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By: Katherine Langrish,
on 8/6/2009
I was asked by a fantasy and science fiction survey what I thought were the weaknesses of the two genres. This is a bit like being asked in a job interview to identify your own personal weaknesses – one doesn’t want to admit to anything. But in the end I replied ‘Poor characterisation and an over-reliance on magical and scientific hardware.’ I don’t think this was unfair. As a teenager I gobbled up Isaac Asimov’s ‘Robot’ and ‘Foundation’ books, and Arthur C. Clarke’s many and various space odysseys, but what I loved was the vast sweep of the black canvas they both painted on – prickling with stars and smudged with dusty, embryonic galaxies. Against that background, the human characters in their books were unmemorable. I’m trying right now, and I can’t think of even one of their names.
As for fantasy, the same thing applies. The world is often more important than the characters. I don’t think I would recognise Colin and Susan from Alan Garner’s brilliant early fantasies, if I saw them in the street. Even in ‘Lord of the Rings’, characters are more often conveniently defined by their species (elf, dwarf, hobbit etc) than by personality. Could you pick Legolas from an identity parade of other elves, or Gimli from a line-up of other dwarfs?
You have several wonderfully memorable science-fiction/fantasy characters on the tip of your tongue at this very moment, I can tell, and you are burning to let me know. I can think of a notable exception myself: Mervyn Peake’s cast of eccentrics in the Gormenghast books. I’ll look forward to your comments... But moving swiftly on, I began to think about memorable characters in children’s fiction – which as a genre, like science fiction and fantasy, tends to be strong on narrative. Does children’s fiction in general, I wondered, have characters that walk off the page?
So here, in no particular order, is a partial list. Mr Toad. The Mole and the Water Rat. Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger. William. Alice. The Red Queen. Oswald Bastable and Noel Bastable. Arrietty, Homily and Pod. Mrs Oldknowe. Dido Twite. Patrick Pennington. Mary Poppins. Mowgli. Long John Silver. Peter Pan. Ramona. Huck Finn. Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy. Puddleglum. Pa, Ma, Laura and Mary. Stalky. Moomintroll, the Snork Maiden and the Hemulen...
All of these characters, I would argue, are so strongly drawn that once you have met them you will never forget them. I will bet that for each of the above names (so long as you’ve read the books) you knew instantaneously who I meant, and had a picture of them in your head and the ‘flavour’ of them in your mind, just as if they were real people. These characters have a life beyond the page: not only is it possible to imagine them doing other things besides what their authors have described, it’s almost impossible not to believe that in some sense they possess a sort of independent reality.
There are many good books in which characterisation is not very important. Fairytales have always relied on standard ‘types’: the foolish younger son whose good heart triumphs, the princess in rags, the cruel queen, the harsh stepmother, the weak father, the lucky lad whose courage carries him through. This is because fairytales are templates for experience, and they are short: we identify with the hero, and move on with the narrative. Fairytales are not about other people: they are about us.
But the crown of fiction is the creation of new, independent characters. Though Mr Toad may share some characteristics with the boastful, lucky lad of Grimm’s fairytale ‘The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs’, he is nevertheless gloriously and individually himself. Huck Finn is more than a poor peasant boy or a woodcutter’s son. Children’s fiction is a fertile ground in which such characters can flourish.
Visit Katherine's website at www.katherinelangrish.co.uk
I was eight years of age when Neill Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins landed on the moon and Neil Armstrong took that most famous of steps and said the immortal words “One small step for man, one Giant leap for mankind”. I can’t say as I remember where I was but I don’t imagine that I saw it live for I was probably tucked up in bed. I do remember seeing it though, probably in news programs after the event.
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The moon landing is an epic part of 20th Century history. The images and the quote iconic. Western Society had thumped the Soviets in the space race thouroughly and science fact had caught up with science fiction. Move over Flash Gordon For some real life astronauts.
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At the time I dont think I understood the buzz of excitment surrounding the event. It is strange to think that you are alive at a momentous moment in the history of humankind but it really means nothing to you. I could not understand the big deal really and wondered would the man in the moon mind the intrusion.
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They were asking on a radio program was space travel obsolete and were people no longer interested? i dont think so. The idea of space travel and exploration has always held a particular fascination for people and some of the best stories I have ever read have been sci/fi. I am thinking of people like Mary Shelly, H.G Wells, Jules Verne and George Orwell. Then more recent people like Douglas Adams and Arthur C Clarke. The next project will be a manned flight to Mars and science fact will once more catch up with science fiction. Man as a species is too imaginative to remain grounded
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I was eight years of age when Neill Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins landed on the moon and Neil Armstrong took that most famous of steps and said the immortal words “One small step for man, one Giant leap for mankind”. I can’t say as I remember where I was but I don’t imagine that I saw it live for I was probably tucked up in bed. I do remember seeing it though, probably in news programs after the event.
