643: a little slice of boredom
I was distressed to find at the end of Gifts a preview for its sequel, Voices. As disappointed as I was with the rest of the book, the completionist in me didn't feel like appending an unfinished chapter to it. [This is something I've had to fight in the past--my father would get mad, for instance, when we were watching the telly and had to go, but even if the show was crap, I couldn't stand not seeing a resolution, because it would never be complete in my mind otherwise.]
Previously, I've mentioned that the actual present-tense events of the book are that Orrec and Gry meet a traveler, tell him about their lives, and he gives them a book. There's slightly more than that, but nothing that really adds much you wouldn't expect, so the bulk of the story is how they grew up and got to be where they were. I don't particularly find fault in this method of narrative--in fact, I have to use it for my book--but certainly it has to have good reason to be arranged in such a manner, one that in Gifts didn't seem clear until it returned to the present tense. At least Gifts is better than, for instance, Their Eyes Were Watching God in this respect--I didn't really see much point in having Janie tell her life story to Phoeby instead of telling it from a progressive present tense--but it's worse in actual story content.
The setting of Gifts is as if, instead of Janie blowing away Tea Cake with the rifle, she used her mutant telekinetic powers to do it, or if X-Men was Saved by the Bell and all the characters chose to use their powers minimally, if at all. There really seems to be no purpose for their gifts except for territorial and political reasons, besides the family of animal callers [the only non-destructive power]. It's not that a "slice of life"* story set in a medievalish era wouldn't be good, because Cynthia Voigt's Jackaroo and On Fortune's Wheel do just that very well. It just seems to defeat the point of having magical abilities in a story if no one is going to really use them.
*There's that "bread" phrase I was trying to remember!
Furthermore, it's unfathomably unrealistic to attempt a slice-of-life story with certain characters basically having the ability to instantly level a city on a really bad hair day, with no possible recourse against it. I mean, it *hints* that these powers could be reversed, but within the first volume alone, there's no definite conclusion, and it merely serves as a distancer between character and reader. I can identify to degrees with Gwyn and Birle in Voigt's books. I can identify to degrees with the X-Men and Xanth characters. I can identify with the characters in bizarre post-apocalyptic settings like in Last Exile or Mortal Engines. Unfortunately, I find it hard to really sympathize with Orrec's family and the problem of having to teach each upcoming Caspromant basically how to control the atom bomb within that could go off at any moment, while still living essentially normal medieval lives.
The closest I've identified with the story is during the more mythic portions of the Caspro family history, where it's easier to believe it as metaphor than fact. "Oh crap, my son needs to learn how to destroy things properly, or his ability to destroy will use him!" feels absolutely awkward. Nature simply doesn't work that way--no single being possesses the natural, potentially uncontrollable ability to destroy everything in sight. That would make it too likely that a few strategically-placed renegades could wipe out the entire planet in no time at all. How can you possibly write a believable "slice of life" story with that kind of setting?
"THE GREAT TASTES OF NUTS AND GUM TOGETHER AT LAST!!!ONE!"
I might just be thinking too hard on it. I also might just not like her style of writing... it reads a LOT like the English Lit. stuff we had to read that put me to sleep [which is the only reason I did poorly in the class, not because I wouldn't be able to answer the questions had I simply been able to retain what boring things I'd read along with the more interesting]. In fact, that it has a Reader Chat section at the end with discussion questions only supports that feeling X(
I'm reminded of Lois Lowry's The Giver, come to think of it--another outlandish setting I didn't really identify with in the slightest and only found to be lacking in purpose. I mean, if the lesson is, "Be what you like, instead of what someone else tells you you should be like," I'm sure it could be written as to generate more interest \:'
Chard says Earthsea 2 and 3 [whichever ones those are] are better. I'm kinda not looking forward to starting, if that's going to be a 2 for 5 right there.
Previously, I've mentioned that the actual present-tense events of the book are that Orrec and Gry meet a traveler, tell him about their lives, and he gives them a book. There's slightly more than that, but nothing that really adds much you wouldn't expect, so the bulk of the story is how they grew up and got to be where they were. I don't particularly find fault in this method of narrative--in fact, I have to use it for my book--but certainly it has to have good reason to be arranged in such a manner, one that in Gifts didn't seem clear until it returned to the present tense. At least Gifts is better than, for instance, Their Eyes Were Watching God in this respect--I didn't really see much point in having Janie tell her life story to Phoeby instead of telling it from a progressive present tense--but it's worse in actual story content.
The setting of Gifts is as if, instead of Janie blowing away Tea Cake with the rifle, she used her mutant telekinetic powers to do it, or if X-Men was Saved by the Bell and all the characters chose to use their powers minimally, if at all. There really seems to be no purpose for their gifts except for territorial and political reasons, besides the family of animal callers [the only non-destructive power]. It's not that a "slice of life"* story set in a medievalish era wouldn't be good, because Cynthia Voigt's Jackaroo and On Fortune's Wheel do just that very well. It just seems to defeat the point of having magical abilities in a story if no one is going to really use them.
*There's that "bread" phrase I was trying to remember!
Furthermore, it's unfathomably unrealistic to attempt a slice-of-life story with certain characters basically having the ability to instantly level a city on a really bad hair day, with no possible recourse against it. I mean, it *hints* that these powers could be reversed, but within the first volume alone, there's no definite conclusion, and it merely serves as a distancer between character and reader. I can identify to degrees with Gwyn and Birle in Voigt's books. I can identify to degrees with the X-Men and Xanth characters. I can identify with the characters in bizarre post-apocalyptic settings like in Last Exile or Mortal Engines. Unfortunately, I find it hard to really sympathize with Orrec's family and the problem of having to teach each upcoming Caspromant basically how to control the atom bomb within that could go off at any moment, while still living essentially normal medieval lives.
The closest I've identified with the story is during the more mythic portions of the Caspro family history, where it's easier to believe it as metaphor than fact. "Oh crap, my son needs to learn how to destroy things properly, or his ability to destroy will use him!" feels absolutely awkward. Nature simply doesn't work that way--no single being possesses the natural, potentially uncontrollable ability to destroy everything in sight. That would make it too likely that a few strategically-placed renegades could wipe out the entire planet in no time at all. How can you possibly write a believable "slice of life" story with that kind of setting?
"THE GREAT TASTES OF NUTS AND GUM TOGETHER AT LAST!!!ONE!"
I might just be thinking too hard on it. I also might just not like her style of writing... it reads a LOT like the English Lit. stuff we had to read that put me to sleep [which is the only reason I did poorly in the class, not because I wouldn't be able to answer the questions had I simply been able to retain what boring things I'd read along with the more interesting]. In fact, that it has a Reader Chat section at the end with discussion questions only supports that feeling X(
I'm reminded of Lois Lowry's The Giver, come to think of it--another outlandish setting I didn't really identify with in the slightest and only found to be lacking in purpose. I mean, if the lesson is, "Be what you like, instead of what someone else tells you you should be like," I'm sure it could be written as to generate more interest \:'
Chard says Earthsea 2 and 3 [whichever ones those are] are better. I'm kinda not looking forward to starting, if that's going to be a 2 for 5 right there.