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Post by Divides the Waters on Jun 4, 2008 1:30:49 GMT -5
jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/2235.htmKen Rolph is one of the distinguished members of an online writers mailing group to which I belong. I loved this article, and thought I'd post it for discussion.
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Post by rwley on Jun 4, 2008 9:49:35 GMT -5
Very powerful and very true. I think most of us, at one time or another, have found ourselves falling into those very traps; we have read someone who so impressed us that we try to "re-create" that feeling. But it's not our own voice. I can't speak in your voice, you can't speak Jeff's, but we can all speak in our own. That's what makes us unique and why each individual work is so precious. I may want to be the next Tolkien, but I'm not him. I don't have the knowledge base and I'm not him. Instead of wanting to be the next "whoever", I content myself with the being the first me!
Robi
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Post by pamwritesfantasy on Jun 4, 2008 10:06:25 GMT -5
I thought the article was interesting, but I have to disagree with the "don't write about elves" part. Tolkien didn't invent elves, but he did give us a vivid picture of the elves in his world. Our job would be to show elves in a different light ... in a different world ... that's what I'll be trying in the trilogy I'm working on now. Who knows if they'll remain elves? Maybe the story won't require them as "elves" but I don't know until I try.
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Vaporwolf
Full Member
Shnakvorum Rikoyoch
Posts: 123
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Post by Vaporwolf on Jun 4, 2008 11:04:04 GMT -5
Indeed a very interesting article with some good points. Especially about writing about your own world. That's probably what he meant about "Don't write about elves". So much of the mainstream fantasy is just near duplicate of Tolkien's elves, especially in the D&D style books. In his context I don't think it was "abandon all elves" just don't write Tolkien's elves.  In the fantasy i'm working on, the only typical fantasy beings I've had so far are dragons, though they're much smaller and more vulnerable than the typical dragon, and a more bison style of minotaur. |
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Post by torainfor on Jun 4, 2008 14:53:07 GMT -5
Tolkien wanted to create a mythology for the English...
I wonder what that would look like for America.
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Post by mongoose on Jun 4, 2008 17:48:59 GMT -5
Doesn't each culture already have its own mythology? The English had the Arthurian legends, and maybe Beowulf (not sure where that came from) We have our tall tales. Davy Crocket. Paul Bunion. Pecos Bill. Etc. Now, someone could TRY to create a mythology for America, something going back to the ancient past, or the interaction of mythological spiritual beings with humans, but in this scientific and logical modern and post-modern age, they'd have difficulty selling it. That and the whole multi-cultural thing. No people group can really claim ownership of any concept or genera anymore. You've got your mid-eastern music, say, but then, everyone plays music with a mid-eastern flare. It makes little difference what part of the world they're from. Is that drum beat still an African drum beat, even though it's a Scottish band playing it? So, if some very successful American author were to create a mythology, would it really be an American mythology, or a mythology for the world?
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Post by torainfor on Jun 4, 2008 18:38:13 GMT -5
So, if some very successful American author were to create a mythology, would it really be an American mythology, or a mythology for the world?
See, that's one of my points. Which I absolutely in no way verbalized. Or typitized. Native American legends meet Celtic legends meet the gods of Hinduism meet elves and fairies and magical jaguars. Then again, maybe something happened in the far-off, Middle-Earthian past that pre-destined this land to be the nexus of so many cultures?
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Post by Divides the Waters on Jun 8, 2008 13:26:27 GMT -5
You have to bear in mind that when Tolkien created a mythology that he dedicated to England, he did so borrowing heavily from the mythology of other cultures. I don't think we have to develop an American mythology just to write our stories, but I do find the "mythopoeic" approach fascinating. I think the best way to write realistically about culture is to study it, and the same goes for myth. I try to do that in my own worldbuilding, though I can never claim to be a Tolkien by any stretch of the imagination. But if you have characters and cultures behaving realistically within the context of a fully-realized mythic structure, you have the makings of a powerful and dynamic story.
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Post by torainfor on Jun 10, 2008 1:09:35 GMT -5
I don't think we have to develop an American mythology just to write our stories...
No, absolutely not. But it would be fun to do just in its own right.
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Post by seraphim on Dec 26, 2008 19:14:53 GMT -5
Hmmm. Well I actually have a story where Robert E. Lee visits good little boys on Englistment Eve and "reprovisions" their knapsacks left by the fireplace. Also present is a little bundle of Yankee script which is to be thrown into the fire where it bursts into colorful puffs of sulfurous smoke. Some children leave plates of oatmeal cookies for the Gen'rl and his horse Traveller. The event commemorates how Lee, escaping from retirement after the revenge murder of Jefferson Davis led the Army of the Transmississippi to victory against the vainglorious Custer in a northern blizzard, only to emerge hundreds of miles further south to break through and lift the siege at Chimneyville. No one knows what became of him after that, except that he ever fights with his army to preserve liberty. And lucky is the boy indeed who wakes up one morning to find not just reprovision, but a new gray kepi which means Gen'ral has accepted his enlistment in the cause...which is a fine thing to wear at the Confederate Ball the next evening where there is punch and cake and young ladies in new gowns who will graciously consent to a dance with any brave lad so decorously appointed. It is a grand and traditional celebration...though some parents cheapen it by providing ostentatious articles of provision that cannot fit into any knapsack.
My story is about an earnest young lad who gets a very personal offer of enlistment one chilly night where the scent of honeysuckle blooming in the dark hollow and hedgerows fills the moon washed night with great expectations...a boy who can't pretend to be asleep fast enough when hears the faint crunch of pea-gravel in the drive and the creaking of wood when someone places their weight on the front step.
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Post by dizzyjam on Dec 26, 2008 20:42:06 GMT -5
Tolkien wanted to create a mythology for the English...
I wonder what that would look like for America. Stephen King's Dark Tower series So, if some very successful American author were to create a mythology, would it really be an American mythology, or a mythology for the world?See, that's one of my points. Which I absolutely in no way verbalized. Or typitized. Native American legends meet Celtic legends meet the gods of Hinduism meet elves and fairies and magical jaguars. Then again, maybe something happened in the far-off, Middle-Earthian past that pre-destined this land to be the nexus of so many cultures? As I read further, I see that you've hit the nail on the head. The Dark Tower is the nexus of all realities. So this has been done. If you've never read the seven books, then you should do so. They're very good. |
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