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The refined essence of moss troll
Jul. 30th, 2011 09:45 pmI'll celebrate the return of LJ with a writing post.
I'm in the middle of an experiment, which involves moving characters from a contemporary fantasy setting into a second-world fantasy setting. Not only does this involve a lot of changes to character backgrounds, but it is the mother of all moss troll problems, in a much more profound way than sado-masochism or galvanized nails.
One of the things I enjoy most about contemporary fantasy is the weight of myth and metaphor and pop culture a writer has immediate access to. A character can think If she turned, he might vanish like Eurydike and I don't need to invent a katabatic legend to support my imagery. If a character in a contemporary story says "Party separation is never a good idea," it's a gaming joke as well as a strategic concern (or maybe a joke about horror movie tropes). If I use the line in a second-world fantasy, I may be making a joke, but the character isn't. Knowing the mythology of your made-up cultures is important, of course, and adds miles of weight and depth, but for me those inventions are rarely as powerful as the real-world myths behind them.
That meta and metaphor usually make contemporary fantasy much more numinous and liminal to me. Alternate worlds may be more wildly fantastic, and in all ways badass, but they often feel less magical.
I'm in the middle of an experiment, which involves moving characters from a contemporary fantasy setting into a second-world fantasy setting. Not only does this involve a lot of changes to character backgrounds, but it is the mother of all moss troll problems, in a much more profound way than sado-masochism or galvanized nails.
One of the things I enjoy most about contemporary fantasy is the weight of myth and metaphor and pop culture a writer has immediate access to. A character can think If she turned, he might vanish like Eurydike and I don't need to invent a katabatic legend to support my imagery. If a character in a contemporary story says "Party separation is never a good idea," it's a gaming joke as well as a strategic concern (or maybe a joke about horror movie tropes). If I use the line in a second-world fantasy, I may be making a joke, but the character isn't. Knowing the mythology of your made-up cultures is important, of course, and adds miles of weight and depth, but for me those inventions are rarely as powerful as the real-world myths behind them.
That meta and metaphor usually make contemporary fantasy much more numinous and liminal to me. Alternate worlds may be more wildly fantastic, and in all ways badass, but they often feel less magical.
