Political issues in fantasy

[Dimentio]

Um, you might want to take a look at Fletcher Pratt's The Well of the Unicorn. The sorcerer, Dr. Meliboë, is probably the most level-headed person in the entire novel; he's certainly the most pragmatic. The protagonist, albeit an idealistic young man, makes some horrendous choices along the way (often because of his idealism conflicting with reality)... and the good doctor (his mentor) often holds views quite despicable by most moral standards. Yet no one really has the corner on right or wrong here (which is part of Pratt's point -- being an historian himself, he knew quite well the muddledness of our ideals and actions, allowing him to be very realistic in his presentation of people and nations within the framework of a world where magic and the supernatural are very much a part of the structure of the universe), and it is partly this that allows for the pleasure of this novel, and allows one to revisit it many times over the years without being disappointed....

I would like to look into his works.

 

[j d worthington]

His other solo fantasy (he wrote the Harold Shea stories, along with a few other pieces, in collaboration with the then up-and-coming L. Sprague de Camp) The Blue Star, though less successful, also deals with political and social themes...

 

[Spectrum]

His other solo fantasy (he wrote the Harold Shea stories, along with a few other pieces, in collaboration with the then up-and-coming L. Sprague de Camp) The Blue Star, though less successful, also deals with political and social themes...

That was an awful paranthesis. I hope you don't have those in your writing, j.d.

 

[Fried Egg]

I think an important point to remember when including political ideas in SF&F is to not be too one sided and demonstrate that you have thought about possible flaws in your own ideas. There is no such thing as the perfect political system. Any attempt to portray such perfection or to didacticly relate such an idea must be tempered with a consideration of it's potential flaws and problems.

For instance, Le Guin explored the creation of an anarchic utopia in "The Dispossessed" and contrasted it with a society (much like our own) to see how it might improve the human condition. If she had not also admitted the existance of problems that such a society might have to face it would not have been the classic that it is and probably unbearable to read by anyone who did not share her anarchic views.

 

[j d worthington]

That was an awful paranthesis. I hope you don't have those in your writing, j.d.

LOL. I'm afraid I'm prone to those when simply "talking" through the keyboard, rather than writing formally.... (And it can creep into some of my other things now and again as well....)