Adam Callaway's Sensawunda

Also: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by ...

2013-05-17T21:16:28.147-05:00

Also:

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
The Dream of Perpetual Motion by Dexter Palmer
Alphabet of Thorn by Patricia McKillip
NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
You Will Know Our Velocity by David Eggars
This is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz

A variety of the titles that have caught my eye ov...

2013-05-17T20:23:56.918-05:00

A variety of the titles that have caught my eye over the years based on the title alone:

The Zap Gun, Philip K Dick
Miserere, Teresa Frohock
The Quantum Thief, Hannu Rajaniemi
A Galaxy Called Rome, Barry Malzberg
Anno Dracula, Kim Newman
Tea with the Black Dragon, R.A. MacAvoy

Well, I will say that atimes, fantasy though like ...

2013-05-09T05:43:21.228-05:00

Well, I will say that atimes, fantasy though like the impossible depends on the focus of the mind and when the situation changes, that means that the mind has been properly put to work without avoidable errors.

You raise some interesting points, Adam, and pinpo...

2013-05-07T23:36:14.092-05:00

You raise some interesting points, Adam, and pinpoint one of my main gripes with ASOIAF - the blasé attitude to rape, and the negative attitude generally towards women and sex (as exemplified in Tyrion's backstory).

On the more general issue, I think there are two possible explanations:

1. Many modern-day writers don't have direct experience of violence - I know I don't.

2. Some of us are writing about eras when attitudes were very different from now, when parents were advised to beat their children for their own good and it was legal to beat your wife as long as the stick wasn't more than a certain diameter! So whilst the horrors of pitched battle and siege warfare may have taken their psychological toll, I imagine the average medieval or Renaissance citizen was a bit more inured to casual violence than we are.

I do take your point, though, about the centrality of war in fantasy. I'm planning a new series at the moment, and one of my aims is to make it epic-ish without resorting to war as the main conflict. Because honestly, I don't know a thing about war beyond what I've read in books, and have no great urge to write about it.

I had to give up on Martin's books because of ...

2013-05-07T16:05:37.966-05:00

I had to give up on Martin's books because of the unrelenting violence. Even the so-called 'knights' (who in most literature have some form of code of ethics or morality) are nothing more than armored thugs who seem to kill for sport. It's as if the idea of a conscience wasn't even an afterthought.

Yes! This is something I set out to show. Violence...

2013-05-07T15:17:29.954-05:00

Yes! This is something I set out to show. Violence, death, loss have powerful emotional consequences. I suppose it could be argued that in a time and place where they are more common than in our culture, these consequences are less, but I don't believe they are ever negligible.

The Pillars of Earth by Ken Follet deals with the ...

2013-05-06T22:46:27.027-05:00

The Pillars of Earth by Ken Follet deals with the building of the Kingsbridge Cathedral in England, although that's not technically fantasy. Also, Kij Johnson's award-nominated story "The Man Who Bridged the Mist," is, well, about building a bridge.

Great post. Same with your first one. I don't ...

2013-05-06T10:53:28.806-05:00

Great post. Same with your first one. I don't have any literary examples to answer your questions with. As far as games go: Kentucky Route Zero tells a magical realist story (so kinda like fantasy) without violence. I'd recommend playing the first episode if you haven't already. It's short and not expensive.

For the record: I'd love to read your chef fantasy story. That sounds really cool and different.

You and me both, Amigo. far too few drama stories ...

2013-05-03T14:06:21.318-05:00

You and me both, Amigo. far too few drama stories like that set in Fantasy and Science Fiction. Or, at least far too few that I've been exposed to.

Very little violence in Terry Pratchet.

2013-05-01T18:43:50.816-05:00

Very little violence in Terry Pratchet.

We've had plenty of examples of glorious ancie...

2013-05-01T16:11:52.679-05:00

We've had plenty of examples of glorious ancient megastructures or artefacts being sought for and then destroyed in the course of the resolution of fantasy plots. It'd be nice to have one or two books about the creation of them.

The politics around whether it should be done and who is going to pay for it, the hubris of the creator, how it ended up being lost for centuries - I want to read that story.

No I'm not, Dave. I'm very hurt and pretty...

2013-04-19T15:37:21.401-05:00

No I'm not, Dave. I'm very hurt and pretty sad. But at least I'll have that moron award to keep me warm on my cold nights alone.

You are the wind beneath my wings, and I'll always love you. I always have.

I pass all comments that aren't spam, racist, ...

2013-04-19T15:36:45.455-05:00

I pass all comments that aren't spam, racist, sexist, or hurtful toward marginalized groups.

wow - Dan, you get today's moron award. Well d...

2013-04-19T15:29:18.887-05:00

wow - Dan, you get today's moron award. Well done!

That's me finished with this blog. And kudos to Adam for passing your post, classy x 2. Bet he doesn't pass this one.

"Anonymous cowards" gosh ... that one will have me chuckling all all day. Wow... I'll slap 'Dave' at the top of this one. Are you a happy boy now? :D

I don't know how it's nonsense to say that...

