Two anthologies

[telophase]

Currently reading Songs of the Dying Earth , a tribute anthology to Jack Vance and his Dying Earth series, about a third of the way through. I do not particularly fault Vance for the secondary role of women in a lot of Dying Earth stuff, as the stories are a product of their time. I do, however, wonder why more of the tribute writers did not seize upon the opportunity to fix that.*

Also read Welcome to Bordertown, and although I loved the Bordertown series when I was younger, it doesn't speak to me as much now. I identified a lot more with the character in one of the stories who found they weren't a fit for Bordertown. I think as I get older, the idea of living in squats and doing Art-with-a-capital-A and hanging out in clubs and whatnot just doesn't appeal to me, even with magic involved. The people doing that seem less like edgy rebels and more like pretentious twits. I fear this means I am an Adult.


* Editorial choice, perhaps? Who knows?

Comments

[coffeeandink]

I was thinking about what would make a shared world series for YA that captured some of the excitement that Bordertown had for me when I was a kid, and I think steampunk is probably where that excitement's currently at -- especially some of the more subversive, not-set-in-England-or-the-Victorian-era stuff.

[telophase]

Yeah, that might be the place. Set up a setting and some shared characters that span the world and make sure a lot of the action is focused on the Southern hemisphere and the half of the Northern hemisphere that doesn't contain Western Europe, and ask the writers not to do the English Adventurer in Furrin Parts story, and it might work.

[rachelmanija]

Do you think that's exciting for teenagers right now? I know it is for many adults.

[telophase]

I wonder if a shared-world series that pulls from tropes similar to anime or Japanese videogames would do it?

[rachelmanija]

That or dystopias. (Not necessarily the "the government controls your toothpaste" sort, the Hunger Games sort too.)

[coffeeandink]

I don't know if it's exciting for teenagers (Scott Westerfeld's books are doing well enough, but they're Scott Westerfeld books), but I think it might be exciting for writers.

[vito_excalibur]

The people doing that seem less like edgy rebels and more like pretentious twits.

My brother told me long ago that there is a very fine line between "cool" and "loser". Truer words.

[telophase]

Yup.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Hmm. A peek at the contents shows twice as many male as female writers, which might go a little way toward explaining that.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Neither of the first two female writers seized the opportunity. Not that I want to make it incumbent upon all women writers to feature women in non-stereotyped roles all the time, but when all the women have been harridans, hags, or whores* I start despairing a little.




* Seductresses, too, but it didn't fit with the "h" thing I had going there. :) (Also, one that pretty much serves as a pretty backdrop, whose role could have been filled by anything animate.)

[kittikattie.livejournal.com]

I think as I get older, the idea of living in squats and doing Art-with-a-capital-A and hanging out in clubs and whatnot just doesn't appeal to me, even with magic involved. The people doing that seem less like edgy rebels and more like pretentious twits.

Or Hipsters. Don't forget Hipsters.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Yes, pretentious twits. (ba-dump-bump-ching!) ;)

[tool-of-satan.livejournal.com]

IIRC the rest of Songs of the Dying Earth does not improve much in that respect, unfortunately. I would argue that Vance actually did a better job on average in the early Dying Earth stories, though the later ones get a lot worse. Still not spectacular, to be sure.

I wasn't that impressed with the anthology overall. There are some good stories (Neil Gaiman's, Matt Hughes', a few others). There are a fair number of perfectly fine but hardly necessary stories. There are some stories which you couldn't possibly tell were meant to be set on the Dying Earth if they weren't in this book (and in some cases namedrop someplace like Ascolais). And then there are some stories which are actively bad, like Mike Resnick's and the one by the old buddy of Vance's who isn't really a writer and boy does it show.

Averaged together it didn't end up being something I felt a need to keep, especially given that I can always read Matt Hughes' books. (Hughes could also do a better job of including women, but he does at least improve on Vance.)

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Ah, well. At least I can read at it now without hoping for more.