Babel Clash

I think that using the natural world as a jumping off point for fantasy or science fiction is a way of lowering the threshold of disbelief and inviting readers into the story. Despite the fact that most readers live in urban environments now, I think forests and other natural landscapes are very inviting to almost everyone.

Cities and other man-made environments always seem a bit foreign to me, even when I’m traveling in the US. “Oh, so that’s how they do it here,” I think, and try to adapt to the customs. But put me in a natural landscape, be it France or Australia or Japan, and I immediately feel more at home. Things make sense there on that primary biological level.

And that, I think, is one of the reasons why beginning with a natural setting can be so powerful. A writer can use it to chum the reader in; he will think that a tree is a tree, and a spring is a spring, right up to the moment that the oracle speaks to the protagonist or the tree whacks him with a branch. The very familiarity of such settings can be powerful tools for making people feel the strangeness of a fantastic or futuristic setting.

One technique that I use when I am writing is to employ familiar things to not only make the reader feel at home in my setting, but to convince the reader that I know what I’m talking about. If my character mentions in passing that a late frost has claimed the blossoms from the trees and there may be little fruit as a result, most readers will nod and say, “Oh, yes, that would be so.” And the more familiar cause-and-effect that I employ, the more familiar the world is, the more comfortable the reader feels. He relaxes into trusting me. Thus, when I introduce my fantastic element, being it a creature or a system of magic, I’ve already won the reader over into believing that not only do I know what I’m talking about, but that everything I say is true.
If what I’m writing about horses is correct and matches the reader’s experience,then he may more easily accept what I tell him about dragons.

Related posts:

• Our settings, our selves?
  Hi Sara (and everyone else!) I had a curious thought (I know, sometimes it’s curious that I have thoughts at all, but still . . . ) I’m wondering how significant a writer’s home ’setting’ is to what he/she writes. I do a lot of foresty backdrops, and a lot...
• A twist in the familiar
  Writers of science fiction often create alien worlds, sometimes natural and sometimes not. Whether it’s landscapes or creatures, I think it’s better to include at least some familiar features like the ones Robin has talked about – then give them a twist. To me, the monster from the Alien movies...
• Greetings from Robin Hobb
  Hi! This is my test post to see if I can make all this work. It’s not too different from my own website, robinhobb.com which is also a wordpress one. I’m Robin Hobb, and I’ve been a fantasy novelist for 28 years now. Well, a published novelist for 28 years....
• Compare & contrast
  As Robin mentioned in her introductory post (hi, Robin!), one of the major things she and Sara Creasy (hi, Sara!) have in common is an affinity for lush, rainforest-esque settings, much like the Pacific Northwest.  One major difference between Robin & Sara’s novels, though, is how they get to those...