Dublin worldcon

[tagmeth]

The Dublin schedule is out.  I'm pleased to find that I'm on four events.  Hope to see some of you at some of them!

Autographs: Friday at 11:00
16 Aug 2019, Friday 11:00 - 11:50, Level 4 Foyer (CCD)
Is epic fantasy conservative?
Format: Panel
16 Aug 2019, Friday 13:00 - 13:50, Wicklow Hall-1 (CCD)
Back in 2013, Gollancz’s Twitter account made the

Comments

Re: How wonderful!

[fir_bholg]

Tolkien is definitely the best-known example, but for another I'd look at E.R. Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros, which is not an easy read, but is undoubtedly of epic scope. And Eddison's epic is undoubtedly reaching for a degree of heroism, and heroic romance, he finds lacking in the present day. He might make a more interesting subject than Tolkien. He's certainly less discussed. I like suggesting Worm because it is pre-Tolkien, and not by any measure derivative save perhaps from myth and legend.

Eddison was a weird old bird, and I think the "hearking back to a Heroic Age" aspect of his work is pronounced.

The odd thing is, he was also loved - for his prose, his voice, and his scope, if not his politics - by a later High Fantasist, namely Ursula K. Le Guin, who mentions him specifically as an exemplar of the authentic Fantasy voice in her critical essay, "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie" (which appears in a collection of her nonfiction, The Language of the Night).

Which brings us to an interesting question: Is the Earthsea Trilogy an epic? I would say yes. Like Beowulf, it follows Sparrowhawk from youth to old age, and if not death, at least to the end of his power as a mage, and the accession of his successor, King Lebannen.

And here is where it gets interesting, because Le Guin was notoriously not conservative. She was raised in a liberal, academic setting, is cited as a feminist writer and an anarchist thinker. And, having commited an epic, in the form of A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan and The Farthest Shore, discovered later that she couldn't leave it be. It was filled with perplexing tropes that she needed to call into question: Men are wizards and Masters of Art. Women are superstitious, ignorant witches. Why?

Well, the "why" exterior to the story is simply that, even growing up in Berkeley in the 30s and 40s, she was steeped in the culture of its time and, when it came to imagining a fantasy world of wizards and dragons... all of the underlying assumptions of three thousand years of Western culture came with it, will-she nil-she.

So we got Tehanu, Tales from Earthsea including the remarkable story (or novella) "Dragonfly", and her concluding volume, The Other Wind, stories which challenge the conservative assumptions of her earlier works - and which angered some readers by doing so. But being herself, and honest in her craft, and true to her principles, she couldn't let The Farthest Shore have the last word.

Which would tend to suggest that there is something innately conservative or reactionary about an epic. And maybe that is partly because that is what the function of an epic is - to set a standard, to make a claim about a heroic age, or a heroic narrative to be emulated, or at least admired. But Le Guin at least seems to show us that we don't have to let it stop there - and, indeed, we shouldn't.

So there are some of my thoughts, and I hope they are some help. I think it is marvelous that you'll be discussing such things at WorldCon, and hope you also have time to enjoy yourself.

Re: How wonderful!

[tagmeth]

Yes, I've read Eddison, long ago, at least the first of his trilogy. That's the one that ends with time repeating itself, doesn't it, so that that heroes can repeat their adventures?

Thanks for reminding me of Earthsea. I have multiple copies of the first three novels but had to go to the library to get Tehanu. I may never have read The Other Wind. I think you're right that Le Guin inherited a lot of conventions that, to begin with, she didn't challenge. I came along a little later, but also felt the pressure. Perhaps I can re-read at least some of this work before the con. It sounds like good material for the panel, if reviewed in that light.

(Incidentally, I accidentally plagiarized Le Guin when I named the Eaten One, having forgotten about Tenar. When I apologized to her, she suggested that I refer to the character instead as "the Divine Munchie.")

Re: How wonderful!

[paulfromcairns]

I read the Earthsea trilogy aged 9, and fell in love with it. My version had the brown skinned Ged on the cover, which Le Guin later said was the most subversive she could be at the time. As the subsequent volumes and short stories were published, I read them and enjoyed them immensely. The characters got older and wiser, so did I, and Le Guin said something I really liked, something the along the lines of when she looked back into the world of Earthsea, things had been happening. I've read her comments on many of the stories and how much she enjoyed setting things right, exploring the role of women in the past and restoring that role to eminence again. So many powerful wise women. There is a short story where the elderly Ged is sick, and dreaming, and I think this is about his actual death. God I love the "Divine Munchie", you'll have to fit that in there somewhere!