What do the above three items have in common besides their initial letter? They are things the British do extremely well. While I love scones and have little interest in soccer (well, they call it football but that ruins the rhythm), it is the “spaceships”—aka speculative fiction of Great Britain that attracts my attention. Even before genres were invented, British writers were turning out tales of wonder such as Paradise Lost and The Fairie Queene. As the genre dawned in the early 1900s, George MacDonald and Edith Nesbit were exploring fairy tale worlds in new ways.
The founders of modern fantasy, J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, were professors at Oxford University, with Tolkien even stating his goal of creating a new mythology for England with his Middle-Earth mythos, while Lewis’s Narnia series had thoroughly British roots, and even his Space Trilogy shows amazing development of ideas. A third author who approaches their fame is J.K. Rowling, whose saga of a wizarding academy captured the hearts of millions. Other British authors include Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, Brian Jacques, and M.I. McAllister (who should have more readers). The former two are known for their dry wit and satirical fiction, while the latter are authors of beast-fable.
Douglass Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series features such side-splitting lines as “the ship hung in the sky in much the way that bricks don’t” and “The word yellow wandered through his mind in search of something to connect it to.” His dry style brings a sense of humor to such dreary topics as the end of the world, androids, and evolution. Terry Pratchett takes a similar approach to fantasy in his Discworld novels, a world held up by four elephants on the back of a giant turtle where things happen according to the rules of narrative causality. Characters like Bruatha, Captain Vimes, Granny Weatherwax, and Death’s granddaughter Susan merely turn the world upside down and milk the sacred cows for all they’re worth.
In the realm of beast-fable, Brian Jacques’ Redwall series focuses on an abbey built by woodland creatures and defended against all invaders. Famous on both sides of the Atlantic, his tales of feasts and fights were sadly cut short when he died in February last year. Fans can still enjoy the twenty-plus books in the series. M. I. McAllister’s Mistmantle Chronicles quintet crosses Narnian atmosphere with more Redwallian beasts. All the characters are amazingly realistic, to the point it’s hard to tell minor characters from major.
In the realm of television, the BBC is responsible for Doctor Who, one of the longest running sci-fi drams in the world. Since 1963, viewers have been enjoying the exploits of a Time Lord and his companions exploring the universe in a steering-challenged TARDIS. In the past few years, the show has produced two spinoffs; Torchwood for adult views and Sarah Jane Adventures for CBBC. The later was cancelled after the death of the main actress last April, but is much closer in tone to the original series than Torchwood’s dark, sex-filled mania. Rival station ITV has produced “Primeval,” which follows a rag-tag team of scientists investigating rips in the space-time continuum that leak prehistoric beasts into Southern England. There’s also BBC’s Merlin, of which I have only watched the first episode and was turned slightly off by Prince Arthur throwing knives at a servant for amusement.
Tell Me a Story, Raggedy Man
Showing posts with label fantasy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fantasy. Show all posts
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Monday, February 13, 2012
Dragonheart
The other night, my roommate introduced me to the film Dragonheart. It opens with a young prince and his mentor training on a hill, when news comes that the prince's father is battling peasants. They go to watch the battle, but the king is killed and the prince is wounded. To save her son, the queen takes him to a mighty dragon, who gives the boy half his heart to save him.
What happens after that is best viewed without spoilers, but it struck me as more of a fairy tale then a fantasy film, with all the best suggestions and myths implied. The uncertianties of allegiance and fallen heroes make it well worth watching.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Fans + Fiction=?
“I would draw some of the great tales in fullness, and leave many only places in the scheme, and sketched. The cycles should be linked to a majestic whole, and yet leave scope for other minds and hands wielding paint and music and drama.”
~Prologue, The Silmarillion
Once a work of fiction becomes popular, it is only a matter of time before fans begin to write stories based upon it. This deliberate imitation of a particular author is known as “fanfiction” or “fanfic.”
The above quote from J.R.R. Tolkien shows acceptance and even encouragement of fanfic, though Tolkien could not have foreseen the rise in fanfic due to the Internet and, in many cases, movie adaptations. Other authors, however, tend to discourage fanfiction, though squelching enthusiastic fans is impossible.
Some fanfic authors emphasize unity with the source material (known as ‘canon’,) while others claim to “fix what the author broke.” In my limited experience with fanfiction, I have come across more of the former than the latter, although even some of those take surprising liberties.
