(no subject)
Sep. 13th, 2002 01:08 pmIf I see one more person slam both JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis in the same sentence, in an effort to prove that their new fantasy novel is "with-it" and "hip," I will personally force-feed them Christopher Tolkien's twelve-volume History of Middle-Earth, stopping only when they are DEAD. Such shall be the fate of all writers who can only distinguish their own work by making disparaging comments about its forebears.
I can tolerate this crap coming from the eminently crapulent Philip Pullman, who wouldn't know a coherent plot if it wore bells and jumped up and down screaming "There are ways to make events happen in stories other than sheer coincidence", but to hear China Mieville, whose works I have been told by several people are Quite Good, go off on the same rant, is disappointing.
Which is not to say that I disagree with the actual substance of Mieville's rant (being "Much fantasy written today is crap"). I don't think it really matters in the long run, though. People are buying the works of Tim Powers and Neil Gaiman and other "good" fantasists, and these are sufficiently distinct in style from the rest of what's on the fantasy shelf that they'll stand out. Of course, if Mieville is just bitter because his works are exiled to the fantasy ghetto instead of being out in the more glamorous "Fiction" section, then he should bloody well be writing traditional fiction, shouldn't he?
In other news, I have nothing but support for Buzz Aldrin, currently under investigation for punching out an asshole.
Been a bit. About the most interesting thing that's happened is that I finally ran the overly freeform game that popped into my head on the way to Shakespeare earlier in the summer, and it went well. So well that Nathan is encouraging me to get it written up and publishable. This has, I think, a nonzero chance of occurring. But not this week-- I've got a paper on Imagism due.
Started work at Walden's in the mall as well. About the only job I've ever had that I really liked was working in the Kroll Crisis Center, answering phones that didn't ring and websurfing and reading and (if I had the night shift) watching movies. So it wasn't exactly a *job*, per se.
I can tolerate this crap coming from the eminently crapulent Philip Pullman, who wouldn't know a coherent plot if it wore bells and jumped up and down screaming "There are ways to make events happen in stories other than sheer coincidence", but to hear China Mieville, whose works I have been told by several people are Quite Good, go off on the same rant, is disappointing.
Which is not to say that I disagree with the actual substance of Mieville's rant (being "Much fantasy written today is crap"). I don't think it really matters in the long run, though. People are buying the works of Tim Powers and Neil Gaiman and other "good" fantasists, and these are sufficiently distinct in style from the rest of what's on the fantasy shelf that they'll stand out. Of course, if Mieville is just bitter because his works are exiled to the fantasy ghetto instead of being out in the more glamorous "Fiction" section, then he should bloody well be writing traditional fiction, shouldn't he?
In other news, I have nothing but support for Buzz Aldrin, currently under investigation for punching out an asshole.
Been a bit. About the most interesting thing that's happened is that I finally ran the overly freeform game that popped into my head on the way to Shakespeare earlier in the summer, and it went well. So well that Nathan is encouraging me to get it written up and publishable. This has, I think, a nonzero chance of occurring. But not this week-- I've got a paper on Imagism due.
Started work at Walden's in the mall as well. About the only job I've ever had that I really liked was working in the Kroll Crisis Center, answering phones that didn't ring and websurfing and reading and (if I had the night shift) watching movies. So it wasn't exactly a *job*, per se.