(no subject)
Is it so hard to write good, fae-based fantasy where the protagonist is NOT a pretty, talented girl who gets the Too Good, But Unbelievably In Love, With Her guy???
I just finished reading an anthology of short stories in a book called Welcome to Bordertown. It’s part of the Bordertown series that was established in the 1980s-an author created a single town that is between the human world and the faerie world, where all the runaways and outcasts go. The short stories all involve various individuals in that same city.
Some of the stories were fucking FANTASTIC. I’m not a short story person, but like... that some of these authors were able to create a dynamic character I adored in so little time just blows my mind. Charles de Lint had one, the closing story, which had me BAWLING. And it left such a powerful presence and message that I’m looking for more of his short stories.
But then there were other stories that left such a bad taste in my mouth. One was co-written by Cassandra Clare. Main character: human female. She’s an ~amazing~ actress. She’s being pursued ~romantically~ by a super-elite super hawt elf. She gets too nosey in some affairs and gets into trouble, dragging the elf with her. The elf later admits that he wasn’t actually serious about his romantic chase, but hot damn is he now that he’s seen how awesome she is when she got them into trouble. And I’m sitting here... what exactly did she do to show him that she’s worth pursuing? She didn’t do ANYTHING. No, literally, she did nothing different than what she was already doing. There was no character change or growth. But all of a sudden, boy is she something speshul and worthy of his adoration. And the worst part is that this elf is utterly and entirely different from ALL the other elves pictured in all the other stories-they have something alien about them, but he... doesn’t.
And it just ruins the rest of the stories.
Like Annette Curtis Klaus wrote a beautiful story about a vampire girl who meets an elf and maybe falls for him. But romance wasn’t the main point of the story, and you genuinely feel bad for the vampire girl because she hates what she is, and there’s a feel of closure because she finally gets to fit in with society. Or Corey Docterow wrote a sci-fi-esque piece about a guy who introduces the internet to Bordertown with the attempts to destroy magical barriers, but when he falls in love with a half-elf, that need for destruction is no longer necessary. Once again, love just... sort of happened and it wasn’t the main point or message.
But apparently, Cassandra Clare is unable to write a protagonist without making romance the main plot point.
~whinewhinewhine~ "At least she's been published, Kim. That's more than you can say." Yeah, and so was Stephenie Meyers. As an avid reader, I cling to my criticisms because it's all I've got D:
I just finished reading an anthology of short stories in a book called Welcome to Bordertown. It’s part of the Bordertown series that was established in the 1980s-an author created a single town that is between the human world and the faerie world, where all the runaways and outcasts go. The short stories all involve various individuals in that same city.
Some of the stories were fucking FANTASTIC. I’m not a short story person, but like... that some of these authors were able to create a dynamic character I adored in so little time just blows my mind. Charles de Lint had one, the closing story, which had me BAWLING. And it left such a powerful presence and message that I’m looking for more of his short stories.
But then there were other stories that left such a bad taste in my mouth. One was co-written by Cassandra Clare. Main character: human female. She’s an ~amazing~ actress. She’s being pursued ~romantically~ by a super-elite super hawt elf. She gets too nosey in some affairs and gets into trouble, dragging the elf with her. The elf later admits that he wasn’t actually serious about his romantic chase, but hot damn is he now that he’s seen how awesome she is when she got them into trouble. And I’m sitting here... what exactly did she do to show him that she’s worth pursuing? She didn’t do ANYTHING. No, literally, she did nothing different than what she was already doing. There was no character change or growth. But all of a sudden, boy is she something speshul and worthy of his adoration. And the worst part is that this elf is utterly and entirely different from ALL the other elves pictured in all the other stories-they have something alien about them, but he... doesn’t.
And it just ruins the rest of the stories.
Like Annette Curtis Klaus wrote a beautiful story about a vampire girl who meets an elf and maybe falls for him. But romance wasn’t the main point of the story, and you genuinely feel bad for the vampire girl because she hates what she is, and there’s a feel of closure because she finally gets to fit in with society. Or Corey Docterow wrote a sci-fi-esque piece about a guy who introduces the internet to Bordertown with the attempts to destroy magical barriers, but when he falls in love with a half-elf, that need for destruction is no longer necessary. Once again, love just... sort of happened and it wasn’t the main point or message.
But apparently, Cassandra Clare is unable to write a protagonist without making romance the main plot point.
~whinewhinewhine~ "At least she's been published, Kim. That's more than you can say." Yeah, and so was Stephenie Meyers. As an avid reader, I cling to my criticisms because it's all I've got D: