Notes on a Friday / What is Fantasy?
Virgo:: Sometimes, Virgo, you're too damn smart for your own good. You may describe a problem so brilliantly, for instance, that you think you've solved it merely by talking about it, and never get around to actually fixing it. On other occasions your fine mind runs amuck in an orgy of razor-sharp analysis, cutting things apart in order to understand them but not putting them back together again. I beg you not to indulge in these excesses during the coming week. Your intelligence will be soaring beyond even its usual exceptional levels, and it would be a shame for you not to capitalize on it momentously.
My writing of the Tam Lin YA novel is on hold.
There's another novel taking precedence-- the plot popped into my head almost fully-formed. I knew it was going to be about a girl found floating in a creek. The first thing we read is a newspaper clipping about the discovery, and how the girl is in intensive care, and she might not make it. Authorities are investigating whether or not this is the same girl who vanished from the local police station nine days earlier.
What's interesting is that there is one story, not told linearly. It is in fact the same girl, but when we "meet" her, she is being imprisoned in an underground cavern. Then we find out how exactly she vanished from a well-guarded police station in the first place. So we the readers have to piece together what happened in three timelines-- what happens that causes her to be abducted, her abduction, and her escape. But we also get all of these things at the same time, and sorting them out is the interesting part.
This story is firmly horror-fantasy. There are flesh-eating monsters.
So, last night, I was talking with Abby about it, and I figured that her name begins with a hard "K" sound. She's nineteen, and new to the area. I thought "Cree" sounded interesting for a name, and didn't really know why.
So this morning, as I was walking from the Metro, I decided that her name was Cree Warner, and she's a transplant from Montana. I have all of her backstory figured out. So I sat down and did a googlesearch to make sure the name isn't already in use somehow, and of course that pulled up the Cree, a tribe of Native Americans in the Algonquian sub-family. Who inhabited Montana. Um, okay. Interesting coincidence.
Then I started to figure out what exactly my flesh-eating monsters are. I know that almost every culture has its own blood-drinking or zombie legends, but I wanted something specific to North America. I didn't know where to start, so I started with the Wendigo, because Wendigoes have terrified me since I read a book about them when I was about eleven or so. Plus, I recently watched the Wendigo episode of Supernatural, and it reminded me how much they really creeped me out.
Well, wouldn't you know it? The Wendigo is a creature out of Algonquian mythology. That was somewhat easy. Scarily easy, actually.
I don't know that my creatures will end up being Wendigoes. They have to be somewhat more social and group-oriented than Wendigoes seem to be. But like I said, it's a start.
___________________________________
Bellydance was hard last night. Intermediate is going to be a challenge for me-- I really have to work to make my hands and my body rolls more graceful. I definitely left yesterday feeling like I got a hell of a workout. I need to be more bendy.
Tonight, I'm going to see a co-worker's band play at the 8x10. After that, I'm going to drink a bottle of pinot in the bath. Because it's been that type of month.
___________________________________
I leave you with this for discussion-- What is Fantasy?
I was discussing fantasy writing with a friend yesterday, and he said that he doesn't consider writing that takes place in our physical world to be true Fantasy writing. Essentially, that true Fantasy writing takes place on another world. For instance, he said, he would not consider most of Neil Gaiman's writing to be Fantasy. And then I just boggled, because dude. Neil has received some of the world's top Fantasy awards. He's been featured in some of the world's best Fantasy anthologies. I started to go down a list of Neil's writing to explain exactly how Neil is a flagship Fantasy writer, but at that point, he wanted to "agree to disagree." (Of course, I then said that I would drop the subject, but I wouldn't agree to disagree because I was right, goddamnit. Sometimes, I'm stubborn like that.)
Anyway, I was arguing that that's not so-- even sci-fi today can take place in our physical world-- Earth. Neil Gaiman might be shelved in the fiction section of bookstores, but he'd also be in the Fantasy section. (And indeed, Gaiman's American Gods, the book we were initially discussing, is shelved as Fantasy at Barnes & Noble, Borders, and is listed as Fantasy at Amazon.Com.) Why? Because according to Wikipedia:
Fantasy is a genre of art that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. The genre is generally distinguished from science fiction and horror by overall look, feel, and theme of the individual work, though there is a great deal of overlap between the three (collectively known as speculative fiction). In its broadest sense, fantasy covers works by many writers, artists, and musicians, from ancient myths and legends, to many recent works embraced by a wide audience today.
Therefore, even if a story takes place physically on Earth, the use of magic and mythology qualifies it as Fantasy. The fact that Neil's work contains Gods and monsters and trolls and humans-turned-into-goats and ghosts and... well, it all makes him a Fantasy writer. Well, technically, it makes him a speculative fiction writer, but that's still a sub-genre of Fantasy. Which isn't to say that he only writes Fantasy, but that has been the bulk of his oevre. Fantasy is not just Ursula LeGuin, and dragons, and building the newest version of a neo-medieval world. It's diverse and complex and prone to crossing over into other genres.
It appears that my friend was basing his assertation of the Fantasy genre solely on one of its subgenres-- High Fantasy. You know, Tolkein, Narnia, D&D. While all of those things do qualify as Fantasy, they don't hold a lock on what Fantasy is. Essentially, everything from Gaiman to Stephen King to Highlander to Buffy to steampunk to Sword & Sorcery to War for the Oaks and Tithe to Jacqueline Carey's alternate histories all fall under Fantasy, even though they may fall into differing Fantasy subgenres. They also may cross over to other genres as well, but they still qualify as Fantasy. Anyway, so here is a great big list of Fantasy subgenres.
So yeah. All you writers and illustrators and librarians and publishers out there... what makes something Fantasy to you, and to the publishing industry at large? I want discussion, yo.
ETA: Lol. Coincidentally, today is Neil Gaiman's birthday.
My writing of the Tam Lin YA novel is on hold.
There's another novel taking precedence-- the plot popped into my head almost fully-formed. I knew it was going to be about a girl found floating in a creek. The first thing we read is a newspaper clipping about the discovery, and how the girl is in intensive care, and she might not make it. Authorities are investigating whether or not this is the same girl who vanished from the local police station nine days earlier.
What's interesting is that there is one story, not told linearly. It is in fact the same girl, but when we "meet" her, she is being imprisoned in an underground cavern. Then we find out how exactly she vanished from a well-guarded police station in the first place. So we the readers have to piece together what happened in three timelines-- what happens that causes her to be abducted, her abduction, and her escape. But we also get all of these things at the same time, and sorting them out is the interesting part.
This story is firmly horror-fantasy. There are flesh-eating monsters.
So, last night, I was talking with Abby about it, and I figured that her name begins with a hard "K" sound. She's nineteen, and new to the area. I thought "Cree" sounded interesting for a name, and didn't really know why.
So this morning, as I was walking from the Metro, I decided that her name was Cree Warner, and she's a transplant from Montana. I have all of her backstory figured out. So I sat down and did a googlesearch to make sure the name isn't already in use somehow, and of course that pulled up the Cree, a tribe of Native Americans in the Algonquian sub-family. Who inhabited Montana. Um, okay. Interesting coincidence.
Then I started to figure out what exactly my flesh-eating monsters are. I know that almost every culture has its own blood-drinking or zombie legends, but I wanted something specific to North America. I didn't know where to start, so I started with the Wendigo, because Wendigoes have terrified me since I read a book about them when I was about eleven or so. Plus, I recently watched the Wendigo episode of Supernatural, and it reminded me how much they really creeped me out.
Well, wouldn't you know it? The Wendigo is a creature out of Algonquian mythology. That was somewhat easy. Scarily easy, actually.
I don't know that my creatures will end up being Wendigoes. They have to be somewhat more social and group-oriented than Wendigoes seem to be. But like I said, it's a start.
___________________________________
Bellydance was hard last night. Intermediate is going to be a challenge for me-- I really have to work to make my hands and my body rolls more graceful. I definitely left yesterday feeling like I got a hell of a workout. I need to be more bendy.
Tonight, I'm going to see a co-worker's band play at the 8x10. After that, I'm going to drink a bottle of pinot in the bath. Because it's been that type of month.
___________________________________
I leave you with this for discussion-- What is Fantasy?
I was discussing fantasy writing with a friend yesterday, and he said that he doesn't consider writing that takes place in our physical world to be true Fantasy writing. Essentially, that true Fantasy writing takes place on another world. For instance, he said, he would not consider most of Neil Gaiman's writing to be Fantasy. And then I just boggled, because dude. Neil has received some of the world's top Fantasy awards. He's been featured in some of the world's best Fantasy anthologies. I started to go down a list of Neil's writing to explain exactly how Neil is a flagship Fantasy writer, but at that point, he wanted to "agree to disagree." (Of course, I then said that I would drop the subject, but I wouldn't agree to disagree because I was right, goddamnit. Sometimes, I'm stubborn like that.)
Anyway, I was arguing that that's not so-- even sci-fi today can take place in our physical world-- Earth. Neil Gaiman might be shelved in the fiction section of bookstores, but he'd also be in the Fantasy section. (And indeed, Gaiman's American Gods, the book we were initially discussing, is shelved as Fantasy at Barnes & Noble, Borders, and is listed as Fantasy at Amazon.Com.) Why? Because according to Wikipedia:
Fantasy is a genre of art that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. The genre is generally distinguished from science fiction and horror by overall look, feel, and theme of the individual work, though there is a great deal of overlap between the three (collectively known as speculative fiction). In its broadest sense, fantasy covers works by many writers, artists, and musicians, from ancient myths and legends, to many recent works embraced by a wide audience today.
Therefore, even if a story takes place physically on Earth, the use of magic and mythology qualifies it as Fantasy. The fact that Neil's work contains Gods and monsters and trolls and humans-turned-into-goats and ghosts and... well, it all makes him a Fantasy writer. Well, technically, it makes him a speculative fiction writer, but that's still a sub-genre of Fantasy. Which isn't to say that he only writes Fantasy, but that has been the bulk of his oevre. Fantasy is not just Ursula LeGuin, and dragons, and building the newest version of a neo-medieval world. It's diverse and complex and prone to crossing over into other genres.
It appears that my friend was basing his assertation of the Fantasy genre solely on one of its subgenres-- High Fantasy. You know, Tolkein, Narnia, D&D. While all of those things do qualify as Fantasy, they don't hold a lock on what Fantasy is. Essentially, everything from Gaiman to Stephen King to Highlander to Buffy to steampunk to Sword & Sorcery to War for the Oaks and Tithe to Jacqueline Carey's alternate histories all fall under Fantasy, even though they may fall into differing Fantasy subgenres. They also may cross over to other genres as well, but they still qualify as Fantasy. Anyway, so here is a great big list of Fantasy subgenres.
So yeah. All you writers and illustrators and librarians and publishers out there... what makes something Fantasy to you, and to the publishing industry at large? I want discussion, yo.
ETA: Lol. Coincidentally, today is Neil Gaiman's birthday.