Image via Wikipedia
The moon landing is an epic part of 20th Century history. The images and the quote iconic. Western Society had thumped the Soviets in the space race thouroughly and science fact had caught up with science fiction. Move over Flash Gordon For some real life astronauts.
Image via Wikipedia
At the time I dont think I understood the buzz of excitment surrounding the event. It is strange to think that you are alive at a momentous moment in the history of humankind but it really means nothing to you. I could not understand the big deal really and wondered would the man in the moon mind the intrusion.
Image via Wikipedia
They were asking on a radio program was space travel obsolete and were people no longer interested? i dont think so. The idea of space travel and exploration has always held a particular fascination for people and some of the best stories I have ever read have been sci/fi. I am thinking of people like Mary Shelly, H.G Wells, Jules Verne and George Orwell. Then more recent people like Douglas Adams and Arthur C Clarke. The next project will be a manned flight to Mars and science fact will once more catch up with science fiction. Man as a species is too imaginative to remain grounded
By: Neil Gaiman,
on 3/19/2008
I met Sir Arthur C Clarke in 1985, when he was in the UK to promote the film of 2010. He was staying in Brown's Hotel in London, where the doormen wore top hats and the hotel interior didn't seem to have changed in a hundred years. I interviewed him for Space Voyager magazine, but all I remember is that he was very kind and polite, and a vague surprise in discovering that he had a West Country burr in his voice. He seemed like someone from a past era, in that elderly wood-and-leather hotel, frail and elderly 22 years ago, but he was someone who had showed me the future, and who was living, very happily, in the future.
I grew up reading Clarke -- books like A Fall of Moondust and The Deep Range were books I'd read and loved before I turned ten -- but the story that made the deepest impression on me was a short story, 'The Nine Billion Names of God'.
There's a wonderful interview with Terry Pratchett in the Guardian. I would have loved to have been in the room with Terry when he read the final line, though -- "Good Luck to you, you sweet man." I remember the noise Terry made when I told him that a gentleman who had been his minder at a convention had described Terry to me as "a jolly old elf". I don't think that teeth actually ground together but it was a jolly good noise all the same, and he said several things that were not at all elf-like.
Remember http://www.matchitforpratchett.org/.
...
The Dave McKean Vertigo Tarot deck is being reissued, along with the Rachel Pollack book that accompanied it -- details at http://www.dccomics.com/dcdirect/?dcd=3403. You can see the cards at http://www.elsewhere.org/tarot/vertigo/
...
The Daily Star in the UK has actually reproduced the Angelina Jolie naked-but-for-gold-drips scene in Beowulf with a real live model, at http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/view/32553/Daily-Star-babe-Claire-s-Jolie-good/
Claire, 23, certainly had the Midas touch as she revealed her own golden globes......
By: Camille,
on 8/11/2007
I have a TBR stack, actually it is several stacks, well actually it is a continuous veneer of TBR books that covers the homestead.
I also have a stack, or rather a shelf of books that I have read and enjoyed yet have not talked about here on BookMoot yet. Every day I see these books looking at me with sadness in their eyes.
--- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Books: We thought you liked us.
Me: I do. I liked all of you. I LOVED some of you and I know kids who would love you.
Books: But we just sit here. You don't tell anyone about us and you will not let us move on to another reader.
Me: Well, I am PLANNING to write about you. I want to write about you. I cannot give you away yet because I need you by my side when I write about you.
Books: What is stopping you?
Me: I'm just slow and it is summer and the
Books: Well can you at least give us a shout-out or something? In the time you taking to talk to us now, you could be recording your thoughts about Red Mood at Sharpsburg by Rosemary Wells or Avielle of Rhia by Dia Calhoon or Skullduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy.
Me: Hey, I mentioned Skullduggery as one of my”48 Hour Reads.” That book is awesome, funny and original. Didn't I mention that?
Books: What ever. Just get a move on will you? We need to move on too. You already have library gigs booked for the school year and we like it when you give us to kids at the schools.
Interesting that you mention Arthur C. Clarke. His characters are, as you say, often 2D at best. That said, I felt that in 2001: A Space Odyssey this works, bizarrely, as a strength. The scale of the events is so monumental that the absence of character in Dave Bowman and Frank Poole (there, some names!) seems to highlight the insigificance of humanity in the infinite universe. They are, almost literally, 'nothing'. To give them depth would have softened that terrible feeling of insigificance. (Also, being as bland as they are, they also make very convincing astronauts: super-competent but very self-contained, with no visible flaws and few quirks).
Now trying to think of my favourite fantasy characters. You're right, it is quite tricky. Terry Pratchett, as primarily comedy, doesn't really count - all his characters sparkle.
