Have you ever tried to put a new spin on an old archetype of Fantasy like an Elf or a Dwarf in a Postmodern way, or done a revisionist fantasy that has a Feminist or Marxist angle? What I'm doing is revisionist Contemporary Era Fantasy, where most of the old heroes are dead and there's not a lot of quests to be had. That is, Quests of the old sort. The new age of Quests got privatised by Questing corporations, and the freelance hero got nearly wiped out by capitalist business greed.
Anyone else doing a Postmodern take on Fantasy?
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91,273 / 50,000
Okt 30, 2007 - 07 01
I'm not, but I just wanted to stop by and tell you it sounds like a neat idea. Corporations like to take over everything don't they? The fact you've got em taking over questing just cracks me up. Ah greed... the motivating factor of humankind/fantasykind.
Congrats on the great idea and good luck & great writing! =^_^=
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Okt 30, 2007 - 22 07
The novel I wrote last year definitely had Marxist and feminist themes. A classic fantasy trope goes something like this: the king is dying, the kingdom is in danger, the heroes must restore the king and his kingdom. But what if the king was kind of a jerk and the kingdom really should fall? What if "The Hero" is just some fascist demagogue? What happens when the peasants realize that they can do magic, too? This year I'll be writing about a bourgeois revolution of sorts: a powerful, ambitious magician who wants to overthrow the monarchy unleashes a force that not even he can control...
It would be interesting to apply some of this stuff to standard fantasy: anarcho-primativist elves, trade-unionist dwarves and their worker-controlled mining cooperatives, orcs who are tired of being portrayed as marauding hordes (they only raid villages because humans keep coming in groups of four and six to kill them and take their belongings!), corporations and governments headed by vampires and liches...their products could replace the standard pantheon of gods who need followers to survive...yeah, that would be fun!
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"A bibliophile of little means is likely to suffer often. Books don't slip from his hands but fly past him through the air, high as birds, high as prices." --Pablo Neruda
50,077 / 50,000
Okt 30, 2007 - 23 30
Wow. I'm feeling awfully outclassed...
I'm doing sleeping beauty, dark urban fantasy style. Haven't decided on any major themes as of yet. ^^;
----------2006: Tuition (Winner!)
2007: Carson's Crossing/Ironblood
Mood: Borderline panicky
"If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough." --Mario Andretti
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Okt 31, 2007 - 00 13
But wait! Isn't the Pantheon the "opiate of the masses"? Get rid of them!
50,112 / 50,000
Okt 31, 2007 - 01 49
Could you define 'postmodern' in this context? It's a vague term at the best of times.
I'm writing a story based on the HeroQuest boardgame, but I'm approaching it as if the game was based on the story, which I suppose is kind of a postmodern twist right there.
My approach is very much informed by Michael Moorcock and his novels, particularly in how they involve roles and patterns. That's a theme of the Eternal Champion novels, but also of non-Fantasy books like Behold the Man and The Condition of Muzak.
For example, a device used in the game was Loretome, a book which "was written when time began, all that ever was and all that ever will be is recorded in its countless pages". Now, is it written so because that's how it is, or is it so because that's how it's written?
The heroes are themselves subject of such questions. In how far are their actions determined by what's expected of them? How much of this is roles they're carrying out? Questions that become more pertinent and hard to answer when it becomes apparent to them that there have been people knowingly manipulating the patterns.
At the same time, HeroQuest draws very heavily from genre tropes, and I can't miss such an opportunity to investigate them. In a way it's turning into an evaluation of Fantasy as I've experienced it so far. It's got kind of a metafictional air to it. For instance, there's this old, bearded chap called Mentor who is not only the ultimate authority figure in the world of the heroes, but also the very embodiment of authority figures in popular Fantasy. So he'll be made an example of.
13,352 / 50,000
Okt 31, 2007 - 03 56
Sounds cool. My own NaNoWriMo isn't particularly post-modern.
Jasper Fforde's books are post-modern fantasy. The Thursday Next worldframe is based on the writing process and such ideas as how authors relate to characters. The use of foot-notes in them is very cool too.
Terry Pratchett has moments where he turns fantasy cliches on their heads. Captain Carrott for example is the 'one true heir' of the Ankh-Morpork thrown but has no interest in being King. Vetinari may be a tryant but he really does a good job of running the city.
----------Sublime Dissonance - NaNoWriMo
An author is fool who, not content with boring those he lives with, insists on boring future generations…. – Charles De Montesquieu