2013-04-19T14:35:14.293-05:00

I don't know how it's nonsense to say that ASOIAF deals almost exclusively with violence. The story is about a series of people fighting for the throne of Westeros while a force of the dead slowly creeps down from the north. It is a massive war-narrative. I love those books, but it is what it is - and it is violent.

And as far as magical swords and crystal gauntlets go, Adam's obviously pointing a finger at quest narratives where the story revolves around finding some ancient jibber-jabber to solve a problem or fight a foe, or journeying to a specific place for a resolution. Swords and crystal gauntlets are obviously a generalization of that, but It's hardly difficult to know what he's talking about.

Concerning the content of this post: western narratives do rely on violence an awful lot. You need only look as far as our movies and television shows (and our media) to see how enamored we are with it. Adam asks the very legitimate questions "Why is this?" and "is it necessary?" That's the type of conversation that fanboys and fangirls should be having, as it furthers the cause of writing and literature in general. Instead, we're too busy being anonymous cowards nitpicking blog-posts because we don't like anyone asking questions about our beloved genres.

In the future, please keep in mind: if your delicate temper can't withstand a few questions being asked about what you love, maybe don't read the blogs that ask those questions.

That was a poor choice of words. I did not mean to...

2013-04-19T13:40:58.881-05:00

That was a poor choice of words. I did not mean to make the whole post hyperbolic. The point I was trying to make with the post -- and I did get side-tracked a bit -- was that a lot of modern fantasies move and resolve their plots through violence, and that I would like to see more diversity in the ways fantasy is written. In my opinion, fantasy is becoming ever more violent, almost leaning on violence as a crutch. I don't know why this is, but in my experience, it's easier to move a plot along by putting the protagonist and antagonist in a fight than to build a convincing mystery or non-violent confrontation. It could be lazy authorship (not that ASOIAF is lazy authorship, as there are quite a few plots that are forwarded by cunning and diplomacy) or a response to the market. Diversity is a must in genre literature, and I think major fantasy releases with non-violent protagonists could help open up new storytelling avenues.

Your whole post is built on hyperbole though. &q...

2013-04-19T13:32:00.998-05:00

Your whole post is built on hyperbole though.

"Most major fantasy release deal almost exclusively with violence"

That's nonsense. There may be a lot of violence in ASOIAF but it's ridiculous to say that it deals exclusively with violence. If none of what you say is intended to be taken seriously then I miss the point of the post.

I was being purposefully hyperbolic. Most modern f...

2013-04-19T10:22:09.968-05:00

I was being purposefully hyperbolic. Most modern fantasy has deeper motives than that.

I can't remember reading a fantasy book focuse...

2013-04-19T10:16:55.426-05:00

I can't remember reading a fantasy book focused on finding the magic sword or crystal gauntlet or whatnot... certainly none of those you mentioned do that.

I follow tons of writers on Google+, and just look...

2013-04-18T11:10:17.173-05:00

I follow tons of writers on Google+, and just look through my stream. You don't see many people writing in public Google Docs, but it is a fun experience when you do find someone.

Interesting. How does one go about finding these p...

2013-04-18T10:53:18.265-05:00

Interesting. How does one go about finding these public Docs?

Grim can be too grim, definitely. And the road to ...

2013-04-11T13:21:25.404-05:00

Grim can be too grim, definitely. And the road to hell is oft with good intentions paved, so having some sweethearts who accidentally cause catastrophe is welcome relief from hordes of mutant zombies, deep ones, Mi-Go and killer clowns relentlessly pressing in on every side.

I'm so glad you found his videos helpful! :)

2013-04-06T23:55:33.786-05:00

I'm so glad you found his videos helpful! :)

Your proposal isn't bad (particularly as you d...

2013-04-04T09:51:29.763-05:00

Your proposal isn't bad (particularly as you don't see a need to hijack the Hugo Award's name for it as some would like to do), although I suggest that you'd discover your "anyone on the internet can vote" approach has as many problems as any other method. I look forward to you attempting to actually establishing the award and doing the rather substantial amount of work it would take to actually make it happen. I'm not being sarcastic.

SMOF = Secret Master of Fandom. It originated as a humorous name for the Shadowy Cabal of people Really Controlled Fandom. (As if any such cabal could actually exist!) It has in later days come to mean those people who work on and participate in the process of organizing SF/F genre conventions and the politics thereof. SMOFCon is an annual convention about running SF/F genre conventions, which as I've said many times, means it isn't particularly secret. Unfortunately, people with axes to grind have decided that "SMOFs" are actually secret and that they really control things, rig the Hugo Awards, make it impossible for Real Fans (i.e. whoever is doing the complaining) to get what they want, kvetch, moan, groan, repeat indefinitely.

That's a really good way to look at it. I'...

2013-04-03T22:25:39.296-05:00

That's a really good way to look at it. I'm not advocating getting rid of the Hugo; more a redefinition. I also use a lot of the awards as a way to find works I may have missed in the previous year.

As far as going about getting a new award started, that's a very good question...