This is the Nerd Warning. All of those who have never heard of Harlan Ellison, can’t name all of the Endless, and don’t know what 42 is the answer to, are advised to stop reading now. This is the Nerd Warning.
Alright. Now it’s just us people nerdy enough to know that, but not quite nerdy enough to quote Dune in public. On a side note, obliquely referencing Dune is fine, as long as you claim to be a David Lynch fan, and/or accuse the other of also knowing that, so ha! (Sorry for the absurdist hyperbole).
Now, I will admit to being a person who would obliquely references Dune, who read Watchmen years before the film came out, and who devours anything that has Steve Erikson’s name on it. But really, I don’t read a lot of science fiction or fantasy anymore. The exceptions to this rule are the aforementioned Steve Erikson, R. Scott Bakkar, George R.R. Martin and Joe Abercrombie (absolutely no relation to the chain of stores). And there is a reason, to be outlined here why these authors slip by fantasy filter. Oh, and if you want to have a really bizarre time, listen to some Cole Porter songs while reading George R.R. Martin. It is almost sublime in the level of cognitive dissonance it requires.
Moving on. Fantasy fiction, for me at least, has one major flaw, which you can trace back to the originators of semi-respectable fantasy, namely J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. See, they decided instead of say, actual battles between people of dubious morality and dueling if different believes, their stories would revolve around absolute good challenging absolute evil! Which is fun and exciting!...if you’re eight. Alright, that’s harsh, and likely untrue (for Lord of the Rings anyway), but really, I find it far too simple. At the crux of this issue is religion, at least it was for Tolkien and Lewis, for, though both had flings with paganism, they were always true to Christianity in their fashion. Not that any of this is a problem, for them, but when it became one of the most recognizable traits of the genre, it also became a somewhat tarnished. Not that it had ever been sparkling. See, there is no tension, no surprise, and no real sense of adventure if you are fairly sure the hero will always triumph and evil will always be punished. Although, it is more pleasurable then the masochism required to trudge through the opposite, which is currently my pastime.
Of course, I’m not wholly won over by the way most authors try to fix it which is simply to amp up the evil of the main characters, rather than make the antagonists more well rounded and complex in terms of their motivations and goals. It’s what I think really keeps the genre from earning any respect outside itself, something that crime fiction and gothic fiction has managed to do, given time and, in the case of the former, the terrific intervention of James Elroy. Of course, a hundred or so years always adds a little metaphorical gray to the equally metaphorical temples. But it’s well over half a century old. Indeed, if you count things like Peter Pan then its over a hundred. But Fantasy fiction is still a loner at the literary table, looking vainly for a friend.
And nowadays, I’ve shied away from most of it. If a fantasy book truly catches my interest, I might start to read it, but honestly these simplistic seductresses have burned me too often. I might begin reading, but if I see words like Dark Lord, and Grand Evil (or the made up equivalents they put in to fool you, yeah, that’s right, you didn’t trick me with “the necromancer” Tolkien) I will put the book down, and wonder over to the general fiction section, to pick up a Cormac McCarthy novel. And on that frightfully specific and unexplained out, I think I’ll stop.
The Nerd Warning is no longer in effect. Regular service has resumed. For those that didn’t notice a difference, I’m glad you’ve been paying attention. I repeat: the Nerd Warning is no longer in effect. Regular service has resumed.
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