Epic fantasies usually begin in medias res, in the middle of things. Consider, for example, how much history comes before we meet Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings, and I'm not just talking about its prequel, The Hobbit. The Silmarillion will give you a better idea. In this eon-long context, the One Ring can be seen as merely a loose end that must be tidies up before it and its master can destroy all of Middle-earth, smashing sundry lives in the process including those of various innocent hobbits.
This pattern runs through much of modern fantasy. The past is a looming shadow that shapes the present and threatens the future. Characters thus totter between light and dark, between simple, everyday life and cosmic destruction, on a scale that sometimes boggles the mind even of their creator. P.C. Hodgell, the introduction to Blood & Ivory
P.C. Hodgell is one of my all-time favorite fantasists. She wrote God Stalk, which is not so well known but which is in my top three favorite books of all time list. Go read it and the sequels if you want to read something truly unique. Her world is not a Tolkein deriviative; it's fresh, new, fascinating.
And what she has to say about the looming history of an epic fantasy is so true. I've always had the sense of this, but hadn't ever put it so well.
And you can find information on Professor Hodgell here.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
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2 comments:
I think "totter" is a really good word to use there, although not only in the way Prof. Hodgell intended. [wry smile] She's correct, of course, but one also has to consider that just about every epic fantasy has the main character(s) struggling with Worlds In The Balance and the predations of Ultimate Evil, and it can be difficult to cook up one's own version and still keep it fresh. It's too easy, in the quest to be different and original, to totter right over the top into melodrama and cheese. I'm just as happy with a fantasy that deals with the there-and-then, with a more personal or local kind of evil, and does it well. Broadening the scope (even if that means allowing it to narrow a bit) gives all the writers more elbow room and that's usually a good thing.
Thanks for the rec, though -- I'm going to go look up God Stalk.
Angie
I think you'll like it.
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