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This week: Travels Edited by: Robert Waltz  
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The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.
-St. Augustine
A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.
-Lao Tzu
It is not down in any map; true places never are.
-Herman Melville
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.
-Mark Twain
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Traveling
I'm writing this editorial far from home, in the exotic land of Canada, in the oddly-named city of Vancouver. Here, the locals worship a god called "hockey" and speak in strange tongues, such as heavily accented English.
Seriously, though, as fantasy or science fiction readers and writers, we're dealing all the time with exotic locales. Yet, some of the strangest terrain can be experienced right here on Earth. Imagine you know nothing about such places as the Grand Canyon, Victoria Falls, Mount Everest, etc., and someone tells you about them in a story. Would you believe these are places here on our own planet?
And those are just the tourist attractions. Plenty of more "ordinary" sights can be used as a backdrop to your stories - and they may have more impact, because people won't be like, "Hey, that sounds like the Grand Canyon."
I haven't been to all that many places on my current journey - Seattle, and then a drive up to Vancouver - and yet, I've seen things I haven't seen before: A perfect rainbow over a valley in the Cascades; the majestic, white-mantled slopes of Mount Rainier; a massive Pacific Ocean container ship docked in a harbor. (Not all the scenery has to be natural).
These things are certainly commonplace to someone. After all, some of you might be from the Pacific Northwest, and they're as everyday to you as a sunset over the Blue Ridge Mountains is to me. And yet, no matter where you are, someone will think it's exotic - but when you travel, you'll see these things with fresh eyes, and maybe can make them sound exotic, even to locals.
Often, of course, it's not the destination that is important, but the journey itself. Who could forget the trek of Frodo across Middle Earth, the journeys of Corwin of Amber through Shadow, the voyages of the Starship Enterprise? Much of the story takes place en route, as it were, and not at the end point of the journey. In fact, as I recall, the entire first book of Robert Jordan's epic fantasy cycle described a journey. On the other hand, that may be why I didn't read any more of that series... so as with everything else, use your powers responsibly.
So get out there and look around. Maybe you'll find something worth writing about. |
I wasn't sure what would happen if I plugged "Fantasy" and "Travel" into the search engine... and I was pleasantly surprised.
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Last time, in "Fantasy Newsletter (June 9, 2010)" , I talked about Neil Stephenson's Anathem in particular, and creating fantasy languages in general. You had this to say:
jmhimara: What do you think of Magic Realism?
Interesting you should ask that - I've been looking more into it because a story I'm reading now is in that genre. Of course, like any other genre, it's a label used as a marketing tool. Do with it as you will. Me, I'd like to see a steampunk / magic realism fusion someday. Perhaps I'll have to write it.
Item submitted:
Sssssh! I'm not really here.  : Waltz, I enjoyed your Newsletter. Thanks for highlighting my story, "CAN YOU SAY CONSPIRACY THEORY?" . I appreciate it!
WW
Well, that's one way to cadge another link to your story...
Satuawany  : Dude, I love this sort of newsletter. And I'm always up for a learning-experience-while-being-entertained sort of read. Anathem is going on my reading list, and I thank you for the recommendation.
And yes, I have read a good book lately. Brust's Iorich came out in January, but I only got to read it recently, and it opened up all kinds of questions, like---well, I don't like to give spoilers. That man continuously proves that writing can wrap adventure, comedy, and thought-provoking drama all in the same package.
As a note to those unfamiliar with Brust: Start with Jhereg, now available along with the second two books in The Book of Jhereg. At some point in the series (now up to something like a dozen books), you won't get as much satisfaction out of the story if you don't know what's gone before.
A thinker never sleeps  : I have to agree with you on this. Using too many made up words puts me off too. It has to be done in moderation and so the reader is not trying to memorize lots of made up words before they can understand the story. It needs to be balanced. Great Newsletter.
Yes, that's an excellent way to put it.
Caledonia Lass : While Tolkien was a linguist, you have to know or at least expect fantasy to have strange languages and things with odd names. While most don't provide a glossary of terms, if you have issues with things like this, how do you pick up anything fantasy or sci-fi?
See the above comment by A thinker never sleeps . Also, I'm currently reading a book called Yellow Blue Tibia by Adam Roberts - not a plug, but just an illustration of my point. This book, which is written by a British author, is set in Soviet Russia. But the book is entirely in English. Now, to many of us English-speakers, Russian is at least as exotic a language as Dwarvish (in fact, I think they share the same linguistic roots). Some of the characters in the book are American and speak no Russian. The narrator, however, is a Russian who is fluent in English. Now, the book introduces to us no Russian words - not even the ones you'd pick up casually, like "yes," "no," and "please don't report my brother to the KGB." (The names, however, are faithful transliterations from the Cyrillic, and let me tell you, some of the names in Russia don't exactly roll smoothly off the Western tongue.) Instead, it's written almost entirely in English, and the author uses [brackets] when the characters are speaking actual English. So - to finally get to my point - it's perfectly possible to write an entire fantasy or science fiction novel without introducing a single word of the (real or made-up) language of the characters, and still give us a good feel of the culture in question. Or one can introduce a few words. It's really up to the author, and all I'm saying is the degree to which you introduce new things to the reader may influence his or her reaction to your work.
And I can't let the above response go by without saying: In Soviet Russia, novel write YOU!
Thank you for reading, thanks for the comments, and be sure to get some traveling in! Until next time,
DREAM ON!!! |
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Fantasy: July 07, 2010 Issue [#3842]
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