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Terry Pratchett

April 8, 2008 //
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I was always going to get to him eventually, but I’ve moved him up given the sad news.

Terry Pratchett (fondly known as pTerry by fans since the publication of Pyramids), author of the long-running Discworld series, has been among my favourite authors since highschool; he has grown in sophistication in line with my tastes as a reader as I have moved ever-further-away from my teenage years.

He has developed a number of different sub-societies within the Discworld – the witches, the guards, the wizards, the Death/Susan books, and the Tiffany books spring to mind, plus several stand-alones (though technically any of the series can be read in any order, the later books do build on the earlier ones quite strongly). The stories are as varied as the cast of characters and the situations can make them, but often follow themes to do with the responsible use of power in its many forms.

It’s very difficult to single out a favourite book. In terms of characters, I’ve always had a soft spot for Vimes of the city watch, far and away my favourite through many many years (although Moist, the lead of Going Postal and now Making Money does have the insouciant charm and confidence of the slightly amoral hero that I am awfully fond of in fiction). The interplay between Vimes and the Patrician has led to some of my very favourite scenes in the entire series (‘sometimes you have to wind the spring as tight as it will go’).

The Patrician himself redefined my use of the word ‘momentarily’; and thanks to Carrot, I can never mention the word ‘pun’ without spelling/pronouncing it ‘pune’ and announcing ‘this is a pune or play on words’ (opportunities to use the word abound, of course).

Pratchett’s work is unfailingly clever and erudite. The comedy has developed from the slapstick and parody of early books to a keen satire based on the inherent ridiculousness of many human endeavours. The early books do suffer in comparison with the latest, partly because it has been twenty years since they were written and partly because there’s only so many re-readings you can take…

I don’t read much other comedy, particularly in the fantasy genre. Like the best science fiction, Pratchett’s fantasy satire illuminates the nature of humanity – our strengths, our quirks, our imperfections. Other fantasy comedy (including Pratchett’s own earliest works) is too superficial to meet the standard he has set for me.

The latest book is Making Money. More about pTerry and the Discworld can be found here. I’m sure you will all join me in wishing him the tenacity of the Nac Mac Feegles in the fight against Alzheimer’s.

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Posthumous publication: reluctant author, ravenous fans…

March 13, 2008 //
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Up until now, the Thursday post has been dedicated to writing tips and techniques. I’m going to start alternating that with musing I’m categorising as ‘the philosophy of writing’: those issues and conundrums associated with the clash of art and life.

So this is the first such entry, and it has to do with Vladimir Nabokov’s wish for any unfinished manuscripts to be destroyed after his death, as discussed recently on ABC National’s Book Show (transcript here).

An unfinished manuscript does exist, and has not been destroyed, though Nabokov died some thirty years ago. His wife couldn’t bring herself to obey his wishes and now his elderly son is wrestling with the dilemma. It’s possible no one will know if the manuscript has been destroyed until after the son’s death, when they open his safe and find either the manuscript or a pile of ashes (it’s equally likely he’ll up and auction it off next week).

The transcript I linked to above gives a great overview of the issues surrounding this particular book: Nabokov’s personal wish for it to be destroyed and his notorious perfectionism verses the great love many people have for his works and the tantalising idea that his unfinished work is departure for him, an experiment and one worth preserving (via publication).

The Book Show gives a couple of highbrow examples (Virgil and Kakfa) of posthumous publication against the author’s wishes, and of course examples abound in the genre world of books being completed after the author’s death, not necessarily against their wishes.

I want to look at the idea more generally: the wishes of the creator of art and the wishes of the connoisseur of art. Knowing how terrible first drafts can be, I am entirely on the side of the author who wants unfinished work left unpublished – not necessarily destroyed, but at least kept private.

For me, it’s a matter of respect: if someone requests something that is not necessarily legally enforceable but is in their will as a dying wish, who am I to so disrespect a loved one and ignore it for my own convenience? I would expect the same respect in return.

The problem is that, once dead, the author can’t enforce their own wishes. They have to rely on their literary executor. So no matter what decision they made in life, it comes down to how trustworthy, ruthless, or callous, this chosen person is.

