds for them especially, you're really stuck, and doubly so if you just need to know what happens, dammit! And I really really do, because this book is just so great it's sort of burbling by itself in my head as if -I- wrote it! It's an uncomfortable feeling, but you could also argue it's why I love to read. Savoring things slowly is for sissies!! Haha.
At the same time, I feel chagrined 'cause this is like the lowest common denominator of reading, right-- and this addictive need to just gobble it all up also seems to be what the publishers want, so I feel... rebellious as well :/
» It occurs to me again and again that there's definitely a special joy in finding intentional gay (well, 'slashy') content in a book that's not about gay romance or whatever. That element of surprise, of sudden reward is something I really enjoy about well-done hetero romance as well, but too often that's announced on book-covers or made just too obvious by the set-up (like, with hetero romances, most of the time you can tell rather quickly this will be 'one of those couples', and sometimes I even have several candidates for different sorts of resulting couples that gradually narrow to one). With gay couples, it's almost always wished for but utterly unexpected. I just beam with happiness even thinking of stuff like the barely mentioned gay romance in Lois McMaster Bujold's 'The Curse of Chalion', forget the raging full-out gender and sundry queerness of Flewelling's books.
This sort of brings up a similar dilemma of to-WIP-or-not-to-WIP, because the more society changes & writers include gay content in 'normal' books, the more you'll see trends emerge and see predictability increase. Alas.
