this is matociquala's fault (and she says it's <user site="live

[truepenny]

Eleven things I will serve my best never to put in a fantasy novel unless I am trying to undermine them, and in fact could do without entirely from now on, thanks

1. The word "orb." Unless we're talking about orb-weaver spiders, in which case, rock on.

2. Beauty correlating with goodness.

3. Quests.

4. Protagonists who are protagonists by virtue of being Special, particularly if their Specialness correlates with #2.

5. Telepathic companion animals.

6. Young women who live in a cod-medieval society and yet, somehow, are athletic, assertive, bad at sewing, and generally dressed in trousers. See also #4.

7. Social predators (thieves, assassins, etc.) with whom the reader is supposed to sympathize. Particularly if we're supposed to sympathize because of #4.

8. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVIL.

9. Heteronormativity. Likewise sexism, Default Fantasy Caucasianism, and the unquestioned assumption of middle-class values.

10. What Edward Gorey called P.R.O.s (Priceless Ritual Objects). See also #1, #3.

11. Saving The World. See also #8.

Comments

[khriskin]

But--but, number five is the main reason I read books when I was in junior high! It's just not good escapism without talking wolves, or horses, or dragons, or ducks, or bunnies or something! ^_^ *grin*

Or talking spaceships, those work too...

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

6. Young women who live in a cod-medieval society and yet, somehow, are athletic, assertive, bad at sewing, and generally dressed in trousers.

damn. :)

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

Hey, you have to have muscles to chase cows and knead bread!

As for world-saving, I'm all for it. *g*

[pnh.livejournal.com]

I can't agree that #7 is in itself a bad idea. A lot of kitsch has been written about such characters; also a lot of great literature.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

It's not like I haven't done it myself anyway.

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

*casts mental eye over own work in progress*

Title? Contains #1, which is also the subject of a quest #3 carried out by someone who will soon end up with #5, come to think, though if I remember clearly they were enchanted into that form by an evil sorcer..

Bugger. She's definitely gay though, if that's any help?

Also re: #5, you've got it in for Anne McCaffrey but good, I take it? ::grin::

[marith.livejournal.com]

I was going to ask if Mildmay counted. :)

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

The book matociquala and I have coming out next year, A Companion to Wolves, is fundamentally the question: So, what about the green dragonriders, then?

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

My hope is that Mildmay undermines the convention at least as much as he supports it. But, yes. Guilty as charged.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Neither of which the girls in #6 generally do.

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

A bunch of layabouts and harlots, I say.

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

Also, how squicky would the assumptions in this whole thing be revealed to be if Brekke and Lessa were young men instead of young women?

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

Heh, that answers my question about Pern then. And sounds an excellent book idea, will look forward to it.

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

Mildmay is trying to get better.

Maybe the sense you want is "apologizes for" rather than "evokes sympathy for"?

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

Yes; I can agree with foregoing everything but telepathic companion animals. It's hard to imagine a story that couldn't be enhanced by the presence of a telepathic companion animal.

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure where you're going with this actually, but I remember Lessa as being pretty kick-ass in what was a very feudal set-up..?

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

Who is kidnapped, carried off, raped, falls in love with her rapist, and nobody seems to think there's anything even slightly odd about this...

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

oh, and consistently infantilized. I forgot that bit.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

But when you come down to it social predators aren't sympathetic to others, which makes them generally less sympathetic to me.

[carbonel]

6. Young women who live in a cod-medieval society and yet, somehow, are athletic, assertive, bad at sewing, and generally dressed in trousers. See also #4.

I'm listening to Catherine, Called Birdy as a book on tape, which is about a young woman in a genuinely medieval society (1290-1, to be precise). She's reasonably athletic, definitely assertive (which gets her cracked -- her term -- by her father quite a bit), and is lousy at sewing. When the privy is cleaned, a number of spindles and an embroidery project are found in the muck, and she can't understand why everyone just assumes that they were hers.

She does not, however, wear trousers.

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

Given that he hates his work, does not regard it as something to be proud of, and is miserably unhappy about the conflicts between his ethics and his actions, I think you can claim to be beating the convention over the head with a 15" cast iron skillet (https://secure.lodgemfg.com/storefront/product1.asp?menu=original&idProduct=3992). Just, you know, to break down the tough connective tissues and tenderize it a little.

[pnh.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, certain kinds of social predators are preternaturally sensitive to the needs and feelings of others, because they have to be in order to effectively predate. Which makes their POV a dynamite means by which to convey very complex information about what's going on.

[handworn.livejournal.com]

Orbs? Will you then also never use the word "sceptre"?

What, if I might inquire, does "cod-medieval" mean? I've never seen the fish word used as an adjective. Except "codpiece." Which I admit is medieval.

----------

"They're EEEEEEEVIL, I tell you. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVIL!"

"Grandpa, you said that about all the presents."

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

11. Saving The World. See also #8.

I always felt sorry for the non-FTL using aliens in the DC Comics Universe. About once a year, the entire universe is threatened by something on or near Earth. If you are Jo Alien, watching on the telescope, every light year you are from Earth means that the events you are watching is one year deeper into the past, so for all you know the good guys already lost a thousand centuries ago* and Doom is On It Way.

* DCU clearly has a special frame in which events are uniquely ordered.

[angevin2.livejournal.com]

"I just want attention."