In the context of yesterday’s comments about the self-justifying self, I’ve been thinking about Michael Moorcock’s ‘Between the Wars’ series of books (‘Byzantium Endures’, ‘The Laughter of Carthage’, ‘Jerusalem Commands’, ‘The Vengeance of Rome’), dealing with the adventures of Maxim Pyat in the 20th Century. Maxim’s a fascinating character. Both naïve adventurer and lethal manipulator,Continue reading “Your 20th century boy”
Category Archives: Narrative
A mirror and a window both
In ‘S/Z’, his wonderful, word by word dissection of a Balzac short story, Barthes notes that ‘in the text, only the reader speaks.’ There’s a fascinating point about the process of reading to be drawn out of that. When we read a book, he’s saying, we read it in our voice, hearing the words inContinue reading “A mirror and a window both”
Big things exploding, forever
I was reading about the militarization of space, and ended up pondering the militarization of science fiction TV. Take the Star Trek franchise, for example – a set of shows whose heroes are almost without exception members of the military, working compliantly within military structures to achieve the goals it sets for them. Building onContinue reading “Big things exploding, forever”
The butcher’s apprentice
I’m at home, watching trailers for upcoming movies on Five. Guns, fisticuffs – combat as a fundamental dramatic component. It’s so all-pervasive, you don’t notice it any more. And I’m sick of it. Sick of the reduction of the subtle emotional conflicts inherent in drama to meatheaded literal battles; sick of the constant presentation ofContinue reading “The butcher’s apprentice”
A pirate’s life for me, Pt 2
Well, more on pirate narrative structures. Today, it’s Key Equipment and Supporting Characters, below. What interests me about this exercise is not so much the usefulness of better understanding pirate stories, but rather the way it reflects onto the construction of fiction in general. A story of any kind is an end product of aContinue reading “A pirate’s life for me, Pt 2”
Breaking out of heaven
Non-realist writing is about the creation of transparently fictional, secondary worlds for the mind, imagination and emotions to play in. One of the joys of such worlds comes from the suspension of disbelief needed to enter them. Put simply, you can pretend that they’re real – a complex joy, but a joy nonetheless. It’s easyContinue reading “Breaking out of heaven”
A pirate’s life for me, Pt 1
Well, not much time to write today, so digging through the files I found my ‘how to build a pirate story’ document from a while back. Which set me thinking about how much narrative structure is pre-formed by subject matter in general… So, in honour of general piracy, here’s Part One, dealing with Subtext andContinue reading “A pirate’s life for me, Pt 1”
Slaying Bob from HR
Was still pondering yesterday’s post about weakness / achievement gaps in genre fiction when I went to read SF Diplomat, where Jonathan McCalmont is fascinating on the content of fantasy: ‘Why does fantasy prefer to dwell on saving a morally simple world instead of making the best one can in a more realistic one?’ He’sContinue reading “Slaying Bob from HR”
The weakness / achievement gap
Well, the Alan Wall Guide to Writing has arrived (you can also check out his music here), and skimming through it this morning over my breakfast toast I was already feeling sparked by it. For example, here’s Wall on one of fiction’s key obsessions: ‘Fiction is fascinated by darkness and misfortune, and ‘plot’ is usuallyContinue reading “The weakness / achievement gap”