In my opinion, there are two broad categories of fanfic: character and setting. For example, a character Lord of the Rings fanfic might explore other journeys of Gandalf or the activities of Aragorn in the Fourth Age. A Lord of the Rings fanfic ‘setting,’ on the other hand, might invent a Rider of Rohan or an adventurous Took and send them on original quests. There is also the underappreciated category of fanpoetry—poems exploring situations or characters in the books. One of my online friends writes Lord of the Rings fanpoetry equally as stirring as any of The Lays of Beleriand.
Overall, there area almost as many approaches to fanfiction as there are authors of fanfiction, ranging from silly to serious, humor to horror. In my opinion, any approach can work as long as it remains respectful of canon. As the parody Official Fanfiction University of Middle-Earth says, “Thou Shalt Not Steal Characters, but Borrow, and Return Them Whole and Recognizible.”
Even parodies can follow this rule, such as The Silmarillion Gospels by Araloth the Random, a rewriting of the Silmarillion in a potpourri of King James and bally-girl English.
As an example, the original text of the Valaquenta concerning the Valar Yavanna reads as follows:
The spouse of Aulë is Yavanna, the Giver of Fruits. She is the lover of all things that grow in the earth, and all their countless forms she holds in her mind, from the trees that grow like towers in the forest long ago to the moss upon stones or the small and secret things in the mould. In reverence Yavanna is next to Varda among the Queens of the Valar. In the form of a woman she is tall, and robed in green; but at times she takes other shapes. Some there are who have seen her standing as a tree under heaven, crowned with the sun; and from its branches there spilled a golden dew upon the barren earth, and it grew green with corn, but the roots of the tree were in the waters of Ulmo, and the winds of Manwë spoke in its branches. Kementari, Queen of the Earth, she is surnamed in the Eldarin tongue.
The reworked text, on the other hand, reads:
And the spouse of Aulë is Yavanna, the Giver of Fruits, and Kementari, Queen of the Earth, and the One With Not As Many Names As Varda. She loveth flowers and growing things and mouldy stuff. Therefore all housewives call upon her name when cleaning out the fridge. In the form of a woman is tall and dressed in green, but other times she looketh like a tree. Ask thou not how the heck this doth work. Accept the word of the Mighty Professor Tolkien, Lord of Oxford, and question not his Righteous Awesomeness.
In my opinion, fanfic is to canon as pre-made bread is to homemade. Whether you buy it at the store or use a packaged mix, the end product can be used in the same way. Sometimes it even can pass for the real thing, and other times it turns normal ideas upside down. But if you’re hungry enough, it doesn’t matter.
Bread is bread, after all.
~Prologue, The Silmarillion
Once a work of fiction becomes popular, it is only a matter of time before fans begin to write stories based upon it. This deliberate imitation of a particular author is known as “fanfiction” or “fanfic.”
The above quote from J.R.R. Tolkien shows acceptance and even encouragement of fanfic, though Tolkien could not have foreseen the rise in fanfic due to the Internet and, in many cases, movie adaptations. Other authors, however, tend to discourage fanfiction, though squelching enthusiastic fans is impossible.
Some fanfic authors emphasize unity with the source material (known as ‘canon’,) while others claim to “fix what the author broke.” In my limited experience with fanfiction, I have come across more of the former than the latter, although even some of those take surprising liberties.
In my opinion, there are two broad categories of fanfic: character and setting. For example, a character Lord of the Rings fanfic might explore other journeys of Gandalf or the activities of Aragorn in the Fourth Age. A Lord of the Rings fanfic ‘setting,’ on the other hand, might invent a Rider of Rohan or an adventurous Took and send them on original quests. There is also the underappreciated category of fanpoetry—poems exploring situations or characters in the books. One of my online friends writes Lord of the Rings fanpoetry equally as stirring as any of The Lays of Beleriand.
Overall, there area almost as many approaches to fanfiction as there are authors of fanfiction, ranging from silly to serious, humor to horror. In my opinion, any approach can work as long as it remains respectful of canon. As the parody Official Fanfiction University of Middle-Earth says, “Thou Shalt Not Steal Characters, but Borrow, and Return Them Whole and Recognizible.”
Even parodies can follow this rule, such as The Silmarillion Gospels by Araloth the Random, a rewriting of the Silmarillion in a potpourri of King James and bally-girl English.
As an example, the original text of the Valaquenta concerning the Valar Yavanna reads as follows:
The spouse of Aulë is Yavanna, the Giver of Fruits. She is the lover of all things that grow in the earth, and all their countless forms she holds in her mind, from the trees that grow like towers in the forest long ago to the moss upon stones or the small and secret things in the mould. In reverence Yavanna is next to Varda among the Queens of the Valar. In the form of a woman she is tall, and robed in green; but at times she takes other shapes. Some there are who have seen her standing as a tree under heaven, crowned with the sun; and from its branches there spilled a golden dew upon the barren earth, and it grew green with corn, but the roots of the tree were in the waters of Ulmo, and the winds of Manwë spoke in its branches. Kementari, Queen of the Earth, she is surnamed in the Eldarin tongue.
The reworked text, on the other hand, reads:
And the spouse of Aulë is Yavanna, the Giver of Fruits, and Kementari, Queen of the Earth, and the One With Not As Many Names As Varda. She loveth flowers and growing things and mouldy stuff. Therefore all housewives call upon her name when cleaning out the fridge. In the form of a woman is tall and dressed in green, but other times she looketh like a tree. Ask thou not how the heck this doth work. Accept the word of the Mighty Professor Tolkien, Lord of Oxford, and question not his Righteous Awesomeness.
In my opinion, fanfic is to canon as pre-made bread is to homemade. Whether you buy it at the store or use a packaged mix, the end product can be used in the same way. Sometimes it even can pass for the real thing, and other times it turns normal ideas upside down. But if you’re hungry enough, it doesn’t matter.
Bread is bread, after all.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Books
Top Three Authors:
J.R.R Tolkien
C.S. Lewis
Ted Dekker.
Top 3 male characters:
Aslan of Narnia
Frodo of LotR
Justin of the Circle Trilogy
Top 3 female characters:
Lucy of Narnia
Luthien of the Silmarillion
Bonnie Silver of Dragons in Our Midst
Top 30 fiction books/series in no particular order:
1. Narnia
2. Lord of the Rings
3. Silmarilion
4. Princess Bride
5. Dragons in Our Midst
6. Oracles of Fire
7. Binding of the Blade
8. Circle Trilogy w/Green
9. Echoes from the Edge
10. AD Chronicles
11. C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy
12. Squire Tales
13. Till We Have Faces
14. The Door Within
15. Starlighter
16. The Time Quartet by L’Engle
17. Birdwing
18. Auralia’s Colors
19. At the Back of the North Wind
20. The Bronze Bow
21. The Divine Comedy—yes, it’s a classical poem, it still counts
22. Inkworld
23. Roverandom
24. Abarat
25. Music of Dolphins
26. Children of Hurin
27. History of Middle-Earth in twelve volumes
28. Screwtape Letters
29. Broken Angel
30. The Hobbit
Top 3 books most recently read:
The Silmarillion
Return of the King
Redeeming Love
Worst 3 books ever read:
The Awakening by Kate Choplin ---so dull and boring
The Things they Carried—weird perspective on Vietnam war
Of Mice and Men—I don’t mind the death of MC’s, but really, it has to be handled better
Top 5 scenes from any book:
Rachel recognizing Justin, Red by Ted Dekker
Benjiah’s resurrection, All My Holy Mountain by L.B. Graham
Aslan’s resurrection Lion, Witch Wardrobe
The triple wedding, The Bones of Makaidos by Bryan Davis
Return of Gandalf, Two Towers
The book(s) that made me cry the most:
All My Holy Mountain
Red by Ted Dekker
Green by Ted Dekker
Tears of a Dragon by Bryan Davis
Enoch’s Ghost by Bryan Davis
I Know why the Angels Dance by Bryan Davis
The Silmarillion by Tolkien
The book(s) that made me laugh the most:
Dragons in Our Midst/Oracles of Fire by Bryan Davis
Echoes from the Edge by Bryan Davis
The Princess Bride
The book(s) that made me feel the best at the end:
All my Holy Mountain
The Last Battle, C.S. Lewis
Contemporary or Historical?
Historical. Contemprary is too angsty
Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Horror?
Fantasy all the way!
Hardback or Trade Paperback or Mass Market Paperback?
Mass Market Paperback—cheap and you can fit several in a purse!
Barnes & Noble or Amazon?
Amazon--cheaper
Bookmark or Dog-ear?
Bookmark, dog-ears look awful
Alphabetize by author, alphabetize by title, or organize not at all?
None of the above…first by genre, then by title
Star Wars or Star Trek?
Neither…haven’t seen either
Keep, Throw Away, or Sell?
Keep, unless it’s awful
Keep dust-jacket or toss it?
keep
Read with dustjacket or remove it?
Well, I have like, one book with a dust-jacket…but still on
Little Women or Anne of Green Gables?
Anne of Green Gables…she’s much more imaginative
Short story or novel?
Novel
Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks?
When someone makes me…so I guess when tired.
“It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”?
Once upon a time, without a doubt.
Tear Jerker or Belly Laugh?
Preferably both, but if only one…tear jerker
Charlotte, Emily, or Anne Brontë?
Haven’t read any
Buy or Borrow?
Borrow, because I have no money
Buying choice: Book Reviews, Recommendation, or Browse?
Browse, because no one I know likes my tastes
Collection (short stories by the same author) or Anthology (short stories by different authors)? Collection
Crane or Conrad?
Haven’t read either
Standalone or Series?
Series!
Tidy ending or Cliffhanger?
Cliffhanger only if there is a sequel
Morning reading, afternoon reading, or nighttime reading?
When I have time
Favorite genre series?
I can’t decide
New or used?
Used is way cheaper
Favorite book of which nobody else has heard?
Enoch’s Ghost by Bryan Davis
J.R.R Tolkien
C.S. Lewis
Ted Dekker.
Top 3 male characters:
Aslan of Narnia
Frodo of LotR
Justin of the Circle Trilogy
Top 3 female characters:
Lucy of Narnia
Luthien of the Silmarillion
Bonnie Silver of Dragons in Our Midst
Top 30 fiction books/series in no particular order:
1. Narnia
2. Lord of the Rings
3. Silmarilion
4. Princess Bride
5. Dragons in Our Midst
6. Oracles of Fire
7. Binding of the Blade
8. Circle Trilogy w/Green
9. Echoes from the Edge
10. AD Chronicles
11. C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy
12. Squire Tales
13. Till We Have Faces
14. The Door Within
15. Starlighter
16. The Time Quartet by L’Engle
17. Birdwing
18. Auralia’s Colors
19. At the Back of the North Wind
20. The Bronze Bow
21. The Divine Comedy—yes, it’s a classical poem, it still counts
22. Inkworld
23. Roverandom
24. Abarat
25. Music of Dolphins
26. Children of Hurin
27. History of Middle-Earth in twelve volumes
28. Screwtape Letters
29. Broken Angel
30. The Hobbit
Top 3 books most recently read:
The Silmarillion
Return of the King
Redeeming Love
Worst 3 books ever read:
The Awakening by Kate Choplin ---so dull and boring
The Things they Carried—weird perspective on Vietnam war
Of Mice and Men—I don’t mind the death of MC’s, but really, it has to be handled better
Top 5 scenes from any book:
Rachel recognizing Justin, Red by Ted Dekker
Benjiah’s resurrection, All My Holy Mountain by L.B. Graham
Aslan’s resurrection Lion, Witch Wardrobe
The triple wedding, The Bones of Makaidos by Bryan Davis
Return of Gandalf, Two Towers
The book(s) that made me cry the most:
All My Holy Mountain
Red by Ted Dekker
Green by Ted Dekker
Tears of a Dragon by Bryan Davis
Enoch’s Ghost by Bryan Davis
I Know why the Angels Dance by Bryan Davis
The Silmarillion by Tolkien
The book(s) that made me laugh the most:
Dragons in Our Midst/Oracles of Fire by Bryan Davis
Echoes from the Edge by Bryan Davis
The Princess Bride
The book(s) that made me feel the best at the end:
All my Holy Mountain
The Last Battle, C.S. Lewis
Contemporary or Historical?
Historical. Contemprary is too angsty
Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Horror?
Fantasy all the way!
Hardback or Trade Paperback or Mass Market Paperback?
Mass Market Paperback—cheap and you can fit several in a purse!
Barnes & Noble or Amazon?
Amazon--cheaper
Bookmark or Dog-ear?
Bookmark, dog-ears look awful
Alphabetize by author, alphabetize by title, or organize not at all?
None of the above…first by genre, then by title
Star Wars or Star Trek?
Neither…haven’t seen either
Keep, Throw Away, or Sell?
Keep, unless it’s awful
Keep dust-jacket or toss it?
keep
Read with dustjacket or remove it?
Well, I have like, one book with a dust-jacket…but still on
Little Women or Anne of Green Gables?
Anne of Green Gables…she’s much more imaginative
Short story or novel?
Novel
Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks?
When someone makes me…so I guess when tired.
“It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”?
Once upon a time, without a doubt.
Tear Jerker or Belly Laugh?
Preferably both, but if only one…tear jerker
Charlotte, Emily, or Anne Brontë?
Haven’t read any
Buy or Borrow?
Borrow, because I have no money
Buying choice: Book Reviews, Recommendation, or Browse?
Browse, because no one I know likes my tastes
Collection (short stories by the same author) or Anthology (short stories by different authors)? Collection
Crane or Conrad?
Haven’t read either
Standalone or Series?
Series!
Tidy ending or Cliffhanger?
Cliffhanger only if there is a sequel
Morning reading, afternoon reading, or nighttime reading?
When I have time
Favorite genre series?
I can’t decide
New or used?
Used is way cheaper
Favorite book of which nobody else has heard?
Enoch’s Ghost by Bryan Davis
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Fiction and Faith
Ariach swung again, thrusting at my side.
I swung with all my might, trying to knock his sword away. The collision of our blades rang out over the crowd’s roar.Vibrations shook my blade, and it fell to the ground.
Ariach's dagger remained fixed at my chest.
I sank to my knees.I was dead. There was no doubt about that.
Ariach reached over and cut my helmet strap. He stared at me for a long time. I wondered what was going through his mind. A tear rolled down his cheek. He bent down, raising his sword high-
And handed it to me.
I stared at it, confused.
"You dropped this," he said softly.
The arena fell deathly silent. I stood slowly. My helmet plopped into the sand. My emotions swirled back, deadly as a cobra.
"Ariach…”
I swung the blade.
It buried itself in his chest. He fell to the ground.
~Three Dark Roses
In my National Novel Writing Month novel, there is a ‘battle’ between the Roses, the followers of the King, and the Witherers, followers of Deathroot. However, the Roses do not fight with swords, but with music. In this excerpt, Ariach has entered the Witherers’ fortress to rescue his daughter Keturah. The mission failed, and now Ariach is facing death in the arena. His opponent and the speaker of this piece is, Joel, Keturah’s best friend, a traitor to the Roses who had turned to the Witherers.
It was just a story I had written—or so I thought. But recently my youth group began a Voice of the Martyrs series about teens smuggling Bibles into Vietnam. The companion study guide contained an account of a Roman martyr in 203 AD named Perpetua. She was thrown into the arena with wild beasts, but they refused to attack.
So gladiators entered the arena to finish the execution. But the man assigned to Perpetua was young and inexperienced. His hand trembled as he tried to pierce between her ribs. Perpetua cried out as the sword struck her to the bone, but then she calmly took the man’s hand and guided the sword to her throat.~Underground Reality: Vietnam
“Truth is stranger than fiction.”So is faith. If faith can be that strong, than it makes me wonder what we in America are missing. If faith is silver to be refined, what happens when the crucible is never heated?
I swung with all my might, trying to knock his sword away. The collision of our blades rang out over the crowd’s roar.Vibrations shook my blade, and it fell to the ground.
Ariach's dagger remained fixed at my chest.
I sank to my knees.I was dead. There was no doubt about that.
Ariach reached over and cut my helmet strap. He stared at me for a long time. I wondered what was going through his mind. A tear rolled down his cheek. He bent down, raising his sword high-
And handed it to me.
I stared at it, confused.
"You dropped this," he said softly.
The arena fell deathly silent. I stood slowly. My helmet plopped into the sand. My emotions swirled back, deadly as a cobra.
"Ariach…”
I swung the blade.
It buried itself in his chest. He fell to the ground.
~Three Dark Roses
In my National Novel Writing Month novel, there is a ‘battle’ between the Roses, the followers of the King, and the Witherers, followers of Deathroot. However, the Roses do not fight with swords, but with music. In this excerpt, Ariach has entered the Witherers’ fortress to rescue his daughter Keturah. The mission failed, and now Ariach is facing death in the arena. His opponent and the speaker of this piece is, Joel, Keturah’s best friend, a traitor to the Roses who had turned to the Witherers.
It was just a story I had written—or so I thought. But recently my youth group began a Voice of the Martyrs series about teens smuggling Bibles into Vietnam. The companion study guide contained an account of a Roman martyr in 203 AD named Perpetua. She was thrown into the arena with wild beasts, but they refused to attack.
So gladiators entered the arena to finish the execution. But the man assigned to Perpetua was young and inexperienced. His hand trembled as he tried to pierce between her ribs. Perpetua cried out as the sword struck her to the bone, but then she calmly took the man’s hand and guided the sword to her throat.~Underground Reality: Vietnam
“Truth is stranger than fiction.”So is faith. If faith can be that strong, than it makes me wonder what we in America are missing. If faith is silver to be refined, what happens when the crucible is never heated?
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