"Creating" or "Copying"?
Jan. 4th, 2005 04:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
raefinlayToday I received my most scathing review to-date from an OWW member. It was so scathing that I almost disregarded it, but then something caught my attention.
For this post, I borrow heavily from Spanish Colonial culture and I’m using a Spanish-based language. (This is due to an earth-origin premise and the fact that languages evolve). But this particular reviewer found such borrowing unacceptable. This is what she said:
It's all so obvious, that the fantasy names only give it a cheap sense of false exoticism. The names and words all have a latin/spanish/italian sound to them, and while keeping that consistency gives a sense of the culture and that good, it's borrowed and thinly disguised.
So, I got to thinking that she does have a point. My setting/culture is definitely NOT original. But then, who’s is? Can the medieval setting ever be original? I’ve seen a French setting (Jacqueline Carey), an Italian setting (Melanie Rawn et. al), a Japanese setting (Raymond E. Feist) and the list goes on. So my question is: What makes an author’s world unique versus what makes it a flimsy copy of an already existing setting?
In a recent Editor’s Choice review of Storm Dancer, Ch. 4 by Christine Hall (PA), Jenni Smith-Gaynor writes:
Describing different cultures is one of the challenges SFF embraces. This genre loves to dabble in the combination of places and people. Ms. Hall seems to be setting her story in a desert-culture that has a Persian flavor -- the differences in her cultures is a keystone to her novel -- and reminds me of Lois McMaster Bujold and Guy Gavriel Kay's use of fictional but recognizable cultures. Accessibility by genre fans is something a professional acquisitions editor may take into consideration, and I think Christine Hall has done a good job using the Middle Eastern influences in this chapter.
So I don’t know. I want to write a world that’s vibrant and accessible. But I don’t want it to be pat or too predictable. Just something for me to think about, I guess.
For this post, I borrow heavily from Spanish Colonial culture and I’m using a Spanish-based language. (This is due to an earth-origin premise and the fact that languages evolve). But this particular reviewer found such borrowing unacceptable. This is what she said:
It's all so obvious, that the fantasy names only give it a cheap sense of false exoticism. The names and words all have a latin/spanish/italian sound to them, and while keeping that consistency gives a sense of the culture and that good, it's borrowed and thinly disguised.
So, I got to thinking that she does have a point. My setting/culture is definitely NOT original. But then, who’s is? Can the medieval setting ever be original? I’ve seen a French setting (Jacqueline Carey), an Italian setting (Melanie Rawn et. al), a Japanese setting (Raymond E. Feist) and the list goes on. So my question is: What makes an author’s world unique versus what makes it a flimsy copy of an already existing setting?
In a recent Editor’s Choice review of Storm Dancer, Ch. 4 by Christine Hall (PA), Jenni Smith-Gaynor writes:
Describing different cultures is one of the challenges SFF embraces. This genre loves to dabble in the combination of places and people. Ms. Hall seems to be setting her story in a desert-culture that has a Persian flavor -- the differences in her cultures is a keystone to her novel -- and reminds me of Lois McMaster Bujold and Guy Gavriel Kay's use of fictional but recognizable cultures. Accessibility by genre fans is something a professional acquisitions editor may take into consideration, and I think Christine Hall has done a good job using the Middle Eastern influences in this chapter.
So I don’t know. I want to write a world that’s vibrant and accessible. But I don’t want it to be pat or too predictable. Just something for me to think about, I guess.
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Date: 2005-01-05 02:08 am (UTC)You are so sweet to review! Thx Amanda. Yeah, Elisa kicks ass, eats pastries, and rescues the handsome king is about the size of it. And never wears less than a size 14, thank you very much.
You da best, mon.