Political fantasy rant

[limyaael]

This rant is on political fantasy-ideas about achieving it, caveats, problems with it. You know, all the usual things.

Comments

woooooooot

[jaquiel]

OH. I love you again. FIRST POST.

Re: woooooooot

[jaquiel]

Ok, now that I've reserved the first post, time for content

Re: woooooooot

[wanderingbhikkh]

5) You know what I love? When some rich noble falls in love with some poor peasant chick, and the poor peasant chick suddenly becomes this brilliant politician. Doesn't that just give you a warm, fuzzy feeling inside, when snobby nobles suddenly listen to a girl that they would usually spit on? Mm. Contradictions make me happy some good. *die*

- hee. I pulled this one in reverse. She marries a rough-and-tumble warrior type to get out of the political ratrace, only

1) It doesn't work
2) He makes a political shitstorm more or less by accident
3) They're married, and have to deal with the big change in relationship (it was one of those fantasy romances of three whole days as their lives were endangered)
4) Her family hates him, and they're a matrifocal and kinship-oriented society

Fortunately, they both eventually own up...but not until one of them is dead.

[hakerh]

I tend to hate political fiction, fantasy or otherwise; but as I read your points, I'm starting to realise that maybe I don't hate the genre itself but rather the dumb-ass authors' mistakes. Some of those ideas sound really, really cool. Thank you for opening my eyes! :)

[limyaael]

You're welcome. I think it helps a lot when authors pursue a made-up political agenda instead of a real one (made-up in the sense that they're not basing the politics transparently one-to-one on a situation from our own world). The pushiest books are the ones where the author doesn't just want me to think the hero is good, but to think the person in our world whom the hero most resembles is good.

[madwriter]

The first good political fantasy I ever read was Zelazny's Amber series. I don't know if it's just that good, or if what I'd read before (and often since) was just that bad. :)

[jaquiel]

It's Zelazny. He's just... I don't even know how to describe it. He's brilliant.

[asciiskull]

It's that good.

[siadea]

Oh, /wonderful!/ This is JUST what I need: we seem to be writing a highly political book. (A couple of characters are /very/ good at politics; one's not so good 'cause he's more moral. Writing one of the good ones is a scary prospect, because he rather abruptly inherits his dukedom at a young age and has to /keep/ it, plausibly, along with the loose coalition of city-states on his island of which his dukedom is head. And somehow acquire enough confidence in this to get to be the nigh-arrogant schemer that he is. And writing all of that is a scary, scary thing to think about...)

Bookmarking this one for sure, oh yes.

[limyaael]

You're welcome. I'm always glad when people give thought to the plausibility of politics, as in a lot of books it comes down to "Who has the prettiest sob story."

[alex_von_cercek]

I'd say the grand threat of political fantasy is that it becomes a "THIS is the correct political viewpoint!" kind of political mastrubation for the writer.

You yourself have mentioned the unfortunate "Adolfo" character many times. Now, for right-wingers, you have Terry Goodkind, and China Mieville for those of us awaiting La Revolution.

[sabotabby]

You haven't come across a character literally named Adolfo, have you? Please tell me you haven't.

I recently discovered that Terry Goodkind wrote political commentary as well as fiction. I was vastly amused.

[limyaael]

You haven't come across a character literally named Adolfo, have you? Please tell me you haven't.

I have. It was in Anne Bishop's The Pillars of the World, where the Adolfo is an Evil Inquistor persecuting Special Magic Witches. The witches turn out to be the center of creation, and as they die, the world's dying with them...

Ugh. Ow. That's one book that show me just how painful politico-religious commentary (the witches are called Wicca and perform the Spiral Dance and say "So mote it be) combined with a Mary Sue heroine could be.

[wanderingbhikkh]

See, I never understood political masturbation in fiction. Fiction is the place where you can set up factions and people and then watch them play out, where you can play a kind of political or organizational algebra. You can see the techniques used, the reactions and the countermoves and the chess game of it all without using real issues.

It seems to me that the only real point you could make about politics in our world with a fantasy book is pointing out how absurd politics itself is. Which is what I'm trying to do in my book...well, that and stab the "everything would be better if only women ran things" and "women are more diplomatic/perfect than men" myths dead dead dead.