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Archive for July, 2009
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Five Favorite Fantasy Novels
by Colleen Doran on July 22nd, 2009Posted In: Blog, Colleen's Work, Essays, Culture, Literature, Fantasy, Culture, Literature, Culture, Literature, Fantasy, Lord of the Rings
I wrote this back in 2002 for the Comicon.com website, and it got some very interesting responses. Charles Vess and other notables popped in. I was surprised to see this was still up after all these years! And reading it with fresh eyes tells me it needs heavy editing. Oh, dear.
Everyone is at San Diego, so I am trying to take advantage of the quiet by getting as much work done as possible, so enjoy and discuss this recycled article, if you please.
1) WAR FOR THE OAKS by Emma Bull: Written in the 1980′s, it was probably the first and best book to explore the realm of Fairie and its place in the modern world, though dozens of books have explored the subject since. Combines elements of the lively music scene in Minneapolis (in the days when the artist formerly known as Prince ruled the world) with a war for dominion of the worlds of magic. Motorcycle riding magical beings joust and play electric guitar and battle each other in clubs with the force of their music. A delightful, clever book.
2) SWORDSPOINT by Ellen Kushner: Elegantly written by a woman with a rare gift for the music of language and a sharp wit, this story is the tale of a swordsman for hire who is caught between bickering factions of the ruling class in a Renaissance-inspired principality. Few fantasy writers have the knowledge to handle court intrigue and manners with any conviction, but Ellen Kushner is a master of the subject. Another plus: you may not realize who is pulling the strings behind all of the naughty masterworks until the very end. One of my favorite novels, ever.
3) THE GORMENGHAST TRILOGY by Mervyn Peake: Dark and byzantine, but full of sparkling language, Gormenghast is completely unique. Devoid of the standard fantasy trappings, Gormenghast is the story of the family of Groan, masters of an immense castle realm that has existed for countless years and is rotting under the weight of its history and traditions. The young heir to the House of Groan dominates the second and third book of the trilogy and the tale primarily concerns his quest to shrug off the mantle of his heritage. The entire story is a metaphor for this trek in the life of everyman. However, the elegant and twisted Steerpike is the focus of the first volume and his rise to power from kitchen boy to man-behind-the-throne of Gormenghast is a fascinating and tragic read. Though this book is rather dark in spirit in many places, the language is so beautiful and so clever that every paragraph contains a turn of phrase that makes me stop and wonder at its brilliance. One of the best and most original fantasy novels ever written.
4) THE LORD OF THE RINGS by J.R.R. Tolkien: It’s almost redundant to write a capsule recommendation of this well-known work which almost everyone has already read. However, this book is unfairly maligned by many as it has been copied and cribbed from badly for so many years that some people have overdosed on the whole fantasy genre after being deluged with bad riffs of this work. Though the world therein is complex and realized to the last detail, the language is simple and reminiscent of old storybooks. Tolkien was heavily influenced by the oral traditions of old Europe and certain sections of the book are much more fun when being listened to on tape as the music of the language is better realized when read aloud. If you don’t already know, it’s the tale of a magic ring that contains an evil force and the quest of a small group of heroes to destroy it. The settings and landscapes are exhaustively detailed while some of the characters themselves are left to the imagination of the reader to realize in many ways. Some consider this to be light reading, but the story is bittersweet and the consequences of war are presented with clarity and honesty, possibly due to Tolkien’s own experiences in World War I.
5) THE NOBLE ACTS OF KING ARTHUR AND HIS KNIGHTS by Howard Pyle: This four volume version of the tale by legendary illustrator Howard Pyle is the first version I read and my favorite. Pyle cleaned up the bawdier aspects of the story a bit for his younger readers and illustrated it himself with hundreds of gorgeously detailed drawings. It is his masterwork. In archaic language, it may be difficult going for some as many are not going to be keen on the liberal use of words like “yclept”, but this is a very entertaining series of books that not only tells the tales of Arthur and his exploits but many of the tales of Arthur’s lesser-known knights as well. Pyle had a deep knowledge of the 12th century world and its social mores and for those that may find reading Malory’s ‘Le Morte D’Arthur’ a bit thick with its dense language and internal contradictions, you will enjoy Pyle’s lighter, Victorian-influenced version of the tales.
