What exactly do I want to write about when it comes to these stories?
My last post has me thinking. Now, to be fair to myself, I picked a story that was in itself based solely on plot. Even the characters were not developed to a detailed extent. The combination of fantasy and science fiction throws a little wrench in the idea of picking out intriguing scientific theory.
So what am I looking for?
1. The Story
I'll first of all discuss what the story is about.
2. Why does it work? Or not work?
From a literary stand point, why do we enjoy this? What makes the story flow? Or, why is this particular story not as good as others?
3. What are some key scientific points that classify it as Science Fiction?
Now here is what I really want to talk about! I'm no scientist; while I can often get the basic idea in even the most complicated scientific theories that are used in stories, I want to know more. And I'm sure you do too. Let's research a bit together!
4. What are the best/worst examples of writing in this story?
And of course, quotes and small sections of the stories will run freely throughout. I love words, above all, and will always post something that popped out at me while I was reading. Or, if I am discussing a story from the negative side, I'll be sure to point out why it disagrees with me.
Plot summary is something that, in school, has been demonized. My professors tell me to stay away from it, and they are mostly right. I'll try my best to tell you the story without spoiling the reading for you, but stories in every aspect of their being is what this blog is all about. If you don't want spoilers, I suggest you read the story before the post!
Of course, my discussions will hardly be enough to take away the joy that comes from reading the original words in such masterpieces.
Musings! That's all from me.
L
P.S. GRUMBIES
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Semley's Necklace
There is something out there in the world of creativity that, for some reason, always seems to draw the worlds of Science Fiction and Fantasy together. The relationship between the two can be hard to grasp -- we only recognize that it exists. Fantasy and Science Fiction can often seem mutually exclusive, but that is only because both worlds have been type cast with their goblins and unicorns, robots and alien races, respectively. The two are, however, very similar in that they both rely heavily on the act of making that which is already around us more incredible. The only difference is that Fantasy does not have to concern itself with what can actually be, but only what it can make you believe.
There have been many attempts over the years to combine the genres of Fantasy and Science Fiction. I don't think I can bring to mind a single one that has made it to 'high fame and fortune' (who needs that anyway?). Why is this? Put simply, because it's very hard to successfully combine the two. You'd think when you put two genres that *seem* to go hand in hand so well into the same play ground that they would naturally get along. But like any toddlers (which is what I think all genres really are: childish imps that need to be raised properly) that may seem to have fun at the beginning, inevitably someone starts crying.
This is where we bring in the baby sitters, the ones who have handled a hundred petty squabbles if not more. These are the writers who have, time and again, solved the problem that lies before us and created a beautiful piece of combined Science Fiction and Fantasy art.
My personal favorite author who dabbles between the two genres is Ursula K. Leguin, author of the mildly popular series the Earthsea stories and one of my favorite science fiction books of all time, The Left Hand of Darkness.
Sifting through her many, wonderful novels, however, which generally side either with Fantasy or Science Fiction, you can come across a few short stories that have hidden themselves quite well, including one that is the most perfect marriage of the two genres that I have ever read.
"Semley's Necklace" is one of LeGuin's more obscure pieces, apparently, for there aren't many good references to it that I can link to you here. There is a slight description of it here, in this description of one of her full length novels. So other than that, you'll just have to take my word for it!
Semley is a princess of one of the many intelligent species that make their histories on the planet of Fomalhaut II. Of course, that is not what they call the planet, but the name given to their home by the men called 'Starlords.' But the castles that once held riches are being swept clean, gradually, with every season that the Starlords come to collect their taxes.
"Hope came hard to the Angyar of Hallan and all the Western Lands, since the Starlords had appeared with their houses that leaped about on pillars of fire and their awful weapons that could level hills. They had interfered with all the old ways and wars, and though the sums were small there was a terrible shame to the Angyar in having to pay a tax to them, a tribute for the Starlords' war that was to be fought with some strange enemy, somewhere in the hollow places between the stars, at the end of years. 'It will be your war too,' they said, but for a generation now the Angyar sat in idle shame in their revel-halls, watching their double swords rust, their sons grow up without ever striking a blow in battle, their daughters marry poor men, even midmen, having no dowry of heroic loot to bring a noble husband."
This is the tragedy that Semley lives within and marries into; as the daughter in law of the lord of Hallan, she knows well the harsh poverty that shames her people, and the poverty that shames her own person as well, for she, like all the other brides, has no dowry to speak of, and must look in envy upon the few women who do still retain wealth of any kind.
It is a memory, a rumor, that eventually moves Semley to take the journey that she plans to honor her husband, Durhal, with: a great sapphire necklace, an heirloom of her family that was lost before her birth. Ashamed at her own inability to bring beauty to her husband's side, wealth in the form of a dowry she was never provided, Semley takes the step on her own and leaves the palace for what she believes will be a few days. She travels first to her homeland, and asks there, then to the land of the Fiia, the Lightfolk. They know where the stone may be -- with it's creators, the Clayfolk.
