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bedlamsbardI'm remembering why I generally don't read urban fantasy of the "main character is suddenly dragged into a fantasy world that exists just below the level of the real world" sort. (Key word being "suddenly dragged", urban fantasy where the MC has grown up with faerie or has previous experience with it is different.)
It's because I have yet to see an urban fantasy novel where the MC dragged into the fantasy world actually knows anything about mythology or folklore. And then, once in, ninety-nine percent of the time they never bother to hit up the library or even google that shit. Newsflash: YOU CAN GOOGLE ARTHURIAN MYTHOLOGY. In fact, if someone hands you a sword and tells you it's Excalibur or informs you that you've just become the next Merlin or even if you, in short order, meet various people with variations on the names "Arthur", "Guinevere", and "Morgan le Fay", I seriously advise that you sit down and spend an hour googling Arthurian mythology, because even if it's just a weird coincidence, you at least will learn things! Instead of being like, "Hey, a sword, cool, I'mma take a nap now."
Now, I grew up reading a lot of (mostly but not completely Western) folklore and mythology, and I have degrees in classical studies and medieval and early modern studies with emphases on literature that tends to center pretty heavily on myth and folklore, so I'm aware that my knowledge of such subjects is probably greater than the average layperson. But can't we get a hero or heroine who actually knows a thing or two? Like, in the context of Avalon or Faerie or whatever, "worm" probably doesn't mean "earthworm", it means "OH SHIT DRAGON SHIT RUN RUN RUN SHIT DRAGON." Or that "fairy" might mean "oh god run away because TRICKY MOTHERFUCKERS" instead of "aww, wings and sparkles and fairy dust." (On that note, there is a minor character in one of the Toby Daye novels who is a folklore professor who actually KNOWS SHIT. Like, some of it is wrong, but that's plot-important. It's almost sad how impressed I was that that actually happened in an urban fantasy novel.)
Sometimes urban fantasy does have a character who Knows Stuff! This is usually a secondary character and the main character almost never listens to him or her and the reader is left banging their head against the desk going, "Why the fuck can't you do your own research instead of having someone else do it for you when you need to know it anyway and all it consists of is GOOGLING [INSERT NOT TERRIBLY OBSCURE CELTIC/GREEK/NORSE MYTH HERE]?" There is, of course, a point where I google something because I'm not all that up on my Celtic mythology, then a few pages later one of the characters does and finds less information than I just did. I mean come on. I get that the character needs to be surprised, but can we have the character being surprised for a reason that doesn't rely on ignorance? What about a character doing All The Research and finding out that the records are wrong? What about that, huh? Then they don't look completely clueless! BUT WE WOULDN'T WANT THAT, WOULD WE?
Surely some of this stuff must be available purely through cultural osmosis, even if your main character isn't a folklore geek? Surely? Please? And why can't the MC be a folklore geek? Are geeks not sexy enough? Is the author assuming that their readership doesn't know anything about folklore either? Does the author assume that s/he is a freak for knowing stuff about folklore and thus to have an Every(wo)man for a protagonist they must not know anything about anything? I DON'T UNDERSTAND.
(This is in reaction to a specific novel, but I've seen it before in books, short stories, TV, movies...)
*
In related news, is it bad that the moment I see "the Romans told lies and/or propaganda!" like it's a big revelation in a review or recommendation of a novel (or even a nonfiction book or article), I instantly lose all desire to read it? Because it's at best a simplistic understanding of what Latin and Greek authors of the period were actually writing without an exploration of the whys and wherefores. I mean, maybe the actual novel (or nonfiction book or article) does it better! (I should hope so.) But now I have no interest in reading it.
(If this seems like an especially virulent reaction to something really specific, it's because one of the things I like to do as an academic is actually work out whether the archaeological evidence matches up or doesn't match up with the literary evidence. For the Romans. So yeah. "The Romans told lies (about non-Romans)" is a flat statement that makes me really, really angry because what it tells me is that the writer hasn't done any research beyond the superficial, if that.)
