Re: I'm new!

On Sat, 21 Oct 2000, H. S. Teoh wrote:

> On Sat, Oct 21, 2000 at 09:49:22AM -0400, Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
>
> > My one 6th grade conscript wasn't actually a script, just a cipher based
> > on runes and written like Korean.  I'm a cheapskate with ideas.  =^)
>
> Heh, my first conscript was based on runes too. Blatantly ripped off from
> an RPG, of course. Ripped off the idea, that is. I used different symbols,
> but they were basically a one-to-one mapping of runes. :-P
There's just something about Tolkien.  :-)

> [snip]
> > Short stories, not novels.  (Though having a published novel would help
> > me pay off loans...somewhat!)  I see all sorts of beautiful conlang ideas
> > pass me by in this forum, and some of them, OC, are yours!  :-)
>
> Which ones, may I ask? :-P
The color-symbolism.  The topical and other types of sentences--I can
never remember terminology, but I looked at how well it was thought out
in yours and gave up on my one sketch of a vaguely-similar grammar.  (Not
your fault, OC!  I just figured that if someone else were exploring that
area I might as well continue with Chevraqis, my main effort.)
Unfortunately, lately I tend to skim grammar-postings that are longer
than a couple screens on my mail reader.

> I like fantasy/sf writing too, but being the rebel that I am, I detest any
> fantasy/sf that's too stereotypical of their genre. Eg., the existence of
> magic, rituals, etc., in fantasy sometimes turn me off because I feel
> those concepts are too "canned". Ditto for sf with the typical alien
> cultures, intergalactic diplomacy, and all that. I especially find
> distasteful sf that tries to connect with real-world philosophical or
> social issues -- I much rather prefer an exploratory/discovery approach
> that focus on the exploration/science rather than the other "fluff".
Hmm.  To each his/her/its own.  I don't mind some of the ritual, though,
because I look at the mythological sources and resonances.  A lot of
fantasy, especially high fantasy, *is* unfortunately rather canned.  But
some writers IMHO take those elements and manage to transcend them--old
ideas in new clothes, I like to call it.

Also, in *some* alien sf, the purpose *is* to illuminate
modern/real-world concerns by transposing them to another setting.  For
myself, I find this is one of the great strengths of sf, that it is
willing to deal with social issues in such an imaginative and
future-oriented manner.

There's plenty of kinds of sf to go around.  :-)  I enjoy hard sf that
deals with exploration but I also enjoy space opera, soft sf, sf focusing
on social systems, etc.

> That is not to say, of course, that I don't like anything to do with
> social issues -- but I find it too "canned" that alien cultures would face
> the same (or similar) social issues and have the same (or similar) social
> structure as human beings. Don't call them aliens if they aren't *that*
> alien! :-P
Well, as I'm sure you've discovered, it is inherently *difficult* to come
up with an alien, because we're all human here (...I think) and haven't
met any (...I think)!

Also, sometimes alien cultures aren't being portrayed specifically as
"aliens," intent-wise, but as stand-ins for various Others in human
society.  A non-alien example might be Asimov's "The Bicentennial Man,"
which can be read as a touching story on the surface level about a robot
who tries and finally succeeds in "becoming human."  But the story also
questions what it means to be human, and Andrew the Robot could be seen
as representing human subgroups (ethnic, sexual orientation, sex,
what-have-you) that have been denied humanity.  Likewise, I find that
some "alien sf" doesn't succeed in portraying aliens per se, but does
succeed in portraying alternate humanities, alternate paths; succeeds in
highlighting our understanding of our own societies, or lack thereof;
succeeds in critiquing, either by comparison or contrast, ills in our own
world.

Or maybe I just overanalyze, despite being a generally literal reader.
Sf is fun in that you can read it literally and read it metaphorically,
and while I'm not quite as good at the latter, a little training in
literature goes a long way.  :-p

There's also, un/fortunately, the market consideration of whether your
audience is going to connect to your aliens at all--it's a very difficult
balance between portraying aliens who seem to have motive but may also
seem "too human," and portraying aliens who really seem alien but may be
incomprehensible or boring to the all-too-human reader.  A story that I
think succeeds in this, and that you might like if you can find it, is
Terry Carr's "The Dance of the Changer and the Three."  You see hints of
alien motivations, but they never come clear--in human terms.

> My current conculture is somewhat like a mix of fantasy and sf:  the
> Ebisedi are basically human manifestations in the con-universe (and
> therefore have rather human aspects such as a language, social structure,
> etc). Magic and physics meld together -- the "Experts" are the ones who
> discover their inner integration with the physics of their universe, and
> thus wield magic-like powers. The universe itself is composed of many
> "layers" and "realms" (the formation of which is based on its own physics,
> of course), somewhat like "planes" in fantasy.
>
> So basically, I've an obsession about creating original things... Whether
> that attitude is good or not is, of course, questionable. :-)
I think it's good.  :-p  In writing for publication there are
market-based constraints on what you can or should get away with.  I tend
to explore military ethics in my sf, and cultural differences in my
fantasy; and while I strive to escape stereotypes (not always
successfully) I do think there is great value in mythical archetypes and
resonances.  (Roger Zelazny, I think, was especially good at this, not
least because the man was so amazingly well-read.)  Unfortunately, some
original ideas are difficult to make interesting to a more general
readership, but hey--we all create for our own reasons.  I write because
I love writing and because I think the social function of sf/f is, while
often overlooked, extremely valuable when done well (e.g. not pedantry).
You create because you seek after originality.  I have to confess that
seeking absolute originality is difficult in writing, because if you come
up with a great idea there's a depressingly high chance of someone else
having come up with that idea whom you never heard of, in some earlier
sf/f (Spider Robinson takes this idea to an extreme in "Melancholy
Elephants," though I think the picture isn't quite so bleak as he suggests).

YHL