Eleanor Arnason's Blog, page 57

From facebook today

I woke up this morning stiff, due to exercise, and happy, due to exercise and being home from Wiscon and a writers' retreat. East or west, home is best.

What follows is comments on a video of a flashmob performing an excerpt from the Carmina Burana in a train station in Germany.

We need more flashmobs, more demonstrations, more Occupys...

More self-organized, nonviolent, fun things happening in public places...

More public places...

Also from facebook today

You can tell I am happy and chatty:

I am thinking about two topics right now. (Actually, I am avoiding getting dressed and going to the library, but that will happen soon.) One is, what's happening to publishing?

The other is, what's happening to science fiction? I'm not sure I understand SF these days.

I saw a collection of Sheckley short stories and Ubik in the new SF books section of Barnes and Noble and had an attack of nostalgia. I almost bought the books, because I knew they would be good, and I'd understand and like them.

More from facebook

Venus transit this evening. I did the last solar eclipse with paper and a pinhole. If Patrick has a tripod, I may try binoculars this time. The afternoon sun shines into our living room, so if there aren't a lot of clouds, we should have a good view.

Yet again still more from facebook

The flowers I bought at the Farmers' Market on Sunday are doing well: pink and purple-red peonies, red lilies and a pink flower that I think is a dahlia. So, all shades of pink and red, still opening up, on a window sill in sunlight.

Weather Report

A lovely day. Bright and clear and warm with a slight coolness in the wind. There are people sculling on the river, people biycling and walking. Flowers are blooming. Birds are singing. I got some writing done.

Story and Plot

LeGuin is writing about story telling over at the Book View Cafe blog. This first quote is from her:

E.M.Forster had a low opinion of story. He said story is “The queen died and then the king died,” while plot is “The queen died and then the king died of grief.” To him, story is just “this happened and then this happened and then this happened,” a succession without connection; plot introduces connection or causality, therefore shape and form. Plot makes sense of story.

I read this and realized that I was not entirely sure I could define either story or plot. So I checked an online dictionary. This is story:

A narrative, either true or fictitious, in prove or verse, designed to interest, amuse, or instruct the hearer or reader; a tale.

This is plot:

Also called storyline. The plan, scheme, or main story of a literary or dramatic work, as a play, novel, or short story.

I'm still not sure I know what a plot is. Per Forster, it is a causal chain. Per the dictionary, it is a plan. I guess this makes sense. One plans out a story the way one plots a course -- unless one is the kind of writer who does not plan ahead. I tend to think of plot as the action line of a story, as opposed to the setting, characters, mood and so on.

"Story" is from the Latin "historia."

"Plot" seems to go from a piece of land to a map and then a scheme.

Anyway, I'm inclined to think that a long work of fiction needs an action line the way a large animal needs a skeleton. It keeps it from collapsing in on itself.

Though I'm not sure what to do with a book like Italo Calvino's Imaginary Cities, which is made up of wonderful descriptions of imaginary cities. The plot, such as it is, is Marlo Polo telling Kublai Khan about his journeys and the cities he has visited. But the book is really about the cities, which are fantastic and amazing and well worth the read. LeGuin's Changing Planes is a similar collection of descriptions. So also, maybe, is Angelica Gorodischer's Kalpa Imperial. LeGuin's Always Coming Home is more description than anything else. The least successful part of the novel is its most conventional part, the story of Stone Telling Woman.

I'm not sure about Forster's causal chain or his belief that a story has to make sense. A story has to interesting. I'm not sure what else it has to be.

Literary Fiction

From facebook:

I used to argue that literary fiction tended to be (a) realistic and (b) depressing. The message was: life doesn't get any better than this. TINA, if you will. It's a good message for comfortable, upper middle class people who don't really want to change their lives. Popular fiction -- or mass fiction -- tends to be unrealistic will fulfillment. The message here is for the young and for working people, and it says: our lives are hard and we are angry; we dream of change, but realistic change isn't possible.

The question is, what is realistic change? How do we build a new world? (We really have to; this world is going down in flames. Just ask James Hansen.) Is there a way to move from the unrealistic action of a superhero movie to a realistic form of action? Or do the movies simply defuse anger and distract us from the real world?

More, in answer to a comment from Gregory Feeley, who pointed out that my description of literary fiction sounded like defensive remarks from SF writers in the 1970s and 80s:

I'm no longer sure my take on literary fiction is correct. My problem in discussing mainstream or mundane or literary fiction is, I don't read enough of it, and I certainly don't read widely enough. Having said that, I don't see the problem with literary fiction is that it lulls us. Instead -- I suspect, based on inadequate data -- that it limits us. It does not give us a vision of large scale change that we need now, if we are actually going to save the planet. It doesn't tear the top off our lives. Much popular art does envision large change. However, the way the change happens is unrealistic.

More...

Some of the power comes from myth. Humans like stories about big guys beating monsters: Gilgamesh, Hercules, Thor... I think the Hero Twins in various Native American cultures are also examples, though I don't know them as well...

Superheros

What I'm wondering about superhero comics and movies is -- what is the social and emotional content? What grabs and hold people? The simple answer is wish fulfillment fantasy. But that's not adequate. The situation is more complex. The four movies I've seen recently tell different kinds of stories. Yes, they all end in smash! bang! boom! kapow! But that's kind of like the ballet in an opera. You know you are going to have to sit through it, so you grit your teeth. But the real story -- and the real joy -- is elsewhere.

I enjoy the action in comic book movies more than the ballet in opera. I still enjoy the stories in both more.

This is not entirely idle speculation. I am trying to figure out if there's a way to write science fiction/fantasy that has the appeal of a good superhero movie.

The Avengers Yet Again

I am still trying to rewrite The Avengers. Not on paper or a computer, in my mind as I walk the track at the Y. This is dangerously close to fan fiction.

My obsession with the Marvel universe seems to be working to break my overly intense focus on news media and their unending bad news. Now I have to break the focus on Marvel movies. At least the Marvel universe has happy endings, mostly. As well as a lot of ambiguity and a lot of interesting evil. Real evil, the stuff we meet in this world, is mostly boring. It's like Lyme disease or HIV. It's bad. It has to be dealt with. But you don't spend a lot of time trying to understand its motivation. Actually, a viral infection is a lot more interesting than a bad person.

The current British government (among many other governments) is evil. Are the government's members interesting? No. They are stupid, greedy power freaks with a hatred of ordinary people. Their motivations are as complex as the motivations of a shark. The interesting question is, how do the people of Great Britain get rid of these jerks? How do Americans and Canadians change their governments? How do we save the world?

The process by which Raymond Milliband's sons ended where they now are may be mildly interesting. That's about self-corruption and self-delusion. Even that is not worth much time. I don't think psychology works to explain societies. Sociology, political science and maybe economics do a better job.

But in fiction, it's possible to make evil complex and interesting and even charming.

It's possible to embody great issues in individuals...

Maybe I can do a political analysis of Loki. He has become a tool of the aliens, just as capitalists become tools of their capital. He may think he's in control and still a god, but he isn't and won't be till he breaks away form the aliens.

And why the heck does he let them into Earth? Why doesn't he double-cross them and keep the Tessarect for himself? He's a master double-dealer. But in this situation, he is a tool.