Engefluenza!
by jamesenge on Oct.14, 2009, under James Enge and Matthew Sturges
Hey, Matt, I was fascinated by Earthsea, too. Still am, in fact. The original trilogy,
Le Guin-Lavinia
especially the first two books, still rank among my all-time favorite fantasy novels: I love Ged’s confrontation with the gebbeth, and the conjuring scene, and the conversation with the dragon, and the final resolution of the shadow’s mystery–these little books are full of great moments, and the style is so clean, elegant and powerful. Her recent Lavinia shows that she’s as good as she ever was, too. I would like to say that Le Guin influenced me, but I don’t know that I have the chops to pull off some of the stuff she does.
Another big anti-influence on my work was Andre Norton. I was and am a huge fan of her early Witch World novels, and I read a heap of other stuff by her as well. And she has this dry, clear, absolutely authoritative way of putting things. It makes every event or object, no matter how improbable, seem convincing and real. I thought it was the perfect way to write fantasy and it is–for her. For me it was a disaster. I couldn’t write with that plain authority no matter how I tried; the sentences were just pointlessly dull. I lost years trying to copy that until I finally gave up and moved on.
Borgman, cover for Norton's "Three Against the Witch World"
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In thinking about anti-influences, it suddenly seems to me that some of my biggest influences came from outside of fantasy. Maybe it’s easier to pick stuff up from someone when you know there’s no danger of turning out a carbon copy. Anyway, some mystery writers are a big deal to me. As a teenager I read Dorothy L. Sayers’ series about Lord Peter Wimsey through and through I don’t know how many times. The books are a great mix of things that are very funny and very serious, low culture and high culture. Her big nemesis in the US, Raymond Chandler, is another one who does that kind of mix which I’ve tried to imitate sometimes. Dashiell Hammett towers over both, in my view, but he’s harder to steal from, like Le Guin.
One of the biggest influences and anti-influences on me is the stuff I do for my day job in teaching classics. I’m constantly running into bits of story, or images or ideas that I can repurpose for Morlock stories. I ripped the basic situation for “The Red Worm’s Way” from a stretch of Apuleius’ Metamorphoses, and Morlock defeats the adept in Blood of Ambrose in much the same way Hercules defeats Antaeus in the myth. I snuck a Hercules reference into the opening stretch of This Crooked Way, too, where Morlock faces a stone beast as invulnerable as the Nemean Lion and disposes of the beast much the same way as Hercules did the Lion. If these things work, I think they work because nobody notices them. They’re not homages to the myth; they’re just functional pieces of storytelling that I can saw off and use in my own constructions.
The anti-influence I struggle with from my day-job is the different kinds of writing involved. In a work of fiction, statements should be maximized for emotional impact. In scholarship, the opposite is true. You have to strive for fairness, not impact–accounting for evidence, not overstating a case, admitting contrary views–all the kinds of hedge-maneuvers that make for decent scholarship but will kill a piece of adventure fiction. So the day job giveth, and it taketh away, or it trieth to.
What are some of your anti-influences? Does your day job mess with your fantasy writing, or are they more compatible?
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- Enge v. Elves Every writer begins as a reader, so it makes sense to start this conversation about writing by talking about our influences. My first brush with fantasy (like that of lots of people) came with Tolkien. The Lord of the Rings was a big book on campuses at the time and...
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October 14th, 2009 on 8:35 am
My day job didn’t mess with my fantasy writing (other than it took time which could have been spend in writing). In fact, much of my creative and innovative thinking in developing plot and environments came from my experiences in my day job. I got to travel to many places outside the tourist zone - Sri Lanka, West kenya, Laos, Timor Leste.
However, the redundancy wagon carted me away so now I can devote myself full-time to my writing of the second book in my Randolph’s Challenge Trilogy.
Every cloud has a silver lining.
Chris Warren
Author and Freelance Writer
Randolph’s Challenge Book One - The Pendulum Swings
(Frankfurt Book Fair - Hall 8 Stand N959)
October 14th, 2009 on 9:28 am
Could the opposing nature of the day job’s writing actually act as an aid/impetus to the creative writing? I remember growing up, and loving the often bizarre plots of Clifford Simak (including one where alien bowling balls were buying up the Earth), which was in such deep contrast to his articles as the Science editor of the Minneapolis Star (which were pretty dry stuff).
October 14th, 2009 on 1:22 pm
My anti-influences come more in the form of pervasive elements than a single author. I abhor, I loathe, I absolutely despise prophecy and its relation to the main character/characters. I hate that there is a world-ending menace in every fantasy story, and if I hear of a “dark lord” I’m mere seconds away from dashing a book against the wall.
I suppose I’ve been spoiled in that regard, from my earlier fantasy readings. I didn’t read Tolkien until i was in High School, but long before that I had read, and re-read, and read again, the works of Brian Jacques and his Redwall creatures. They’re definitely written for children (trying to re-read them now is difficult because of the breezy writing, but for a kid it was perfect), but Jacques has a dark streak through all of his novels that make them seem much more grown up, as well as a solid grasp of military tactics and strategies. And the best part? No prophecies. No world ending evil dark lord - bad guys, yes, and a strict dichotomy between good and evil, sure but no prophetic quests to save all of everything (well, maybe in Redwall, his first book, but after that it’s all solid). And it makes for a wonderful read.
There are of course writers who can make even the most painful cliches excellent, but I find those writers few and far between. Luckily, there’s a bunch of new writers coming out who share my hatred enough to either forcefully subvert the tropes or murder them entirely.
October 14th, 2009 on 10:41 pm
Thanks for the comments!
Hey Chris: It sounds like that’s the kind of a day-job for a writer! Talk about stuff to feed your imagination.
Hey Patrick: I know what you mean about Simak–especially that book. It’s so clearly drawn from his work as a reporter on a Minneapolis paper–even the department store that gets sold is obviously Dayton’s. But: bowling balls buying the Earth? This has to be the sound of Simak bouncing hard off the walls of his office.
Hey Adam: Prophecy can be bad, and a Prophecy of a Chosen One who will Lead a Ragtag Band of Heroes to face a Dark Lord in a Distant Land Where Every Common Noun Is Capitalized–this cannot be tolerated. I think prophecy can work as a form of foreshadowing but it has to be used with caution. Like too much magic, it can ruin a plot.