We've trod this ground before. It's a silly definition of a genre that insists that for any work to be considered in that genre, it must contain all of a list of elements. As you point out in your examples, that's simply not the case. But that argues against your definition of genre, I submit, not the existence of fantasy as a genre.
Fantasy, like any genre, is defined by a set of uses of language, plot structure, plot elements, settings, conventions, and agreements. If you're an Alexandrian architect or programmer, think of a genre as a pattern language. You wouldn't insist that a building contain every one of Christopher Alexander's patterns to be an utterance in that pattern language.
Markers for the fantasy genre include magic, yes, and historical settings, and adventure, quests, kingship, good-vs-evil struggles, second-world settings, and on and on. But no work has to contain all, or even most of them. And indeed it can also contain genre elements from other genres, and we can spend all day fruitlessly arguing whether China Mieville's Iron Council is a fantasy or a western. "Genre" isn't an Aristotelian category.
How to say "My Hovercraft is Full of Eels" in many languages.
In Latin, it's "Mea navicula pendens anguillarum plena est."
Is the dirigible in the opening credits of "Carnivàle" a sign that it's alternate history? Or does that rule just apply to book covers?
Come to think of it, does it apply to album covers? This would include Led Zeppelin's Led Zeppelin, to circle back to our discussion about skiffy music.
I think it must be some kind of sign that although I tried to be so absurd that no one could believe it was serious even for a second, more than one person did. It wasn't meant to be a troll, or a trick that people could fall for; it was meant to be a fairly obvious ironic parody. The f*ing Renaissance!
This is the state of our discourse. Oh, moray tempura.
I don't have a great deal to add, other than to stake out the prediction that, whoever the next Pope will be, he will be John Paul III.
Oh, I almost forgot:
Alex, that wicked Thing
Ahem. I am not the Thing. Why does Teresa keep accusing me of being the Thing?
Back on topic, everyone should take the time to read Jamie Boyle's The Second Enclosure Movement. It's among the best explanations I've read of the change of IP laws over the last few decades, as compared to the intent of people like Jefferson.
Bring back traditional American copyright!
It's probably less than you're looking for, but Creative Commons offers a "Founders' Copyright" license, which is fourteen years renewable once, just as it was in 1790.
That a rather old document says that copyright is one thing does not invalidate that there may be other rights
Without getting too deep into this, I'll just point out that the "rather old document" in question is the United States Constitution. Article I, Section 8, Clause 8: "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;" In the US legal system, at least according to the constitution, the role of IP is to promote progress. That's it. You can assert that other rights exist - the French legal system has something called "moral rights" held by creators, for example, but there's no constitutional basis for those in the US.
Alex: Well played. Now give CHip his leg back.
But... there's still candy in me!
Oh, okay. *hangs head*
Here's your leg, CHip.
PNH: "And what do we say?"
Sorry, CHip.
Alex -- do you think classical music began with Bach and Handel (b1685)?
Yes. (See Classical Music Era (1730-1820)). And undoubtedly composers would have been as brilliant as Bach and Mozart were, but in earlier centuries, instead of writing that Renaissance and Baroque crap, if there was a decent incentive for them to do it.
Or, for a technological hit, note that calculus was invented twice in the 1600s, movable type in the 1400s, etc.
I think the Newton-Leibnitz dispute would have easily settled if there was a pan-European patent system in place. And they probably would have put a lot more effort into it. If there was a patent system in the 1600s, Newton probably would gone on and figured out relativity, too. Recall that Einstein was a patent clerk.
But what about the incentive to create? Without giving an unlimited, non-expiring, absolute right to full control of one's creation, why would you create at all?
The danger of not giving a large enough incentive can be easily seen by examining the creative arts and sciences throughout all history; almost nothing of value was created until after the Statute of Anne in 1705.
Do you really want to go back to the world of, say, the Renaissance? Just think of what Da Vinci would have invented if he would have had patent protection.
I, for one, would never write short stories if it weren't for the slim possibility that I might receive somewhere between 3 and 9 cents per word, at some uncertain date in the future. And if, in ninety-five years, someone could just steal it and use it themselves, why, I might not even bother.
Which Supreme Court justice mentioned the iPod in the questioning?
Souter.
And, I wonder, which songs are on that justice's iPod...?
He doesn't even use a computer.
It's coming in at 600 miliTurings, sir. I don't know how much more she can take!
This leads to another matter: how to write stories that you KNOW a specific editor will find irresistable. There's a classic example of the editor (I think Anthony Boucher) being known to adore cats, opera, and murder mysteries. So the author (Fritz Lieber?) wrote a story about a cat helping a detective solve the murder mystery of an opera star. The check was in the mail within 24 hours.
I remember hearing the story, except the punchline was that it didn't sell.
I see The One Ring [tm] is available in white gold for Stephen Donaldson fans...
Just the thing if you think of your spouse-to-be as an outcast evil unclean Dark Lord leper.
I can only imagine the arguments: "Why don't you just shut your big Mouth of Sauron!"
On the Beach is not known for being particularly upbeat, either. (Although, true, it's not strictly claimed by the genre.)
I think this really is reflecting a change in public attitudes towards science and technology. In the 1950s, anything was possible, and science was going to deliver it. (Where "total annihilation" is a subset of "anything.")
Now, as George Lucas insists on pointing out, we are caught in a war between robots and clones, and both sides are run by the dark side.
On that note, Patrick, what's up with Up? Is it still in process?
Most of the commenters in this thread formulated their opinion of Vox and his views within the confines of a knee-jerk reaction, not a studied examination of his column or blog.
You mean they formed an opinion of an individual based on a small amount of data and a stereotype of a group? How dreadful!
You seem to be arguing that, in evaluating the worth or value of an individual, we should consider the personal history, capabilities, and character of that person, without drawing on preconceptions or assumptions.
But that can't be what you really mean, or you wouldn't be defending the stereotyping of women (or, as you insist on doing, of liberals). So I must have misunderstood.
What I find most terrifying about that Berman essay is how well it describes all the stuff I'm working on now. Alternate past history, check. Future shock, check. People wrestling with mortality, check. How did that happen? Uhhh... look! A spaceship!
Kathryn, thanks for the enlightening responses. Just to clarify, I wasn't criticizing the selection in any way (Flights really is an amazing anthology, and there are plenty more great stories in it than those six), I was just honestly curious how these things work.
Sometimes I feel like I can't even keep up with all of the Year's Best anthologies, much less all of the other great shorts stories being published, especially the great free stuff online at Scifiction and Strange Horizons and the like.
All those people who keep claiming that SF is dying ought to settle down and read more.
Looking at Kathryn Cramer's Year's Best Fantasy, I noticed that six (of the twenty-four) stories are drawn from the same anthology (Sarrantonio's Flights). While I don't disagree with any of the particular choices (in fact I truly loved Tim Powers' "Pat Moore"), that seems like an odd decision for any number of commercial reasons (for one, it means that anyone with an F&SF subscription, a copy of Flights, and an Internet connection already has access to half the stories). Do you worry about issues like this when you're putting together a reprint anthology, Patrick?
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2005 | 54 |
| 2004 | 16 |
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