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why I think writing good fantasy is a difficult task
It’s been a long time since I’ve picked up any fantasy novel without a modicum of suspicion. Actually, let me be specific: I’m referring to what could be termed “high” fantasy in particular. This is because the genre seems particularly influenced by the formulaic. It’s a kind of inertia: the prose is tugged towards the verbose, the plots towards hackneyed yarns, and the characters inevitably wander into the graveyard of the stereotypes. Watch out youngster, the zombie of “youth who is unaware of his special lineage” is shambling towards you! Jeepers girlie, you were nearly impaled by the shade of the “sword-wielding bimbo who is also a magician, and smart”.…
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genre and prejudice
There’s been a discussion on a writing list I’m on regarding definitions: what is fantasy, what is horror, what is SF, and this started from a discussion on what makes writing “art”. I stayed out of the arguments, which got heated at times. Ultimately, I think the discussion is self-defeating. Labels are only useful when they are used to promote discussion, and celebrate diversity, but often they are used to exclude, and inherently, to reinforce prejudice. Look at how we label people: black, white, straight, gay, working-class, etc. These terms are often (not always) used when people want to put distance between “us” and “them”. In literature there are many…
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but that every word tell
I am not a grammar goddess, as is quite obvious from my blog, but I do my best to adhere to the few rules that rattle around in my head. I have a number of books on the subject on the bookshelf within closest reach of my chair, which also contains other useful reference texts such as as my obese, but beloved, dictionary, and thesaurus. The oldest of them, the first book on grammar I voluntarily bought, is still the one I check the most frequently: The Elements of Style, by Strunk and White. That slim volume contains a world of sense, and is written in such precise and clean…
