mme_hardy: White rose (Default)
mme_hardy ([personal profile] mme_hardy) wrote2022-03-14 09:42 am
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Well, that about wraps it up for Poughkeepsie

I am rereading The Worm Ouroboros and savoring it. I had forgotten the long mountain-climbing section entirely; I fear teen me must have skipped it.

In any case, Ursula Le Guin once wrote an essay, "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie", essentially arguing that all fantasy protagonists should speak in an elevated, heroic style. She was particularly mean to a very recognizable Katherine Kurtz, with some side shots at Roger Zelazny. She quotes and praises Eddison as an example of what should be done.

At one point she quotes from Zelazny, "I could have told you that at Carcosa", and lays down the law that great heroes don't say "I told you so".

"Well," said Juss, "thy counsel hath been right once and saved us, for nine times that it hath been wrong, and my counsel saved thee from an evil end. If ill behap us, it shall be set down that it had from thy peevish will original."
larryhammer: pen-and-ink drawing of an annoyed woman dressed as a Heian-era male courtier saying "......" (annoyed)

[personal profile] larryhammer 2022-03-14 07:07 pm (UTC)(link)
I do loves me some Eddisonian prose. But I don't think that cod-Jacobean is the best model for fantasy, even high-heroic fantasy.
larryhammer: floral print origami penguin, facing left (Default)

[personal profile] larryhammer 2022-03-14 08:58 pm (UTC)(link)

His Zimiamvian romances are easier to swallow. Especially Mistress of Mistresses, which I tend to gulp.