A classic read

What can you say?

Here it is.

Everything you didn't know that you needed to know to be in the know.

An interesting read

This post is basically just a link to what I found to be an interesting read.

As Abraham states, the definitions are his, and so we are all free to disagree with him. However, as he also points out, in order to have a conversation about a topic it is important to agree upon the content of definitions, even if we don't agree with it, so as to enable us to talk about the same thing.

It is, after all, quite simple. I define the basic short distance as a metre, but you disagree because you feel more comfortable with a foot. As long as we both stick to using one definition, no matter how much we disagree with it, we can have a sensible conversation about distance travelled by horse in a given type of terrain. If we do not, well then at least one of us is three times removed from a viable reality.

Back to square one

I've come to realize that the weave needs to be told from the beginning. At least from the beginning of this particular story, which means I have to revisit The Taleweaver once more. Of course an edit, no matter how major, will be insufficient, and so I find myself facing a total rewrite of a story I abandoned well over two years ago. Do I find this daunting? Yes. Do I find it abhorrent? No.

There was a reason I began a story where I once did, and another that I chose to tell the story I told. That reason carried over into Frays in the Weave, and was explored further there. Still, Frays depends too heavily on Taleweaver to be told independently. Too many causes remain unclear for any reader unfamiliar with the abandoned story, and too many effects make no sense for such a reader. The reason being they aren't seen as effects at all, but rather has events free from the laws of causality, something that was never meant to be.

Now, do I retell the old story in new words? No. That would place me in the very same dead-end which caused me to drop the story in the first place. Do I write an entirely new story? No. That wouldn't solve the problems with Frays.

I believe I need to tell the story around the story. That I need to shrink the original story to the degree where it becomes but one small, albeit important, piece in a larger puzzle. That I by doing so can create a new story which incorporates the old and introduces a new, a more vivid and enchanting one, that will properly pave the grounds for Frays. Frays needing a rewrite as well notwithstanding, but that, as they say, is a later problem.

There are characters and events in Taleweaver that starved for want of attention, and nourishing them should better explain and make believe the characters, the events, and the world shaped from their interaction, both in Taleweaver as well as in Frays.

I believed I wove, but with but one strong strand all I did was to string myself a rope. Rather than making a noose I will untwine it, save the strands that can be reused, spin new ones of my imagination and make another attempt to weave.

Spekulative fiction in Sweden

In an article Johan A points out some aspects of the problematic life speculative fiction has to endure in Sweden.

In as much as new titles in these genres are covered by our media at all they tend to be regarded as children's books, or possibly YA. Considering the enormous popularity of the Harry Potter books this tendency has by now become cemented here. Adult fantasy is like those white spots on old maps where be dragons.

Add that the so called literary elite in Sweden has decided that speculative fiction is not proper literature at all, but rather a sub-standard substitute for proper literature. Pulp fiction of the original meaning. They prefer not to be reminded of sub-standard authors like George Orwell, H G Wells, Aldous Huxley, William Golding and Doris Lessing, which should go a long way towards exemplifying the enormous difference with which the genre is looked upon by English and Swedish eyes. Ironically enough the Nobel Prize is a Swedish prize.

However, one problem with the article is that the author tries to prove that adult fantasy in Sweden is on the verge of dying because Swedish publishers are vary of placing their money in that field. Nothing could be further from the truth. With over 80% of the population labeled as knowing English, speculative fiction lives a healthy life here. Speculative fiction written in Swedish, or even translated into Swedish, well that is another matter.

Another downer

What is it with returning to old acquaintances? Brave New World. Another classic, another downer, and this time in a favorite genre of mine.

The core is still as fantastically dystopian as I recall, but now I see how dated the novel is. The total absence of POV-discipline doesn't help neither. Head-hopping galore.