series

Lately fantasy series have gotten a bit of a bad reputation.  Too many writers drag them out, volume after volume with no resolution in sight, until the audience gives up.  Maybe that's why trilogies are so popular.  With a trilogy, you at least know an ending is going to happen. 

Me, I've always felt the strongest series form is five books.  There's plenty of room to deepen characters and explore themes, but the ending still happens before the audience has time to get board and leave.  Best of all, there's less chance of falling into `middle book' syndrome, where the middle book feels as if it only exists to hold the beginning and ending apart.

The strength of the series is its interconnected nature.  In the Prydain Chronicles, some of the individual books are a little weak.  In book one, for example, the hero is knocked out for the climax.  Later, as the books build on each other, you realize that this ending is actually good in the thematic sense.  Taran has to be humbled before he can become a hero.  If he'd been part of that early battle his pride would have been harder to overcome.  The theme of heroism through humility is examined over and over in ways that would never be possible if Lloyd Alexander had only written a single volume.

A series also allows for amazing plot twists because the author can lay the groundwork for them through several volumes.  Emily Rodda's Deltora Quest books are a lovely example of this.  She slowly introduces allies and possible enemies over several volumes.  Actions constantly need reinterpreted from book to book.  Her main characters go from almost strangers to a close-knit team in a very believable fashion because you can see the gradual change as it happens.  This is another case where one book just wouldn't have the depth that a series is able to display.

A series is a tricky thing.  The length means there's more room for mistakes, but with careful handling, the series gives a sense of depth that no single volume will ever be able to match.

Mid-grade Allegory

The other day while I was checking my e-mail a thing popped up saying that several people, whose names I didn't recognize, wanted to connect to my yahoo account so we could chat.  I took the `no' option but it occurred to me that those people might have found me through this blog.  If someone wants to contact me please either leave a message in the blog comments, or mention blogger in the tag-line of any e-mails you send.  I'm too paranoid about computer viruses to answer if I don't know where you're coming from.


And now on to a real topic.


I've had my eye on Lian Tanner's Museum of Thieves for some time now, so when I saw a copy at my local Border's going out of busyness sale I snatched it up.  The book is wonderfully inventive.  The author take an abstract idea -that modern parents are overprotective- and makes it concrete.  In the city of Jewel, children are chained by the wrist to their parents or guardian until they come of age. 


The book reminded me of Jeanne DuPrau's City of Ember.  Both take an abstract idea and turn it into something that can be seen and touched.  In other words- allegory.  I started a mental list of mid-grade allegories that I've read over the years.  There's Norton Juster's Phantom Tollbooth, Carol Kendall's Gammage Cup, David Ive's Monsieur Eek.  It's almost enough, I think, to count as its own sub-genre.

There's always a danger of making allegories so obvious that they become anvilicious (to use a TV. Tropes term) but when done right, a touch of allegory can make some really innovative fantasy.  

Because the author is trying to turn the abstract concrete, he or she can use surreal situations and have them fit the context of the story.  (Remember the spooky faceless man in Phantom Tollbooth?  Or the staircase to infinity?)  Everything in an allegory is literal.  Juster's watchdog is a dog with a watch in his back.  Tanner's children are literally chained to their parents.  DuPrau's city is very much in the dark. 


Another power of allegory is that the author builds their story around a theme.  He or she can explore an idea from every possible angle and in that way bring new perspective to the reader's attention.  For example, in Museum of Thieves, everyone is overprotective because if their child gets hurt they get thrown in jail for being bad parents.  The adult in Jewel have also grown up chained to a parent or guardian so they are overly willing to look to authority for protection and easily give way to fear.  


Different angles.


I've been enjoying the (slight, nearly unnoticed) rise of allegories in mid-grade fiction.  They're so different from everything else, and that I find incredibly refreshing.

A head's up

As you may have noticed, my posting has become irregular.  A little thing called life keeps getting in the way of the whole `regularly scheduled'.  So... while I'll continue to try and post once a week, I no longer have a set day, at least not until things become a little less hectic (Whenever that happens.)  Sorry for the inconvenience.

Storm Coming On

It's been a weird week, with hurricane warnings coming so close after the earthquake.  I guess this is one of those times I should be thankful I don't have oceanfront property?  The sky's been cloud-dark all day.  At 11:00 AM it was still as dark out as it had been at 7:00.  It's like the sun just decided not to bother today.  


We have battered down the hatches, so to speak.  We've filled several five-gallon buckets with water just in case the electric goes off.  People are speculating that we could be out of electric for a few days.  Or not at all.  You never know ahead of time.  That's the whole point behind preparation.  I guess I ought to dig my flashlight out of my suitcase so I'll be able to find it if everything suddenly goes black.  


I'm not actually too concerned.  we've had nasty storms before (one or two that sent us scurrying to the basement just in case) and the worst that's happened has been the occasional fallen tree.  My past experience has been `not that big a deal' so that's what I expect from the future.  Overconfident? Yep.  But I don't think people believe in a worst that could happen without some experience to draw on.  You can't fear what you can't wrap your head around.  That's a good thing.  Keeps us sane.


This is supposed to be a literary blog.  It somehow morphed into a writing blog, and now my last two posts have been about the weather.  (Well, if you count earthquakes as weather.)  What can I say?  Really interesting weather we've been having lately.

The Earthquake

We had an earthquake here on the east coast yesterday.  That's pretty rare.  Fortunately, it wasn't bad in my area.  At first I thought someone was just stomping really hard while coming up the steps (which I guess says something about the floor of my bedroom.)  

There was no wild crashing, no roof caving in on me or floor giving way.  My teacup collection rattled and my bed, which I was sitting on, trembled a bit and that was it.  

Apparently the earthquake did some property damage in Washington.  The news warned that there might be aftershocks but so far if there have been, I haven't felt them.  Facebook is full of comments on the earthquake (including mine.)  I kind of wonder, if I lived someplace like California where earthquakes are more frequent, would ours have been worth all the notice?  

I remember a few years ago we got some really nasty snowstorms and my college classes let out early.  One of my professors commented that where he'd come from, up north, people wouldn't have canceled the class, but there everyone knew how to drive safely in that kind of condition.  They get snow more often and less ice.  My mother is a nurse and has to deal with life and death situations -not every day, but certainly more often than I've ever had to.  I think I'd go crazy from the stress if I was her, but I'm not a trained professional.  

So much of what a person considers dangerous depends on where they are and what they're used to dealing with.  I'm really thankful that I'm not used to earthquakes, or blizzards, or life-and-death decisions.  I hope I never will be.

sorry

Sorry I didn't get a post written.  I spent the day canning peaches with my mother, and it slipped my mind.  I'll try to get an extra post in sometime mid-week to make up for it.

Backgrounds

I've been working on a drawing this week that has me thinking some more on the topic of back-story.  I"d decided to draw my background and my characters on separate sheets, then overlap them.  Of course once the overlap happened, a lot of details disappeared.  Some of them were favorite details.  I'd spent a long time getting them perfect, and in the final picture, no one will know they ever existed. 

Backstory is a lot like that drawing.  You spend a long time inventing a mythic past, or figuring out the floorplan of a castle, and then the story takes a differnt twist and the castle never appears, or the myth just bogs everything down and has to be cut.

When that happens its easy to feel like you wasted a lot of time, but you haven't, any more than it was a waste to lay out my picture on two different sheets of paper.  The bits that don't show are still affecting what's around them.  The shape of the room is different because of the stove that's almost hidden by my figure's dress.  The shape of my invented society is different because of that myth that never actually made it into the story.  Sure, it's a lot of work, but the effort shows -even when it feels invisible.