Analysis and criticism
Literary Confusion
Abaddon’s Gate is Literary Space Opera at its Absolute Best by Andrew Liptak June 3, 2013 http://io9.com/abaddons-gate-is-literary-space-opera-at-its-absolute-511125015 Looks like somebody doesn’t know what “literary,” applied to a novel, means. Here’s the first page of Abaddon’s Gate by James S.A. Corey:
Hierarchy of Quality
You are Katherine Heiny, and when you’re 24, you write a second-person short story for an MFA creative writing workshop at Columbia University¬ — “How to Give the Wrong Impression,” about a graduate student who is secretly in love with her male roommate — and you send it out to 31 literary journals, all of which … Continue reading
The Seven Basic Plots
I wrote this the other day, intending to polish it later, but on further examination of the SBP book, I don’t feel the book is worth the investment. Here, therefore, is an unfinished polemic. . In 2004 Christopher Booker, a British journalist, published The Seven Basic Plots, a book that purports to show that all … Continue reading
Random Thoughts on Star Wars Story-telling
Protagonists If George Lucas is to be believed, all six Star Wars movies comprise a single story: “The Tragedy of Darth Vader.” Indeed, the addition of three prequel movies substantially devoted to Vader does shift the series’s center of gravity away from Luke. Apparently, those Luke-Vader duels in Empire and Jedi were not primarily about … Continue reading
“Good Ambiguity” and “Bad Ambiguity”
Christopher Nolan gave an interview in Wired where he touched on the issue of ambiguity in fiction (http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/11/pl_inception_nolan/). He said: “I’ve always believed that if you make a film with ambiguity, it needs to be based on a sincere interpretation. If it’s not, then it will contradict itself, or it will be somehow insubstantial and end … Continue reading
Story Analysis: “Erosion” by Ian Creasey
Note: As part of my own personal effort to try to plot better, I plan to try to do some plot analyses of SF stories, mostly those published in Year’s Best collections. “Erosion” by Ian Creasey, from Year’s Best SF 15, Hartwell and Cramer, eds. (2010) Summary: in the 22nd century, Earth is (still) … Continue reading