You're right: Terry Pratchett has some pretty good characters. Commander Vimes is a good example. But comedy relies on good main characters, doesn't it? We need to care about them or we won't find them funny/appealing, like Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp.
I suppose when you have 'hard' SF or fantasy, the ideas become pre-eminent and the characters merely serve to frame them. The monolith in 2001, for example, comes across as a character as much as the astronauts do.
Mervyn Peake, as you say, is an interesting exception. But then Titus Groan and its sequels don't try to carry many fantasy ideas; there is no magic or supernature, just grotesque scenery and characters. So it probably has more in common with Dickens than with Tolkien.
Mmm. I'm not saying there are NO memorable characters in fantasy. I try very hard to write memorable characters myself! Some of the characters in my list come from fantasies (in the loose sense, which I think is the best sense. The Moomin books are fantasies, aren't they? And the Alice books? Discuss.) But a writer can't always do everything in a book, and I think you are right that in hard sci-fi, ideas predominate. All the same, it's wonderful to come across a sci-fi book in which the characters are less wooden. Do you know 'A Canticle for Leibowitz'?
Hal is the character in 2001: Space Odyssey. And the hero of Bester's 'The Stars My Destination' is memorable - even though I can't remember his name! I remember his ferocity and implacable determination though.
Hal - of course!
To be fair, the whole point of Bilbo Baggins was that he turned out to be Not Like Other Hobbits, and he's distinctive and memorable - as is dear old Gollum, of course. But then, The Hobbit is a children's book. Regarding LOTR, I agree with you about Legolas and Gimli, and by extension a lot of the other characters too; but I think I'd know Sam Gamgee anywhere.
As for SF: names that spring to mind are Asimov's Susan Calvin, Elijah Bailey & R. Daneel Olivaw, and NDR-1 (The Bicentennial Man, and no, I haven't seen the film); and Spender from Bradbury's The Last Martian.
And of course we've all met unmemorable characters in children's books. But broadly, I think you're absolutely right. A great and thought-provoking post, Kath, thank you; and Yay! for kidslit!
I agree with you about Sam Gamgee and Gollum. And I can recall Susan Calvin, now you mention her, though I seem to remember her as a bit of a caricature of an uptight woman scientist. I actually can't bring Elijah Bailey to mind at all. Daneel Olivaw was a robot, I know - erm, but that's all I can remember, and I did read the books, though it was a long time ago. But I've never really gone back to them, and the generally thin-on-the-ground level of characterisation has been the main reason why.
Fair point about Calvin, Kath - perhaps she was consistent rather than rounded, although I do remember one in which she was brought out of retirement which fleshed her out a tiny bit more ("Feminine Intuition", it was called). And I haven't read the Bailey/Olivaw stories in, erp, decades (Bailey was the human robot-hating detective who was lumbered with Olivaw as a partner and slowly grew to respect him).
Maybe a better example would be Harrison's Slippery Jim diGriz? What do other readers think?
I can't begin to think, because John has just sent me into a weepy bout of timewarp nostalgia. Slippery Jim diGriz! Oh my! The Stainless Steel Rat! Oh, there was a character. Sigh.
And now I think about it, why why WHY has there never been a Stainless Steel Rat movie?
Here's something interesting to add to the mix. I remember when the film version of The Lord of the Rings was first cast. I saw the four actors intended to play the hobbits in the Fellowship, and I knew without checking who would play whom. Granted, Sam was easy (the most yokel-looking) as was Frodo (handsome, starry expression) but the revelation was how easily Merry and Pippin (Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd) could be distinguished. People do often think of those two as less well-defined, almost identical twins - and yet, at a glance, I could tell who was whom from their faces.
How was that possible? It could only mean that Tolkien had done a better job of characterisation than first appears. As had the Casting Director.
Hi Katherine!
I agree with your partial list, but as a Swede i miss "Pippi Longstocking" by our "icon" Astrid Lindgren.
Best wishes!
from
Jan Lindqvist
PS. I love this site! DS.
H G Wells and John Wyndham manage characterisation, as far as I can remember - though it's a long time since I read much. (I did read Day of the Triffids to Big Bint as a bed-time story only 5 or 6 years ago.) Saramago's Blindness is very strong on character. And there's Margaret Atwood, of course. But I'm not really a fantasy/SF person so I don't read the 'hard' ones in which technology and space predominate so I wouldn't dream of saying how typical or otherwise these few are :-)
Hi Jan ! Nice to see you here. Of course, Pippi Longstocking should join the list.
And, Anne, glad to be reminded of the excellent John Wyndham, though I don't think his characters are especially memorable. Most of his narrators sound alike - open-minded, pleasant, youngish middle class men. I enjoy his books immensely (The Kraken Wakes is my favourite) but not for the characters, although I like the little biy in 'Chocky'.
several in de lint's books:
jilly
christy
tamson house (maybe not a person but certainly a character)
blue
kiyote jack