Dragons and Pendragons

Dragons and Pendragons

Heroic or medieval fantasy has never had an easy time on the Tube.   The related genres of horror and urban fantasy have done just fine:  Thriller, Twilight Zone, Buffy are the most obvious examples.   But the particular problems of filming a fantastic world - costumes, SFX, elaborate sets - have led to sword and sorcery of the low budget camp variety, such as  Xena: Warrior Princess or Merlin.

That we now have two shows dealing with medieval fantasy that actually have large budgets is due to two trends; the critical and financial success of cable adult oriented drama series such as Deadwood and the The Wire, and the terrifyingly lucrative Lord of the Rings series in cinema.   Not only did Peter Jackson demonstrate how much cash could be made in the heroic fantasy genre, he also used special effects in an unprecedented way to make the world and creature building affordable.

HBO’s Game of Thrones and Showtime’s Camelot are both fairly large budget fantasy series that have some points in common; intrigue over rulership of a warring land, sweeping shots of real and CGI landscapes, nudity (mostly of the nubile female variety), sudden violence, and as a sign of the dark ages none but the prettiest of the leads use hair conditioner.  The series part ways in content, writing, and direction.

Camelot often seems to be shot with a shaky cam - as if hand-held cameras provide verisimilitude in the fifth century A.D.  The sets vary from fairly convincing to a village in the first episode which resembled a low budget renaissance faire.  The CGI castles have those Ridley Scott style CGI birds fluttering around them.  The dialogue is often a bit too modern.  And the acting varies wildly.  Joseph Cambell Bower’s Arthur and Peter Mooney’s Kay play as if they have a real relationship.  Joseph Fein’s Merlin often speaks in short growly sentences of one word. At. A. Time. Like. This.  His quiet noshing on the scenery should be more fun than it is, and it isn’t.  The standout is Eva Green as Morgan.   She’s found the exact right tone in the midst of the hyperbolic action going on around her, and even her overacting appears calculated to manipulate the characters around her, rather than the audience.  If the show were better, she would be looking at an Emmy nod.

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Octogenarians on the Bridge

A few weeks ago, on March 22^nd, William Shatner turned 80, followed closely by Leonard Nimoy, who had his 80^th birthday on March 26^th.  A reminder to science fiction fans who remember the original Star Trek series, or watched it in syndication, of our own aging, and a reminder as well of how long science fiction has found fans on the tube.  This also may be a marker of how little we’ve progressed with science fiction on TV.

Shatner, ubiquitous, often ironically egotistical, strangely charismatic, much parodied, is obviously now a TV icon.  His career on the fantastic screen began with a role in an episode of the Twilight Zone in 1960 titled “The Nick of Time,” which was fantasy.  In 1963 he starred in one of the classic science fiction TZs “Nightmare At 20,000 Feet” as an aviophobe who spends a terrified flight watching a gremlin tear apart the wing engine of his plane.  It’s a touchstone of TV horror, and it’s an excellent performance by Shatner. (And yes, the gremlin looks sort of like a tele-tubby on the Twilight Zone DVD - a result of the DVD makers brightening the image too much.  Turn down your brightness and turn up the contrast when viewing.) Shatner also starred in The Outer Limits episode “Cold Hands, Warm Heart.” In this fairly limp entry of the usually excellent anthology series Shatner plays an astronaut who has been possessed by a Venusian, who resembles a giant Sea Monkey, and is saved by a sauna and the power of love...

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All About the Zombies -- The Walking Dead

In the first sequence of the first episode of The Walking Dead, deputy sheriff Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) is searching abandoned cars along a deserted road for gasoline when he spots a little girl moving among the vehicles.  He calls out to her, and she approaches, a zombie child, bloody, torn face, exposed teeth, and pale eyes - moppet as monster.  She staggers towards him hungrily and Grimes, wincing, shoots her in the head.  It’s a graphic and bloody scene, and one of the most shocking cold opens in the history of T.V.  It contains so many of the elements of the zombie genre - the isolation of a last human, the post-apocalyptic landscape scattered with abandoned artifacts of human existence, the search for resources, the monster as someone we would normally protect, and the breaking of social taboos.   The unease of seeing taboos subverted - cannibalism on the side of the zombies, almost all other social conventions on the side of the humans - is a chief appeal and an important source of unease in the zombie narrative.


