Hey - I did re-read your story. I think I understood it better the second time around, and I liked your comment above that "it grows out of various folkloric ideas about faeries and mortals and what the metaphysical differences between them are." The story is well-written and tightly structured, it's just not my preferred subject matter - which isn't your fault at all. It's more my own limitation.
I think my situation is that I'm not really familiar with the folkloric ideas/backgrounds - perhaps I need to read more stories involving fairies. Which was part of my point in my post today on my blog - it's not that a judgment on stories involving magic or fairies, but more about my unfamiliarity with the subgenre and discomfort in attempting to write in it.
On a different note, and this is also something that you touch on above, I think the thing that works against my view of the universe in fantasy is that the effectiveness of magic (a potion or spell, or example), depends on the "worthiness" or other spiritual characteristic of the hero. In science fiction, the laser will shoot out, no matter who pulls the trigger. Though, sometimes, for dramatic tension, the gun will work for the villain, but jams when the hero tries to use it - so he has to think of a different solution. (Heros crash their spaceships all the time - when was the last time you saw a villain crash his?) In a way, they are opposites then - often the thing works only for the good people in fantasy, but only for the bad people in science fiction (wherein the villains often have the more interesting devices). Of course, these are massive generalizations full of exceptions.
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yati
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Date: 2007-03-14 12:43 am (UTC)I think my situation is that I'm not really familiar with the folkloric ideas/backgrounds - perhaps I need to read more stories involving fairies. Which was part of my point in my post today on my blog - it's not that a judgment on stories involving magic or fairies, but more about my unfamiliarity with the subgenre and discomfort in attempting to write in it.
On a different note, and this is also something that you touch on above, I think the thing that works against my view of the universe in fantasy is that the effectiveness of magic (a potion or spell, or example), depends on the "worthiness" or other spiritual characteristic of the hero. In science fiction, the laser will shoot out, no matter who pulls the trigger. Though, sometimes, for dramatic tension, the gun will work for the villain, but jams when the hero tries to use it - so he has to think of a different solution. (Heros crash their spaceships all the time - when was the last time you saw a villain crash his?) In a way, they are opposites then - often the thing works only for the good people in fantasy, but only for the bad people in science fiction (wherein the villains often have the more interesting devices). Of course, these are massive generalizations full of exceptions.