"'Do not go among the Clayfolk, Semley,' he said, and for a moment her heart failed her. The Fian, drawing his hand down slowly over his eyes, had darkened all the air about them...'In the mountains of the far land Fiia and the Gdemiar parted. long ago we parted...Longer ago we were one. What we are not, they are. What we are, they are not...think that not all roads that lead down lead up as well."
Yet despite the advice, Semley continues on and comes to the world of night. Here the creatures known as Clayfolk reside, and much like dwarves they make their world with mining and machines. At other times in the book, the Clayfolk are described as 'friends of the Starlords,' and it is obvious from their place of residence why the Clayfolk and the Starlords get along so well. Both are advanced in technology -- the Clayfolk have machines to do their bidding, just as the Starlords do. It is suggested later that the Clayfolk were 'steered' to become Industrial, and that their main art lay first in the creation of great beauty such as the necklace that Semley seeks. It would not be a far stretch of the imagination to assume that the Starlords are the reason that the Fiia and the Clayfolk split.
After long discussion, the agreement is made that the Clayfolk will take Semley to where the necklace is.
"'How far a journey, Lord?'
His lips drew back and back. 'A very far journey, Lady. Yet it will last only one long night.'"
And this is how she comes to the Museum, and meets Rocannon and Ketho, somewhere several leaps of space away from Fomalhaut II.
I have done far too much plot summary as it is, so let me continue more quickly. This story is just so full and bright that I can't help but highlight as much as I can. At the end of their meeting, Semley leaves with the necklace in her possession, knowing nothing of the time she has actually spent away from her home. As she returns to the ship upon which she has been brought by the Clayfolk, Rocannon and Ketho have a moment of understanding:
"What I feel sometimes is that I...meeting these people from worlds we know so little of, you know, sometimes...that I have as it were blundered through the corner of a legend, or a tragic myth, maybe, which I do not understand."
This is the best quote of the whole story. So beautiful -- in all honesty, you could supply the same thought to the world upon which we live. There are so many cultures that we do not know well, some that we haven't even contacted yet, and the brief brushes that we can claim in our experience may be the tip of a story that you will never fully know.
Semley returns to her land to find her husband dead, her baby daughter grown, and her friends old and gray. She has been gone for nine years.
"...weeping aloud, [she] turned and ran from Hallan, over the bridge and down the long, broad steps, and, darting off eastward into the forest of the mountainside like some wild thing escaping, was gone."
See why I love this story? It's just as Rocannon says -- the corner of some tragic myth. Ursula K. LeGuin does a magnificent job of combining Fantasy and Science Fiction, and she probably succeeds in the way she does by choosing one to emphasize and one to write about. While the story is given to us in a very Fantastical tone, it is no doubt a Science Fiction story. Why? Because all throughout the tale there are signs that these magical occurrences that Semley is witnessing are not the results of a god, or a powerful fae creature, or some other Fantastical being, but the works of technology and science. Her descent into the long night that takes from her the life and husband she had left to honor is only the result of light year hopping.
Who knows where the Museum resides, or why there is even a Museum in the middle of space at all. That is a tale you'll have to find in the novel that this short story is a prelude for: Rocannon's World.
That's all from me. I do apologize for the amount of plot summary here. I'm figuring out more and more what it is exactly I want to discuss in relation to these stories, and the last thing I want it to be is plot-driven. If you have any suggestions on what to discuss, please let me know! I have a few ideas, but I'd love to hear yours as well.
Be well, and don't forget the Grumbies!
L
There have been many attempts over the years to combine the genres of Fantasy and Science Fiction. I don't think I can bring to mind a single one that has made it to 'high fame and fortune' (who needs that anyway?). Why is this? Put simply, because it's very hard to successfully combine the two. You'd think when you put two genres that *seem* to go hand in hand so well into the same play ground that they would naturally get along. But like any toddlers (which is what I think all genres really are: childish imps that need to be raised properly) that may seem to have fun at the beginning, inevitably someone starts crying.
This is where we bring in the baby sitters, the ones who have handled a hundred petty squabbles if not more. These are the writers who have, time and again, solved the problem that lies before us and created a beautiful piece of combined Science Fiction and Fantasy art.
My personal favorite author who dabbles between the two genres is Ursula K. Leguin, author of the mildly popular series the Earthsea stories and one of my favorite science fiction books of all time, The Left Hand of Darkness.
Sifting through her many, wonderful novels, however, which generally side either with Fantasy or Science Fiction, you can come across a few short stories that have hidden themselves quite well, including one that is the most perfect marriage of the two genres that I have ever read.
"Semley's Necklace" is one of LeGuin's more obscure pieces, apparently, for there aren't many good references to it that I can link to you here. There is a slight description of it here, in this description of one of her full length novels. So other than that, you'll just have to take my word for it!
Semley is a princess of one of the many intelligent species that make their histories on the planet of Fomalhaut II. Of course, that is not what they call the planet, but the name given to their home by the men called 'Starlords.' But the castles that once held riches are being swept clean, gradually, with every season that the Starlords come to collect their taxes.
