Ben
asked
Scott Hawkins:
This question contains spoilers…
(view spoiler)[Congrats on Mt. Char being named #1 in Buzzfeed's best fantasy novels of 2015 list. I wondered if you might provide a little context as to your decision-making process in having Carolyn replace David with Steve as the sun at the novel's end? I thought it was a courageous and fitting choice, though I can't imagine it was an easy one. Looking forward to reading whatever else you might produce. (hide spoiler)]
Scott Hawkins
This answer contains spoilers…
(view spoiler)[Hey Ben,
Thanks! I saw the buzzfeed thing the other day when I was screwing around on Facebook--had no idea it was coming, just sort of idly clicking through links and BOOM! That was fun.
As far as the Steve-in-the-sky thing, it came from a couple of different places. I always intended Steve to be Carolyn's last link to her normal emotional equipment, and that part worked out more or less as originally planned. With that being the case, the obvious choice for an ending was to close with the two of them smooching as the orchestra music swelled in the background. But the more I thought about it, the less that made sense to me.
I mean, what would they really have to talk about, long term? It seemed like the sort of thing that could easily turn into a huge pile of crap, to be honest. BEST case, if Steve and Carolyn hooked up the story would kind of turn into Bewitched*, you know? Nothing against Bewitched, mind you, but tonally it didn't seem right.
Plus, as a couple of reviewers have pointed out, Carolyn was more than a little stalker-y. The same thought occurred to me while I was writing. Not really a healthy dynamic with which to start a long-term relationship, IMO. So I wanted the story to be partially about Carolyn having the strength to grow beyond that.
The notion of a "heart coal" was originally conceived as a throwaway to describe why the American woman the librarians were shacking up with (Mrs. McGillicutty) didn't get out much. But the more I thought about it, the more it seemed to fit Carolyn as well. So I ran with that angle. The story would be about Carolyn finding the strength both to conquer her enemies AND to move on afterwards.
All of which was fine, but it left the question of what to do with Steve at the end. Having him go back to repairing toilets didn't feel right, somehow. Also we needed a nice pyrotechnic ending.
Around the same time, I was also working on adding a mythological flavor to the antics of the librarians. There was a bit in Maarten Troost's (nonfiction) book Getting Stoned With Savages where he's talking about how the Polynesian god, Naaru (sp?) the Great plucked out his own eye and threw it up into the sky, and that became the moon.
I read that around this time and thought, well, that's kind of ridiculous, but it DOES seem like the sort of thing old-timey Gods were always doing. What if it turned out that something like that was literally what had happened?
So I kind of combined the two notions. It got Steve out of the way without him having to go back and repair toilets. It also had a kind of gravitas to it that I liked. It seems like the sort of thing a god might do, you know?
So, I guess the answer to your question was that it was a serendipitous solution to two independent-but-related problems that arose in the course of the writing. Which is also why I'm a pantser rather than a plotter.
HTH,
Scott
* For those of you not familiar with early 1970s American sitcoms, Bewitched was about a ridiculously overpowered witch who married a normal guy. Every week the poor schlub would get turned into a cat, or something. (hide spoiler)]
Thanks! I saw the buzzfeed thing the other day when I was screwing around on Facebook--had no idea it was coming, just sort of idly clicking through links and BOOM! That was fun.
As far as the Steve-in-the-sky thing, it came from a couple of different places. I always intended Steve to be Carolyn's last link to her normal emotional equipment, and that part worked out more or less as originally planned. With that being the case, the obvious choice for an ending was to close with the two of them smooching as the orchestra music swelled in the background. But the more I thought about it, the less that made sense to me.
I mean, what would they really have to talk about, long term? It seemed like the sort of thing that could easily turn into a huge pile of crap, to be honest. BEST case, if Steve and Carolyn hooked up the story would kind of turn into Bewitched*, you know? Nothing against Bewitched, mind you, but tonally it didn't seem right.
Plus, as a couple of reviewers have pointed out, Carolyn was more than a little stalker-y. The same thought occurred to me while I was writing. Not really a healthy dynamic with which to start a long-term relationship, IMO. So I wanted the story to be partially about Carolyn having the strength to grow beyond that.
The notion of a "heart coal" was originally conceived as a throwaway to describe why the American woman the librarians were shacking up with (Mrs. McGillicutty) didn't get out much. But the more I thought about it, the more it seemed to fit Carolyn as well. So I ran with that angle. The story would be about Carolyn finding the strength both to conquer her enemies AND to move on afterwards.
All of which was fine, but it left the question of what to do with Steve at the end. Having him go back to repairing toilets didn't feel right, somehow. Also we needed a nice pyrotechnic ending.
Around the same time, I was also working on adding a mythological flavor to the antics of the librarians. There was a bit in Maarten Troost's (nonfiction) book Getting Stoned With Savages where he's talking about how the Polynesian god, Naaru (sp?) the Great plucked out his own eye and threw it up into the sky, and that became the moon.
I read that around this time and thought, well, that's kind of ridiculous, but it DOES seem like the sort of thing old-timey Gods were always doing. What if it turned out that something like that was literally what had happened?
So I kind of combined the two notions. It got Steve out of the way without him having to go back and repair toilets. It also had a kind of gravitas to it that I liked. It seems like the sort of thing a god might do, you know?
So, I guess the answer to your question was that it was a serendipitous solution to two independent-but-related problems that arose in the course of the writing. Which is also why I'm a pantser rather than a plotter.
HTH,
Scott
* For those of you not familiar with early 1970s American sitcoms, Bewitched was about a ridiculously overpowered witch who married a normal guy. Every week the poor schlub would get turned into a cat, or something. (hide spoiler)]
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