Friday Sept. 1, 2000 - 1:00 p.m.
The Sources of Fantasy: History
Hyatt Regency Ballroom B
Lynn Flewelling - Fantasy novelist, English/History major.
David Feintuch - Author, medieval fantasy sreies, law and history background.
Lois McMaster Bujold - author, Spirit Ring fantasy set in England. Three time Hugo winner.
David B. Coe (M) - Fantasy author, PhD in History.
There are many possibilities other than borrowing plot lines.
LF: Read a lot of history and find out what framework for the world. Pick your period. Ancient Inventions (book) on Greek, Persian and other Mediterranean details. She has used Greek fire and called it something else, etc. It gives her work a nice level of detail.
DF: It's more interesting if you don't try to follow some historic events. People act the same throughout history. Why are they cruel, rigid and corrupt? Because they were. Always. Is there any reason to think it will improve? Why do we assume that what we know and do know is going to be the standard for the future rather than the past?
LMB: Reading history seems to go with a vision of time as a changing continuum. Change: The future will not be the same as the present or the past. It has changed and it will change. To draw on history is to draw on a different way of being, a different world view. A lot of fantasy is based on history and mythology, twists them around and plays with them. It grows out of myth, fairy tales, Arthurian legends and other historic sources.
Why can't we create histories as we see fit? Can't we just make it up?
LF: No, we can't. A lot of new writers look at movies and media and set out to create a world, but it is a shallow well to draw from compared to doing historical research, human nature and human behavior. This century is a kinder and gentler society. Historically, people were crude.
DF: Familiarity and context are necessary elements. It takes a very brilliant writer to come up with an entirely invented environment that I can follow. We need a context within which we can understand our story. We need to be able to say, yeah, people have done that.
LMB: Select appropriately to the story you are trying to support. You draw attention to some aspects and others are assumed. You have to be careful about the unwritten stuff. Tech level requires attention, even in fantasy. Tech shapes the range of physical possibility: how do they live, medical care, sewage, transportation. You have to think of these things or pull from a model that has them built in. You need imbedded continuity. The wonderful thing about history is it's all real and not copyrighted, so you can use it freely.
DC: What are the pitfalls and dangers?
DF: Getting it right can be just copying. We read for difference, not a history or gothic. If you copy to slavishly, there is nothing new and interesting.
LMB: Trying to put in all of your research is a mistake. "I suffered for my art and now it's your turn." It only belongs in the book if it is a significant detail relevant to your story.
LF: Among the top 5 things I don't like to see: Even though the names are changed, it's clearly the inquisition battling the samurai's. Synthesize. If you're going to steal it, change the paint job. File off the serial numbers, file off the handlebars, etc. We like to see analogies, but not retreads.
DC: What sources do you use? What are good and bad sources?
LF: When I grow up I'm going to go back to college and get an anthropology degree. I have a grave mistrust of anything I find on the internet. Get as close to the source as possible. The color illustrated guide to arms and armor is good.
DC: There is a catalog, Museums Ltd., that has weapons for sale, historically accurate information, details, etc.
DF: I can't read dry, scholarly texts. Mary Renault's detail on ancient world is good, Barbara Tuckman is brilliant for medieval history. William Manchester writes brilliant essays on history and he is wonderful to read. Winston Churchill gives a sense of breadth of history. The Sheriff of Nottingham is a story told from the Sheriff's point of view with the Sheriff as hero. The Random House picture dictionary is nice in that it labels every single part of a ship, for example. Research that is not research: Time magazine cut-away of nuclear sub, details, etc.
LMB: Footnotes are useful. Always read the footnotes. I do cruising reading where I am not looking for anything in particular, then I do research reading where I check twenty books out of the library. Not knowing when to stop is a pitfall of research.
DF: The Internet is a wonderful source, but don't take it as gospel. Use the googol search engine. But don't be too trusting.
DC: I like short cuts when it comes to research. Children's books are good short cuts. "Building a Castle" and "Cross-section of a Castle" are good children's books for how to build castles in your worlds.
LF: Get out to a museum and look at the exhibitions. Kitchen implements, actual door latches, lock and key, etc. I don't need drugs; I just go to museums. They have diaramas of households, with details like tools, dishes, etc.
LMB: Museums give you three-dimension visuals that you can't get from texts or pictures. Internet chat groups can be good for asking 'what are the symptoms of mountain sickness?' or something like that.
DF: Experts are wonderful sources for the lazy researcher. For example: ask a doctor or medical researcher about how to get a particular illness or injury to fit the condition you need.
DC: There is no such thing as a perfect source. If it is crucial to your book, you need independant confirmation of everything.
LF: If you don't have access to a doctor, there are several books available from Writer's Digest. Toxins, for example - there is a sea snake with blunt teeth in the south seas and anesthetizes you, and they don't even know they've been bitten.
DC: What kind of research strategy do you use? When do you know you've had enough?
LF: I start with character, and then design the world around them. I never feel like I have enough research. I research as I go. I edit ad nauseum. You have to stop when you're doing all research and no writing.
DF: I desperately research as I go. I scramble as I write to get the details right. I called up a coach to ask about soccer. I got a lot of info, but used only a few words for the scene.
LMB: Talking with live experts is that they will toss in things you will never think of. Astronauts' hands get tired because they have to brace themselves. This was an idle comment by a NASA doctor that led to a whole race of quaddies, freefall-living beings.
DF: Your assumptions will do you in. Run your work by someone who knows a lot more about those fields than you do. The Darwin Awards are fascinating. A real story: a guy bouncing off a 48th floor window to show how strong it is, one day goes through the window. It's true, but too loopy to use in fiction. Truth really is stranger than fiction.
LF: The victor's write the histories. A little research can find the other side. A book called Eyewitness to History has some good information.
DF: My villains always think they are doing the right thing. They don't wake up one day and say, "I'm going to be the worst villain I can be today."
LMB: I have become very careful with details because there is a fan out there with a PhD who will write you a gleeful letter pointing out how you got it wrong.
DF: Unrealistic economies are a bugaboo. How does the food get there, where do they get it, where are the kitchens, did they know the hero was coming to eat there? Who's taking care of the clothes? Where did they come from?
DC: My bugaboo is language. The hero rides up, clothes perfectly fresh after riding for days, comes up to the castle and says, "Dude!" It just doesn't work.
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