So, a bunch of neat stuff to read today. If you really love me, you’ll read them all. If you don’t, I will probably paint a picture in my own feces, using the tears coming from my wracking sobs to dilute between the various shades of brown, that I will later put on your porch and set fire to while standing in the background holding a boombox over my head playing Chris Dane Owens’ smash hit of nothing Shine on Me. The picture was of a happy little turtle. He’s on fire now. I hope you’re satisfied.
FIRST read my latest article for the BSC Review in which I impotently rage against a genre much more popular than my own and try to disguise it as constructive and witty insight into its flaws.
NOW read this: HEY, BLACK HALO IS OUT THIS MONTH!
What are you doing to prepare for its release? Are you organizing mud wrestling matches to help young people who could barely afford their thongs to afford the book? Are you camping the bookshelves well in advance, for fear that a greasy, glasses-wearing fellow known only as “The Hustle” will come and buy all the copies (because he totally will)? Are you threatening other authors to keep their grubby little hands away from my precious shelf space?
It’s important to do these things, really, as book sales rely on fair trades and mature agreements by all…that we must destroy if we are to assume the mantle of leadership.
Now have a look at THIS. My boy Mark Charan Newton brings up an excellent discussion on race and sexuality in fantasy, noting the conservativism of the genre. The comments are all well worth reading and I wanted to weigh in only with this:
I don’t attribute to malice what I can attribute to fear. I sometimes wonder if aspiring authors sometimes follow trends or patterns (such as white, straight males with white, straight male problems) out of a fear of not being able to make it on their own ideas. It’s a valid fear, as we’ve seen some bestsellers display a rather ho hum amount of originality or expansiveness. But recall that fear is easily justified by calling it respect for tradition and I’ve frequently railed against the ridiculousness of that. And recall that fear is anathema to art.
If you want to write something that goes against the mold, don’t be afraid. If you want to write something that defies genre patterns, don’t fear to do it. The only people who will resent you for it are the ones that weren’t going to read you, anyway.
AND FINALLY, I will be at the TUCSON FESTIVAL OF BOOKS (March 12-13th) next week. Holy shit! Hosted on the University of Arizona Campus, I’ll be hanging out at the Mysterious Galaxy Booth (#249-#251, though I will be kind of hard to miss, striding amongst the tiny creatures like a colossus).
Will they be selling copies of Black Halo?
They sure as shit will try.
If not, stop on by. Shoot the shit. Tell me I’m pretty. I will sign your books with great vigor and possibly ink.
Okay, good.
We have that settled.
Now go get yourself some spinach. You’ve earned it.
When this month? Now? Please say it is… My loins desire a black halo. Or is that aloe?
Clearly, your coinpurse aches for Black Halo. You should indulge them in this, of course, but Black Halo being toxic, you should also see if you’ve got some aloe.
I will endeavor to do so, should you deign to answer my question, genre-defiler! And it’s not a purse, it’s a man-sack.
Well CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!! And I read Mark’s post (and commented on it) but dude, did you read on Black Gate about an author trying to define what Epic Fantasy is? It’s a laugh because it fails!
I didn’t, but it doesn’t surprise me. Genre is fine as a guidance tool and nothing more. It should be fairly obvious what that genre is, as well. You don’t need to fuss and fidget over every little detail.
I have it on good authority that the cake is a lie.
What I don’t know is whether the turtle is lie. So just to be safe, I read everything you told me. Please don’t hurt the turtle!
There is no tortoise. There never was a tortoise. There never will be another tortoise.
A film by M. Night Shyamalan.
Looking forward to seeing Sam at the festival. You can hang out at the Leprecon booth if you’d like. There’s lots of other SF/F authors there as well. http://azsf.net/azsfblog/?page_id=86 for all the details. Stop by the Leprecon booth (#248 right next to Mysterious Galaxy) for a free copy of Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine (while they last).
I’ll definitely stop by, Lee! Save a copy for me!
It seems like the whole “conservatism” thing is a big issue because people feel the need to label other people. I feel that every time this issue starts to raise its head, you start to get a few authors trying to make a point of introducing characters that are not the heroic straight white male which ends up being to the detriment of the story because the characters become defined by whether or not they are black or white or homosexual or straight.
Then you get the authors who are worried the whole “damned if you do, damned if you dont” scenario where they will get criticised for being too conservative if they use traditional characters, but will also get criticised for using non-traditional characters as a token effort to try and appease everyone.
Two of the authors that seem to have a good grasp on this issue are Brandon Sanderson and Ricardo Pinto. Sanderson achieves his goals by being descriptive without being so specific that you can assign a label to his characters. With Pinto his The Stone Dance of the Chameleon series has a tall homosexual white male as the lead, but it does not feel contrived in any way, nor is the defining characteristic of the character.
You raise an alarmingly good point: we all agree that there needs to be more diversity in fantasy, but who should introduce it? And how? If the story does not call for a minority character, it seems like it might be folly to try and include one for the sake of having a minority character because, all too often, there’s no reason for them to be there. And since there is no reason or motive, they frequently fall back on what they know about the character, which can (and frequently does) equate to stereotypes, myths and fantasies (hur) about the minority. This, we can agree, is a pretty bad thing.
This might require another jam session post.