The fans, of course, have their own wishes. If someone has, in essence, supported a career by buying the books, raving to their friends, attending the book signings, writing to the publisher, and et cetera, then do they get to have a say in what happens to the last manuscript?

Does their genuine desire to read their favourite’s last work weigh more or less than what might end up being (to be very cynical) an entirely monetary decision on the part of the literary executor (here’s a tip – don’t make your literary executor someone who will financially benefit from posthumous publication of your works)? Majority vote verses a minority vote of one…

I hold firmly that if the author believes the fans would be disappointed by reading the incompleted, unpolished version of their last work, it should indeed be kept unpublished. It’s doing the fans a favour by leaving memories untarnished.

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Categories The philosophy of writing

George R.R. Martin

February 26, 2008 //
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Last time I reviewed one of my favourite authors, it was someone relatively obscure (Connie Willis). This week, I’m looking at one of the big guns of fantasy fiction: Mr George R.R. Martin. Is anyone else sending him good thoughts so that he might finish his Song of Ice and Fire series some time in the next ten years?

The first book, A Game of Thrones, was pressed on me by a friend and I was reluctant to start reading since I find many mere trilogies bloated and event-driven to spin out the story over three books (why is it that multiple-book series are almost compulsory in the fantasy genre whether the story calls for it or not?), and Martin’s series was already projected to be at least five books.

It did take a little while to sink into – every chapter is told from one of a handful of POV characters and there’s several it would’ve been nice to skip - but by the time The Event happens at the end of A Game of Thrones, I was hooked. Over the whole story (so far, four of the projected seven), Martin has managed such a complex intertwined story, cast of characters, and history,that he must have a super-computer hooked up to track it for him.

The power of the series, I think, comes partly from the complex plotting, but also the full-bodied characters. There have been moments reading this series where I have shouted at various characters (the lead-up to the Red Wedding, for example) as if they might hear me and change their actions, or where I felt relief to reach a chapter from a favoured character we’d left in danger.

And has there ever been a turn-around like Jaime? From sleeping with his sister and throwing small boys of windows in Book 1, to getting his own POV chapters in Book 3 and transforming into a sympathetic character and even almost-but-not-quite a hero. Thankfully, the same didn’t happen for Cersei when she got her own POV; she’s just as much fun to hate as ever.

This series was the first one I’ve ever committed to that wasn’t finished already, and now I share the pain of the fans of Robert Wheel-of-never-ever-ever-ending-Time Jordan. Except at least Martin is still alive. And his series is not going to twelve books. I sincerely hope.

Martin’s official site can be found here. It includes preview chapters and news, and lists of his extensive works. It’s such an ugly site I’d suggest he takes some time to redesign it, except he’s not allowed to stop writing until he Gets The Next Book Out Already. There’s also a HBO series in the offing.

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Connie Willis

February 12, 2008 //
3

Connie Willis is one of my favourite SF authors, but, at least in Australia, she is shamefully under-rated (and therefore not widely available in the bookstores). She’s written short stories, novellas and novels and has Hugos and Nebulas coming out of her ears.

To Say Nothing of the Dog was the first work I read. Aside from it being about my favourite SF plot, time travel, it’s funny, clever and plain all-out charming. Spouting poetry, quoting literature, messing about in boats, Ned and Verity blunder through Victorian England rescuing cats, fleeing scary Duchesses and causing space-time continuum upsets. It was even better once I discovered Lord Peter a little while later.

Doomsday Book was next. It’s set in the same Oxford-based time-travelling for historical research world as To Say Nothing of the Dog but darker as befits its subject matter: plague. The story is divided between following a young research historian in the time of the Black Death, and ‘modern-day’ Oxford (actually near-future Oxford in a world where funding was obviously poured into developing time travel rather than mobile phones and the internet…) as a deadly strain of flu hits. Again, I loved the characters, I loved the story development, I loved the writing. I couldn’t put it down and I even got teary at the end.

I’ve read a handful of the short stories (Fire Watch is another time travel one, set during the Blitz on London, a powerful time period), novellas (The Winds of Marble Arch, Inside Job), and books (Passage, Bellwether). She excels at romantic comedy but does dark and serious too. The best thing is, she’s never let me down and I still have more of her works to track down.

Here’s her official site, with links to some stories and latest news. She’s working on a new time-travel work.

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