It's because I have yet to see an urban fantasy novel where the MC dragged into the fantasy world actually knows anything about mythology or folklore. And then, once in, ninety-nine percent of the time they never bother to hit up the library or even google that shit. Newsflash: YOU CAN GOOGLE ARTHURIAN MYTHOLOGY. In fact, if someone hands you a sword and tells you it's Excalibur or informs you that you've just become the next Merlin or even if you, in short order, meet various people with variations on the names "Arthur", "Guinevere", and "Morgan le Fay", I seriously advise that you sit down and spend an hour googling Arthurian mythology, because even if it's just a weird coincidence, you at least will learn things! Instead of being like, "Hey, a sword, cool, I'mma take a nap now."
Now, I grew up reading a lot of (mostly but not completely Western) folklore and mythology, and I have degrees in classical studies and medieval and early modern studies with emphases on literature that tends to center pretty heavily on myth and folklore, so I'm aware that my knowledge of such subjects is probably greater than the average layperson. But can't we get a hero or heroine who actually knows a thing or two? Like, in the context of Avalon or Faerie or whatever, "worm" probably doesn't mean "earthworm", it means "OH SHIT DRAGON SHIT RUN RUN RUN SHIT DRAGON." Or that "fairy" might mean "oh god run away because TRICKY MOTHERFUCKERS" instead of "aww, wings and sparkles and fairy dust." (On that note, there is a minor character in one of the Toby Daye novels who is a folklore professor who actually KNOWS SHIT. Like, some of it is wrong, but that's plot-important. It's almost sad how impressed I was that that actually happened in an urban fantasy novel.)
Sometimes urban fantasy does have a character who Knows Stuff! This is usually a secondary character and the main character almost never listens to him or her and the reader is left banging their head against the desk going, "Why the fuck can't you do your own research instead of having someone else do it for you when you need to know it anyway and all it consists of is GOOGLING [INSERT NOT TERRIBLY OBSCURE CELTIC/GREEK/NORSE MYTH HERE]?" There is, of course, a point where I google something because I'm not all that up on my Celtic mythology, then a few pages later one of the characters does and finds less information than I just did. I mean come on. I get that the character needs to be surprised, but can we have the character being surprised for a reason that doesn't rely on ignorance? What about a character doing All The Research and finding out that the records are wrong? What about that, huh? Then they don't look completely clueless! BUT WE WOULDN'T WANT THAT, WOULD WE?
Surely some of this stuff must be available purely through cultural osmosis, even if your main character isn't a folklore geek? Surely? Please? And why can't the MC be a folklore geek? Are geeks not sexy enough? Is the author assuming that their readership doesn't know anything about folklore either? Does the author assume that s/he is a freak for knowing stuff about folklore and thus to have an Every(wo)man for a protagonist they must not know anything about anything? I DON'T UNDERSTAND.
(This is in reaction to a specific novel, but I've seen it before in books, short stories, TV, movies...)
*
In related news, is it bad that the moment I see "the Romans told lies and/or propaganda!" like it's a big revelation in a review or recommendation of a novel (or even a nonfiction book or article), I instantly lose all desire to read it? Because it's at best a simplistic understanding of what Latin and Greek authors of the period were actually writing without an exploration of the whys and wherefores. I mean, maybe the actual novel (or nonfiction book or article) does it better! (I should hope so.) But now I have no interest in reading it.
(If this seems like an especially virulent reaction to something really specific, it's because one of the things I like to do as an academic is actually work out whether the archaeological evidence matches up or doesn't match up with the literary evidence. For the Romans. So yeah. "The Romans told lies (about non-Romans)" is a flat statement that makes me really, really angry because what it tells me is that the writer hasn't done any research beyond the superficial, if that.)
(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-26 02:58 am (UTC)It's funny, I love not-so-benign Narnia, but my headcanon is that Aslan is Simba from the Lion King grown up, and I just can't see Simba in that light.