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History and fiction
Apr. 8th, 2003 10:31 amHistory is dangerous.
In the real world, historians who meddle in politics often have a taste for revolution. I'm sure it has something to do with having to take the long view and to see every person within a larger context. Poets who think about politics tend to get fussy about the way that political change often involves killing lots of people; historians figure that all those people were going to end up dead anyway.
That massive generalization is only meant to introduce two books in which history and politics intersect: Kushner and Sherman's The Fall of the Kings and McKillip's Ombria in Shadow. Some mild spoilers follow.
Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman, The Fall of the Kings:
Perhaps because I wasn't so taken with Swordspoint, I enjoyed this. The political plot was more coherent, and the characters appeared to have better reasons for the way they act and react. There are still problems with the central relationship, between the historian Basil St. Cloud and the nobleman Theron Campion--it is not clear to what extent they are in control of themselves, or where that control breaks down. ( history and tragedy )
Patricia McKillip, Ombria in Shadow:
I'm not sure who McKillip's equals are among the modern fantasists: Ursula Le Guin, perhaps, although I think McKillip's verbal artistry outstrips hers. Neil Gaiman can match the complexity of her ideas, although he remains more deeply rooted in our own world. McKillip's worlds are so clearly not our own, so essentially fantastic: she seems to me to work in an entirely different register, where questions of cause and effect, of responsibility of motivation fall by the wayside. Most other fantasists could probably write some other genre without any radical change of style or characterization. McKillip's can't be transplanted.
Ombira in Shadow is arranged into doubles: two cities, two sorceresses, two conspiracies of noblemen, two young women, two fatherless princes. The pairs are not all in opposition. ( truth and knowledge )
In the real world, historians who meddle in politics often have a taste for revolution. I'm sure it has something to do with having to take the long view and to see every person within a larger context. Poets who think about politics tend to get fussy about the way that political change often involves killing lots of people; historians figure that all those people were going to end up dead anyway.
That massive generalization is only meant to introduce two books in which history and politics intersect: Kushner and Sherman's The Fall of the Kings and McKillip's Ombria in Shadow. Some mild spoilers follow.
Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman, The Fall of the Kings:
Perhaps because I wasn't so taken with Swordspoint, I enjoyed this. The political plot was more coherent, and the characters appeared to have better reasons for the way they act and react. There are still problems with the central relationship, between the historian Basil St. Cloud and the nobleman Theron Campion--it is not clear to what extent they are in control of themselves, or where that control breaks down. ( history and tragedy )
Patricia McKillip, Ombria in Shadow:
I'm not sure who McKillip's equals are among the modern fantasists: Ursula Le Guin, perhaps, although I think McKillip's verbal artistry outstrips hers. Neil Gaiman can match the complexity of her ideas, although he remains more deeply rooted in our own world. McKillip's worlds are so clearly not our own, so essentially fantastic: she seems to me to work in an entirely different register, where questions of cause and effect, of responsibility of motivation fall by the wayside. Most other fantasists could probably write some other genre without any radical change of style or characterization. McKillip's can't be transplanted.
Ombira in Shadow is arranged into doubles: two cities, two sorceresses, two conspiracies of noblemen, two young women, two fatherless princes. The pairs are not all in opposition. ( truth and knowledge )
