Prompted by an article in Salon, Lagomorph Rex continues the examination he and others have been conducting on the lack of heroism, or at least the preponderance of nihilism, anti-heroism and the like in too much modern fantasy.
I think at this point the discussion has more or less run it's course. I've noticed the shift back away from the black precipice it was standing next to since late last year. I think the huge amount of press relating to Michael J. Sullivan's being published by ORBIT really helped to start the pendulum swinging back the other way.
I really don't want to be seen as coming down too hard on the authors I mentioned, They are simply darker than I like my fiction. I tend to draw the line at Glen Cook and Steven Erikson. Yeah, they have some bad guys in them, but they also have some good guys and some regular guys. I like that. It's far more realistic than either the constant flood of Farm Boys or the deluge of blood coming from the other direction.
I think in terms of Fantasy fiction, the author most responsible for the rise of the Un-Hero (Anti-Hero presupposes they can and sometimes do act heroically) is Michael Moorcock, But I think Karl Edward Wagner likely owns his own share of stock in the sub genre too. Both of whom are writers I enjoy, but wouldn't want a steady diet of.
When I was young I devoured Moorcock without any discretion. I saw his un-heroic cynicism as some deep insight into how the world really worked. Now in middle age, much as I still love a lot of his writing, I just his attitudinizing often repetitive and simplistic. I suspect that the teenage appeal of that attitude explains a lot of the success of the GrimDark fiction. I agree that it's a debate that's done. There's a wealth of good, new stuff that balances the endless darkness so recently in vogue and that's all I want in the end.
I think at this point the discussion has more or less run it's course. I've noticed the shift back away from the black precipice it was standing next to since late last year. I think the huge amount of press relating to Michael J. Sullivan's being published by ORBIT really helped to start the pendulum swinging back the other way.
ReplyDeleteI really don't want to be seen as coming down too hard on the authors I mentioned, They are simply darker than I like my fiction. I tend to draw the line at Glen Cook and Steven Erikson. Yeah, they have some bad guys in them, but they also have some good guys and some regular guys. I like that. It's far more realistic than either the constant flood of Farm Boys or the deluge of blood coming from the other direction.
I think in terms of Fantasy fiction, the author most responsible for the rise of the Un-Hero (Anti-Hero presupposes they can and sometimes do act heroically) is Michael Moorcock, But I think Karl Edward Wagner likely owns his own share of stock in the sub genre too. Both of whom are writers I enjoy, but wouldn't want a steady diet of.
When I was young I devoured Moorcock without any discretion. I saw his un-heroic cynicism as some deep insight into how the world really worked. Now in middle age, much as I still love a lot of his writing, I just his attitudinizing often repetitive and simplistic. I suspect that the teenage appeal of that attitude explains a lot of the success of the GrimDark fiction.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it's a debate that's done. There's a wealth of good, new stuff that balances the endless darkness so recently in vogue and that's all I want in the end.