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Fantasy: July 30, 2014 Issue [#6461]

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Fantasy


 This week: Monsters
  Edited by: Robert Waltz Author IconMail Icon
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Table of Contents

1. About this Newsletter
2. A Word from our Sponsor
3. Letter from the Editor
4. Editor's Picks
5. A Word from Writing.Com
6. Ask & Answer
7. Removal instructions

About This Newsletter

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.
         -Friedrich Nietzsche


Word from our sponsor

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Letter from the editor

Monsters


They're a staple of both classic and modern fantasy, and they're integral to fantasy role-playing games and their video game equivalents, but really, what is a monster?

Zombies, trolls, werewolves, hobgoblins, whatever... they seem to exist for the protagonist to fight, to prevail against before moving on to the next. In the works of Tolkien and beyond, they're either obstacles for the hero to overcome, or provide the Big Bad Evil Thing that's making the world a worse place to live.

Now, I'm no postmodernist - if I were, I wouldn't be editing a Fantasy newsletter - but it's my considered opinion that, in fantasy or science fiction, all monsters are metaphors.

I'm not Joseph Campbell, so I'm not going to get into all the mythological basis for this, but read his stuff if you're interested. He has, for example, a wonderful treatise on Star Wars as modern mythology. I'm just going to keep this simple:

You're born, you struggle, you die.

The dying part isn't usually covered in stories in America. We need our happy endings. One day I'll understand the cultural bias that requires this, but suffice it to say that not all cultures share this need. Read Russian literature if you want to be depressed. So I'll concentrate on the other parts. As I've said elsewhere, there are no happy endings; there are merely stories that end too soon.

So, you're born, and you're thrust into a world that you have to struggle to comprehend, something alien and vast and unfathomable. You have a Wise Elder, your parents or whatever, who guides you through the first part of life, and tries to convince you that the monsters you're certain are hiding in the bed and in your closet are not real, while simultaneously trying to convince you that the gods are real.

Then you go off into the world pretty much on your own. Your Wise Elders aren't around to slay the monsters any more, so you have to do it yourself. All the stuff of day to day existence, you figure it out based on your previous experience and what your elders taught you. Sometimes you prevail. Sometimes you don't. Worse still, there's the inner conflict, the one against your childish nature, the part of you that wants instant gratification, or, on a darker note, can lead you to addiction or crime.

These are all monsters, and they're represented in fantasy and science fiction by ogres, aliens, kaiju, or whatever.

In fantasy, the hero overcomes the obstacles and prevails. It's what we want for our own lives. Reading it gives us the sense of satisfaction we need, the idea that the struggle CAN be won.

Whether that's true or not, I leave as an exercise to the reader.


Editor's Picks

Some fantasy for you...

 A Diplomacy lesson with Allindi Open in new Window. [E]
a short story, i hope you like it! its a little 'fantastic'!
by Daine Winters Author Icon


 Ivy Tales : The First Irish Fairy Open in new Window. [E]
Ivy Tales are bedtime stories written for my daughter.
by CherokeeIrishPixie Author Icon


 The Other Side of the Fairytale Open in new Window. [13+]
How deceitful and cruel fairytales are...
by Immortal Author Icon


 The Gaiman Story Open in new Window. [18+]
Short story inspired by an opening by Neil Gaiman on BBC.
by SteinFussel Author Icon


 Invalid Item Open in new Window. []

by A Guest Visitor


 "Within" Open in new Window. [E]
This is an illusive piece based on imagery and some portions of non-fiction.
by AlWaltonJr Author Icon


 Invalid Item Open in new Window. []

by A Guest Visitor

 
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Ask & Answer

Last time, in "Fantasy Newsletter (July 2, 2014)" Open in new Window., I talked about history.

Quick-Quill Author Icon: I am right there with you. Real history makes a great skeleton for stories. My favorite is National Treasure. What a great drama based on supposition and fact. So many great stories take a historical fact and ask "What if?" this had happened instead? In the movie Blind Side when the father recites Tennyson's Charge of the Light Brigade I was amazed. I'd never heard it like that before even though I knew that part. What was surmised by "Michael" as his teacher read it was amazing. Did it happen? probably not, but it was a great addition to the character and the outcome. I wrote a novel about a murder that really happened and was never solved. Though the research gave me a clue, I struggled with an ending since the murder's were never caught....It was a great story with great characters and I used all the police reports and such I had to keep it accurate. They were funny and misleading. I just had to write what was already there.

I'd expect that leaving a murder unsolved in a story would be disappointing to the reader. Real life sometimes gets no closure; we turn to fiction for that.


brom21 Author Icon: Thanks for the tid-bit on the importance of history and how it can provide depth. I wrote a story where a wizard named Tielimook who is now good is shunned for his past deeds that earned him the former name Tielimook the Terrible. My hope is that the reader will be curious about his past which will be revealed to come. I think history is kind of mystical in way and can be nostalgic. Thanks for the helpful newsletter!

Yes, the "mysterious past" can make for a great hook.


And that's it for me for another month. Until then,

DREAM ON!!!


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