(no subject)

I keep thinking that I would like to see more of the real folklore of Europe used in fantasy novels, and especially the historical folklore. There's some stuff that's used over and again, but the depth and richness is generally lacking. I want to see blood rain in a novel*, and tequfot and Quatember. I want to see how minorities describe the days when they hurt because of what the majority does ('days of calamity' in pre-modern Judaism - the days when it was perfectly OK for people to throw stones at you or even murder you if you ventured out of doors). I want to see where the self-mockery comes into ritual and folklife and where the mockery of others. I want to see folklore that has bite and consequences and roots and leads to religious laws. In other words, I'm fascinated by the thought that fantasy novels have the potential to be as complex and as exciting and as tragic as real life.



*And in real life! Does anyone know when the Saharan sand gets blown into Europe and the rain brings it down in red drops? It is certain times of year? Does it only fall in certain regions?

(no subject)

I ought to be working, but instead I'm still thinking of a woman I shall never meet. I've been thinking about her for several days now.

It's been a year for deaths, and more than one has been important to me. I can't help contemplating the legacy that Diana Wynne Jones has left, and how very important it is. She gave us a way of thinking about fantasy and a code to understand what we're doing; to how we're reading and how we can write. She spelled it out in The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, but she used it so very effectively in her novels that it changed the reading world and the writing world for many of us. It's a rare writer who can teach without preaching and who can write with such grace and charm.

And I've been thinking about this since I heard of her death and I've been wondering about what I should say and where I should say it. Her novels gave me the basic tools to do the analysis I've been working on all year, the stuff I don't talk about, except in terms of words completed. My way into literary criticism. Everything is so clear in her books.

Her books apply to the outside world with the same astonishing clarity. I was in Brisbane for the National SF Convention a few years ago, and the con was held in twinned hotels. Many of us became lost. Not once, but regularly. We ran into each other and found we had left from the same point but ended up walking in different directions. The corridors moved. There is a small group of Australians who still call it the Deep Secret Con. I'm hoping that we can get together for another Brisbane convention one day, and the group who experienced those strange corridors can drink a toast to Diana Wynne Jones.