Eight and Nine
Jul. 29th, 2011 05:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mark_asphodelRolling right along...
#8: They require that crass stupidities shall not be played upon the reader as "the craft of the woodsman, the delicate art of the forest," by either the author or the people in the tale.
Obviously, this is another smack at Fenimore Cooper, but the point is valid. Let’s translate it into Fire Emblem terms: crass stupidities shall not be played upon the reader as “the skill of the tactician.” Don’t lay something utterly moronic out in front of the reader and pass it off as specialized acts of genius. In the case of Fenimore Cooper, Twain was appalled by an episode in which an Indian Native American diverts a stream to find the tracks of the person he’s trailing... preserved in the stream-bed. Preserved? Under rushing water? Seriously?
As for fanfiction, well... I seem to recall a fairly recent Tactician!fic wherein the Tactician advised Lyn that the dull edge of a blade wouldn’t damage her much. That’s a great way to never make it to Caelin. Also, successful “FE gameplay” tactics to do not translate into remotely plausible narrative action. They just don’t. And I recommend that everyone read this if they haven’t already.
#9: They require that the personages of a tale shall confine themselves to possibilities and let miracles alone; or, if they venture a miracle, the author must so plausibly set it forth as to make it look possible and reasonable.
Fair enough. I’m quite partial to the not-impossible miracle at the end of Josephine Tey’s The Franchise Affair. The groundwork for a potential miracle has been seeded throughout, so the event isn’t a gross violation of the novel’s world, and the miracle itself is embodied in the mundane person of a Danish hotel proprietor.
As for the other sort of miracles... Nathanael West has something to say about that in Day of the Locust:
Although the events she described were miraculous, her description of them was realistic. The effect was similar to that obtained by artists of the Middle Ages, who, when doing a subject like the raising of Lazarus of the dead or Christ walking on water, were careful to keep the details intensely realistic. She, like them, seemed to think that fantasy could be made plausible by humdrum technique.
Key words being “seemed to think”-- in short, that doesn’t necessarily work to make a miracle "reasonable" to the reader.
Ten and eleven tomorrow-- two of my favorites in the list.
#8: They require that crass stupidities shall not be played upon the reader as "the craft of the woodsman, the delicate art of the forest," by either the author or the people in the tale.
Obviously, this is another smack at Fenimore Cooper, but the point is valid. Let’s translate it into Fire Emblem terms: crass stupidities shall not be played upon the reader as “the skill of the tactician.” Don’t lay something utterly moronic out in front of the reader and pass it off as specialized acts of genius. In the case of Fenimore Cooper, Twain was appalled by an episode in which an Indian Native American diverts a stream to find the tracks of the person he’s trailing... preserved in the stream-bed. Preserved? Under rushing water? Seriously?
As for fanfiction, well... I seem to recall a fairly recent Tactician!fic wherein the Tactician advised Lyn that the dull edge of a blade wouldn’t damage her much. That’s a great way to never make it to Caelin. Also, successful “FE gameplay” tactics to do not translate into remotely plausible narrative action. They just don’t. And I recommend that everyone read this if they haven’t already.
#9: They require that the personages of a tale shall confine themselves to possibilities and let miracles alone; or, if they venture a miracle, the author must so plausibly set it forth as to make it look possible and reasonable.
Fair enough. I’m quite partial to the not-impossible miracle at the end of Josephine Tey’s The Franchise Affair. The groundwork for a potential miracle has been seeded throughout, so the event isn’t a gross violation of the novel’s world, and the miracle itself is embodied in the mundane person of a Danish hotel proprietor.
As for the other sort of miracles... Nathanael West has something to say about that in Day of the Locust:
Although the events she described were miraculous, her description of them was realistic. The effect was similar to that obtained by artists of the Middle Ages, who, when doing a subject like the raising of Lazarus of the dead or Christ walking on water, were careful to keep the details intensely realistic. She, like them, seemed to think that fantasy could be made plausible by humdrum technique.
Key words being “seemed to think”-- in short, that doesn’t necessarily work to make a miracle "reasonable" to the reader.
Ten and eleven tomorrow-- two of my favorites in the list.
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no subject
Date: 2011-07-30 02:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-30 09:15 am (UTC)My grounding in Fantasy/SF/Historical must make miracles easier to swallow. Settings in which gods, spirits, and magic really exist (or, in the case of history, in which people believe they do) makes such things easier to write believably, I think, even though none of that excuses you from setting it up properly.
Set-up is king.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-30 06:31 pm (UTC)(And this is slightly off topic, but even though I haven't really been commenting on these past few posts of yours, I have been reading them, and I really do enjoy them. C:)
no subject
Date: 2011-08-01 04:01 am (UTC):D
It's been fun writing about writing again, instead of going in ever-smaller circles of, "Uh, should we discuss pairings or whatever again?"