"Hope came hard to the Angyar of Hallan and all the Western Lands, since the Starlords had appeared with their houses that leaped about on pillars of fire and their awful weapons that could level hills. They had interfered with all the old ways and wars, and though the sums were small there was a terrible shame to the Angyar in having to pay a tax to them, a tribute for the Starlords' war that was to be fought with some strange enemy, somewhere in the hollow places between the stars, at the end of years. 'It will be your war too,' they said, but for a generation now the Angyar sat in idle shame in their revel-halls, watching their double swords rust, their sons grow up without ever striking a blow in battle, their daughters marry poor men, even midmen, having no dowry of heroic loot to bring a noble husband."
This is the tragedy that Semley lives within and marries into; as the daughter in law of the lord of Hallan, she knows well the harsh poverty that shames her people, and the poverty that shames her own person as well, for she, like all the other brides, has no dowry to speak of, and must look in envy upon the few women who do still retain wealth of any kind.
It is a memory, a rumor, that eventually moves Semley to take the journey that she plans to honor her husband, Durhal, with: a great sapphire necklace, an heirloom of her family that was lost before her birth. Ashamed at her own inability to bring beauty to her husband's side, wealth in the form of a dowry she was never provided, Semley takes the step on her own and leaves the palace for what she believes will be a few days. She travels first to her homeland, and asks there, then to the land of the Fiia, the Lightfolk. They know where the stone may be -- with it's creators, the Clayfolk.
"'Do not go among the Clayfolk, Semley,' he said, and for a moment her heart failed her. The Fian, drawing his hand down slowly over his eyes, had darkened all the air about them...'In the mountains of the far land Fiia and the Gdemiar parted. long ago we parted...Longer ago we were one. What we are not, they are. What we are, they are not...think that not all roads that lead down lead up as well."
Yet despite the advice, Semley continues on and comes to the world of night. Here the creatures known as Clayfolk reside, and much like dwarves they make their world with mining and machines. At other times in the book, the Clayfolk are described as 'friends of the Starlords,' and it is obvious from their place of residence why the Clayfolk and the Starlords get along so well. Both are advanced in technology -- the Clayfolk have machines to do their bidding, just as the Starlords do. It is suggested later that the Clayfolk were 'steered' to become Industrial, and that their main art lay first in the creation of great beauty such as the necklace that Semley seeks. It would not be a far stretch of the imagination to assume that the Starlords are the reason that the Fiia and the Clayfolk split.
After long discussion, the agreement is made that the Clayfolk will take Semley to where the necklace is.
"'How far a journey, Lord?'
His lips drew back and back. 'A very far journey, Lady. Yet it will last only one long night.'"
And this is how she comes to the Museum, and meets Rocannon and Ketho, somewhere several leaps of space away from Fomalhaut II.
I have done far too much plot summary as it is, so let me continue more quickly. This story is just so full and bright that I can't help but highlight as much as I can. At the end of their meeting, Semley leaves with the necklace in her possession, knowing nothing of the time she has actually spent away from her home. As she returns to the ship upon which she has been brought by the Clayfolk, Rocannon and Ketho have a moment of understanding:
"What I feel sometimes is that I...meeting these people from worlds we know so little of, you know, sometimes...that I have as it were blundered through the corner of a legend, or a tragic myth, maybe, which I do not understand."
This is the best quote of the whole story. So beautiful -- in all honesty, you could supply the same thought to the world upon which we live. There are so many cultures that we do not know well, some that we haven't even contacted yet, and the brief brushes that we can claim in our experience may be the tip of a story that you will never fully know.
Semley returns to her land to find her husband dead, her baby daughter grown, and her friends old and gray. She has been gone for nine years.
"...weeping aloud, [she] turned and ran from Hallan, over the bridge and down the long, broad steps, and, darting off eastward into the forest of the mountainside like some wild thing escaping, was gone."
See why I love this story? It's just as Rocannon says -- the corner of some tragic myth. Ursula K. LeGuin does a magnificent job of combining Fantasy and Science Fiction, and she probably succeeds in the way she does by choosing one to emphasize and one to write about. While the story is given to us in a very Fantastical tone, it is no doubt a Science Fiction story. Why? Because all throughout the tale there are signs that these magical occurrences that Semley is witnessing are not the results of a god, or a powerful fae creature, or some other Fantastical being, but the works of technology and science. Her descent into the long night that takes from her the life and husband she had left to honor is only the result of light year hopping.
Who knows where the Museum resides, or why there is even a Museum in the middle of space at all. That is a tale you'll have to find in the novel that this short story is a prelude for: Rocannon's World.
That's all from me. I do apologize for the amount of plot summary here. I'm figuring out more and more what it is exactly I want to discuss in relation to these stories, and the last thing I want it to be is plot-driven. If you have any suggestions on what to discuss, please let me know! I have a few ideas, but I'd love to hear yours as well.
Be well, and don't forget the Grumbies!
L
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