I've previously mentioned that the Fables started as some fiddly bits of character interaction and have since evolved into an actual story.
I realized today that I'm actually serializing a novel. Sheesh. The whole point was that I was supposed to be doing short fiction, right? Little itty bitty bits of short fiction. And yet here comes this big story.
At the same time, the Fables are very much not a novel. Leaving aside the Set Pieces (and some similar entries that will follow, which are all entirely different creatures), every entry is (part of) a distinct scene. The entries that are more immediate, that are more scene and less fluff are the ones I get the best responses on (and, also, the ones I'm happiest with). There are little things that I leave out; the down-time, the connections between the scenes, (a lot of) the exposition. That's fine, really. The scenes are the parts that people really remember, anyway.
Still, I'm accomplishing what I wanted to do; I'm putting up a regular dose of fiction for people to read and give me feedback on. My readership seems somewhere in the area of one hundred and fifty people, which is cool, and feedback has mostly been positive (and constructive) which is also cool. So props to my readers.
Speaking of my readers, one recently asked me what genre the Fables are. He pointed out (astutely) that both Dog and Horse have swords and that folks effectively need to hop into a rowboat to cross a river. At the same time, he noted, there's a giant dam and a diner that used to be a space ship and a radio broadcast tower. I would answer this question myself, but Debra Doyle provides me with a much wittier answer (quoted from here):
If it has horses and swords in it, it's a fantasy, unless it also has a rocketship in it, in which case it becomes science fiction. The only thing that'll turn a story with a rocketship in it back into fantasy is the Holy Grail.
Comments (5)
...unless the Holy Grail is actually representative of a 7-dimensional object that transmutes any liquid poured into it into nanites that infect the drinker and convert him into a 11-dimensional sentient godform.
Then its just fucked up.
Posted by Bard | November 29, 2004 10:07 PM
Posted on November 29, 2004 22:07
Whaaaaaa.....?
Posted by Bekah | November 30, 2004 9:03 AM
Posted on November 30, 2004 09:03
Just so, Mr. Bard. Just so.
But that, itself, is part of a larger discussion of how I think genres are total bullshit. Some of the best-regarded and most interesting material in the SF field is the stuff that blends genres. Look at China Mieville for an example. He writes books that take place on another planet (possibly another world, in the fantasy sense), have a steam-punk level of technology (and a steam-punk attitude), with Babbage-engines and everything, where some people use magic and where alien races about (the people with ants for heads are the best). What genre do you put that in? The genre of "good writing" is the only thing I can figure out.
At the same time, stuff like Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, gets marketed as literary fiction, and is literary, no denying, but is also a work of Victorian-era urban fantasy genre fiction.
My friend Anna over at Tor is editing a line of paranormal romance novels. Are they still romance novels or do the paranormal elements make them fantasy or science fiction?
Is Lovecraft's Dream Cycle fantasy or horror? How about Stephen King's Dark Tower series? Does Robert Charles Wilson write science fiction or horror? If someone write's a spy story involving ghosts, is it a political thriller or a horror?
And what about folks like Salman Rushdie or Will Shetterly, who are both stupendously awesome and write what gets called "magical realism," which ArtCyclopedia defines as "Magic Realism is an American style of art with Surrealist overtones. The art is deeply rooted in everyday reality, but has overtones of fantasy or wonder."
(As an aside, Jorge Luis Borges and Gabriel García Márquez are both considered to have written magical realism which prompted Gene Wolfe to say that "Magical realism is fantasy written in Spanish" (at least according to this page.))
I'm not trying to suggest that you can't have a work of fiction that solidly fits into one and only one genre. That would be silly of me. But I'd argue that genre isn't a punctuated thing with pre-set boundaries. It's a continuous spectrum, or a salad bar from which you can pick and choose ingredients. A given story calls for what it calls for. Sometimes that's magic, sometimes that's science and sometimes it's something else entirely. I'd like to see people worrying less about genre and more about writing good stories (which, of course, is exactly what the best of authors out there, the folks I've named above, for example, do.).
Posted by Jason | November 30, 2004 9:54 AM
Posted on November 30, 2004 09:54
Bekah, as a shameless self promotion, see the explanation on my blog at http://derekthebard.blogspot.com.
Be warned: if you're fundamentalist Christian, the idea of Jesus being a half-alien nanite-infused superbeing may be a tad aggravating.
Posted by Bard | November 30, 2004 9:22 PM
Posted on November 30, 2004 21:22
*amused by Bard's explanation*
Posted by Bekah | December 1, 2004 10:20 AM
Posted on December 1, 2004 10:20