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The Art of Fantasy and Science Fiction Interdisciplinary Study

Widgets and Wizards: The Art of Science Fiction and Fantasy

Instructor: Mark Edwards

Science fiction and fantasy are sister genres -- at their best both focus on the impact of the fantastic or otherworldly on the human experience.  These genres tap into a sense of storytelling wonder and mystery.  At the heart of fantastic fiction is the question, "What if?"  What if we could teleport?  What if vampires really existed?  What if we had a pill that made everyone happy?  

The writer of speculative or fantasy stories has a distinct set of challenges, the most obvious of which is how to make the unbelievable believable.  This course will explore the elements of writing otherworldly fiction through readings and analysis of genre classics and current fiction, by developing "what if" speculative and supernatural concepts through research, and through writing stories in either genre. 

Because these genres are wide ranging -- fantasy includes horror as a subcategory, for example -- readings will be assigned based on the student's focus and interests.  There will also be exploration of current SF and fantasy markets as well as focus on avoiding genre clichés. 

The writing of the fantastic requires careful plotting, unique perspectives, and imagination.  Focus on these elements will help with the practice of any genre of storytelling.

Course Outline

Fiction submissions can be short stories, parts of stories, or sections of a novel.

 

• First submission

What if? exercise -- 1-2 pages.

First fiction submission. 8-10 pages.

Story responses to 4 stories from one of the Anthologies.  2 pages.

• Second submission

Second fiction submission.  8-10 pages

Responses to 4 stories from one of the Anthologies.  2 pages.

• Third submission

Third fiction submission based on one the What if? exercis.  8-10 pages

Responses to 4 stories from one of the Author Collections.  2-3 pages.

• Fourth submission

Fourth fiction submission -- rewrite of an earlier submission. 

Response to two of the novels.  2-3 pages

Anthologies -- (you'll be choosing one of these to read stories to respond to, for submissions 1 & 2)

Some of these are out of print, but there should be plenty of used copies on Amazon for reasonable prices.  If you can’t find them let me know.

The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One

editor, Robert Silverberg

The Arbor House Treasury of Horror and the Supernatural
Editors,  Pronzini,  Malzberg, Greenberg

Masters of Fantasy

Editors, Carr, Greenberg

Arbor House Treasury of Science Fiction Masterpieces,

Editors, Silverberg, Greenberg

The Oxford Book of Fantasy Stories (Oxford Books of Prose)

editor, Tom Shippey

Author Collections  (pick one to read for submission 3)

The Rhinoceros Who Quoted Nietzsche and Other Odd Acquaintances, Peter S. Beagle

Howard Who?  Howard Waldrop

The Avram Davidson Treasury, Avram Davidson

Black Book, A.S. Byatt

Think Like a Dinosaur and Other Stories, James Patrick Kelly

I Am Legend, Richard Matheson

The Dog Said Bow-Wow, Michael Swanwick

Dreamsongs, Volume 2, George R.R. Martin

Saffron and Brimstone: Strange Stories, Elizabeth Hand

The Essential Ellison, Harlan Ellison

Novels (choose two to read for submission 4)

Doomsday Book, Connie Willis

Last Call, Tim Powers

Carpe Jugulum, Terry Pratchett

Men at Arms, Terry Pratchett

Lords and Ladies, Terry Pratchett

Illumination, Terry McGarry

Deep Six, Jack McDevitt

Mother of Storms, John Barnes

Coraline, Neil Gaiman

Little Big, John Crowley

Old Man's War, John Scalzi

Towing Jehovah, James Morrow

The Dreaming Jewels, Theodore Sturgeon

A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. LeGuin

The Shadow of the Torturer (The Book of the New Sun), Gene Wolfe

The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle