McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Interesting post about culture-specific story shapes.
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
http://aliettedb.livejournal.com/392989.html
I thought this was worth bringing to people's attentions here; it's about a tendency for certain US-culture-specific takes on what stories are worth telling to slip into being considered as universals, and pointing out directions where there are also stories worth telling that those takes can cause to be overlooked; as a person born and brought up in Ireland and now Canadian by choice, I found myself in sympathy with much of it. Lots of interesting stuff in comments, too, though some of the tangents go Touchy.
Figging Mint:
You're going to have a hard time selling the lack of need for a Hero's Journey.
If she ever takes the time to expand on the paragraphs "I don't want stories in" and "Also, I am tired of", I would appreciate the link. Thank you.
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: (FM) on September 06, 2011, 08:42:53 PM ---You're going to have a hard time selling the lack of need for a Hero's Journey.
--- End quote ---
There's plenty of excellent fantasy out there that doesn't do anything like that; there was a great panel on it this past Readercon. (Ian McDonald's Desolation Road, Daniel Abraham's Long Price Quartet, and Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell are the first three examples to come to mind; the last of which at least was a major international bestseller and publishing phenomenon.)
Figging Mint:
I repeat my case by analogy: If you were to point out that Foucault's Pendulum exists, you have not made a case for lack of need of a DaVinci Code.
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: (FM) on September 07, 2011, 04:55:32 PM ---I repeat my case by analogy: If you were to point out that Foucault's Pendulum exists, you have not made a case for lack of need of a DaVinci Code.
--- End quote ---
I think the existence of Foucault's Pendulum is pretty conclusive proof that a) the DaVinci Code is not the only way to approach that particular subgenre b) it's not the only approach that can be sold to a publisher and c) it's not the only approach that can do reasonably well in terms of sales.
I'm not arguing lack of need for a DaVinci Code, so much as, if you want to do Templars and secret histories, DaVinci Code is not the only option worth pursuing.
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