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I am drawing like crazy and everyone is at San Diego, and my editors aren’t even looking at my files. I could be naked pole dancing on this blog and no one would notice. So, what the heck, I will upload an old post.
Originally written about three years ago in the middle of something of a nasty creative block (now over.)
I think I write half of these things as reminders to myself, because when I consider how much time I frittered away that could have been used to draw comics over the last year, I could scream. I usually have excellent work habits, but the last year or so…ugh. Just terrible. Too many disruptions, personal distractions, etc. I am having to relearn all my habits. It’s all good, though, because sometimes we just need to hit restart.
But I must say, moving out here to this bucolic land of wonder and peace and battling hummingbirds requires even more self discipline than city living ever did.
OK, now let’s get organized.
How much time do you lose each year due to disorganization?
Clutter? Misfiled papers? Missing bills? Piles of knickknacks?
The average person loses an entire hour EVERY SINGLE DAY just rummaging through things. What a time waster!
Worse yet, for the freelancer every bit of that time is MONEY, because we only get paid for what we actually produce! If we are losing an hour every day to clutter, we lose a real hour every single day of productivity! Over the course of one week, that’s an entire page of art or 52 pages of art EVERY SINGLE YEAR! Half a graphic novel! Three issues of a comics series!
HELLO!!!
Moreover, since most creative people are (in my experience) major clutterbugs, I’d bet that hour a day lost to clutter is a low estimate. Here’s a handy online calculator that will help you see just how much money your clutter is costing you.
I’ve just spent the last two weeks catching up on a backlog of commissions, filing, and organizing. Even though I am a pretty organized person, I cringe at the clutter that accumulated during the last six months of my deadline crunch when I wasn’t staying on top of the paperwork like I usually do, not to mention the piles of art that have simply never been organized in the first place.
Nothing compares to the mess an extremely intrusive person made of my belongings when they tried to help me move a few years ago. What was I thinking when I left them my house key to let in the cleaners?
While I was out of town, they decided to help do my packing for me! Wasn’t that nice?
However, their idea of packing was to simply throw things into boxes. They never labeled a single box of books or papers, and simply threw piles of my belongings into containers. And all of this without even asking me! I guess they wanted it to be a surprise. Well, it certainly was!
Some people are Almost Helpful.
Anyway…
Years ago, most of my work space was confined to a limited area of my home with just a few boxes of papers to clutter it up. When I was living in a 750 square foot condominium, it was comfortable to keep everything I needed in a small corner of my very small and modest home.
And then I began self publishing.
Sometimes I got a foot high stack of mail every single day. After a few weeks on tour I had boxes of papers to sort. I couldn’t stay on top of it all.
I rented a small office/storage space to clear the load (and to avoid the draconian home office rules in the area), but when the direct market collapsed in 1995, I could no longer afford the rent. So I had to move all of my work materials and inventory into my tiny condo. I lived out of boxes and crates for months and months. This was miserable and I was overwhelmed by the clutter. Major efforts to get rid of unsold inventory barely scratched the surface of the mess, and I was still stuck with furniture and art supplies and bookcases full of stuff that simply had no place in my home.
Fortunately, I found a professional organizer to help.
Not only did my professional organizer help me to learn techniques for cleaning clutter, she helped me to walk through the piles of stuff I simply could not seem to prioritize on my own.
I was utterly demoralized facing the load of work I had to do. It didn’t help that the demise of the whole self publishing thing and the sudden loss of money left me feeling down. Having piles of clutter in your home just makes it all worse. It was an immense help to have someone who had a lot of enthusiasm and good ideas, who also respected my privacy (something you can’t always expect from people you consider friends, and thanks again, Almost Helpful) come over to my home in the spirit of productivity. My professional organizer was a great, positive influence. It was the best $40 an hour I ever spent, and after just a few hours, we had made major progress in the piles of stuff.
I still use some of the techniques she taught me, and I am a borderline neat freak now: when I complain about clutter or mess, we are talking a tiny little percentage of the miserable detritus I accumulated while self publishing. Now, most of my organizing time is spent working on VERY old files and getting the art files in order (they have never been properly coordinated.)
I enjoy getting things in order and cleaning out files and dusting bookshelves. I know that the small, cumulative effort makes my whole life easier on a daily basis.
If you are a clutterbug, or would just like to have someone come in and give you some advice or tools to super-organize the kitchen cabinets or closets, you might want to try enlisting the aid of a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers.
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