tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011180133672171801.post2616955052885272965..comments2022-12-10T02:34:01.429-08:00Comments on Fusion Fantasy by Bets Davies: Fairy TalesBets Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01470190008122531460noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011180133672171801.post-21848206823373046762012-01-20T18:23:27.477-08:002012-01-20T18:23:27.477-08:00Wow. Thanks for such a well thought out comment. ...Wow. Thanks for such a well thought out comment. This is the kind of thing I live for. I agree depressing gets boring very quickly, even if it is nuanced, actually. It's a limited range of emotion, of humanity. <br /><br />Perhaps the best piece of writing advice I got, I got from Victor Lavalle: Sometimes good people do bad things.<br /><br />Characters are people and have faults and make mistakes. They are not the paragon of the way we wish the world was living in a world that is prone to espousing our own philosophies.<br /><br />I'm so glad you enjoyed Weaver's Web. Character is key for me, so it is great to hear that is what you appear to have taken away from it.Bets Davieshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01470190008122531460noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011180133672171801.post-6335363642308181072012-01-20T17:38:30.618-08:002012-01-20T17:38:30.618-08:00It seems to me that the whole American conscious h...It seems to me that the whole American conscious has gone brothers Grim now - grabbing every fairy tell that can be grabbed and bringing out the dark. Grimm and once upon a time bring this out on TV. Snow White and the Huntsman in film. It's funny, because I clearly remember growing up in the error of children who rebelliously admired Bobba Fett over Luke Skywalker (even over Han Solo) only to find that everyone else did it too. We were very anti-disney in generation x, or thought we were at first, only to find ourselves relishing each skeleton, bloody surprise, or deliciously evil queen that Disney painted. I wonder if it wasn't the grimmness we loved, but the shock. The surprise. The genuine feeling of discovery and unpredictability these moments generated, in an utterly predictably happy medium. Now I feel like it's gone the other way. Everything is so predictably dark, that I've really come to miss uncomplicated heroes. And complicated heroes that are uncomplicated in their heroism too, I suppose. Snide enjoyment of the darkside has become not a secret vice, but an accepted reality of everyone we get to watch. Our escapism is now ruled by assholes. Sure, they're cool. Bobba Fett looks cool. But they are still assholes. They might be interesting, but before to long, you want to look at your watch, make an excuse and walk away.<br /><br />So we may have put a bit of the sex back in, but I think our popular culture is Grimm-Brothers-Guilty of stripping something that is supposed to be a reflection of our common, complicated culture, inner and outer, and making it very one-sided. No one wants to watch dudley dooright styling his hair all day long. But snidley whiplash twriling his mustaches drabs out just as quickly. We're getting the ass-tale of fairy tail, and I think we could use a bit of the fairy back. I agree with the above post, and on top of it, I'm tired of living and changing in a world of "what if everything was black as death crap?"<br /><br />Blah blah. Moderation in everything I suppose. I just finished Weaver's Web, and I think that's why I like it so much. When the heroes behave badly, its because they behave humanly, and when they behave heroically, it's their humanity that makes it special. <br /><br />But it ain't smarmy either.Frumshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08095261853395742932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011180133672171801.post-65945909497345591202012-01-17T11:57:19.258-08:002012-01-17T11:57:19.258-08:00I really, truly, deeply believe that looking for t...I really, truly, deeply believe that looking for the weird and changing elements of our lives is a survival skill that we practice hard as a child, and then don't recognize as we drift into assumptions of certainty and safety. When you're really young--young enough to walk under the dining room table--the shape that slides around a tree could be a squirrel, or it could be a child-stalking slithery form from nowhere; the pile of clothes on a chair, at night, could be a giant--but I don't that's any form of childhood induced hysteria. I think it goes right back to a time when you needed to look before you knelt to look in the water, let alone drink it; if the woods were too still, that was not a good thing, and the cave that offered shelter might already have occupants. We want back into that world of childhood and close observation and beauty, but we also want back to a time when we lived and changed with the world of "what if."debbyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09898956529161374972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011180133672171801.post-69102916210133741112012-01-16T11:39:53.349-08:002012-01-16T11:39:53.349-08:00Hm. Have a feeling that wasn't what the Grimm...Hm. Have a feeling that wasn't what the Grimms were going for.Bets Davieshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01470190008122531460noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4011180133672171801.post-37702204998472868262012-01-15T12:37:19.005-08:002012-01-15T12:37:19.005-08:00Strikes me that everyone remembers the version of ...Strikes me that everyone remembers the version of the fairy tale they like thge best, even if it wash't the one they grew up with and - frankly - the gory ones are just a lot more fun.Rickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08703123387039631290noreply@blogger.com