The wrong kind of details: the components of wonder (aka lmp's rant) - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Kuruharan · 08-04-2002, 07:06 AM

Greetings, lmp. I haven't had a chance to converse with you in a long time.

Something that I have noticed in reading other fantasy besides Tolkien is that the authors are trying to create a world that has as much depth (culturally, and historically as well as plot) as Middle earth. This tends to cause the author to throw in a whole bunch of historical or cultural details that do little to advance the plot. I think that the arbitrary way that these details are presented has much to do with the ruining the wonder of a story.

An example:
"The 546th High Priest of Blahbdy Blah Blah slew the children of Grand Poobah Yadda XXXIV in pursuit of a long standing feud, three thousand years ago. Then to hide from the wrath of the aforementioned Grand Poobah, he kidnaps twenty buxom maidens and hides himself away and creates a secret order (of his suddenly numerous children) to perpetuate his legacy. This is the High and Mighty Order of the Yakkidy-Yak that now holds this semi-wonderful trinket that Our Hero just heard about in some exotic bazaar, and then never hears about again." You can only do that so many times before it gets old. Don't forget that during the course of this digression that we (the reader) were no doubt subjected to IN DEPTH descriptions of his "heroic" exploits in...er...creating that legacy with his kidnapped maidens. That kind of laying on irrelevant fact (dare I use the word?) just spoils the story. Especially when the author does this about five times in every chapter. This attempt to create false depth makes the story shallower.

[ August 04, 2002: Message edited by: Kuruharan ]

08-04-2002, 07:06 AM	#3
Kuruharan Regal Dwarven Shade Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: A Remote Dwarven Hold Posts: 3,594	Greetings, lmp. I haven't had a chance to converse with you in a long time. Something that I have noticed in reading other fantasy besides Tolkien is that the authors are trying to create a world that has as much depth (culturally, and historically as well as plot) as Middle earth. This tends to cause the author to throw in a whole bunch of historical or cultural details that do little to advance the plot. I think that the arbitrary way that these details are presented has much to do with the ruining the wonder of a story. An example: "The 546th High Priest of Blahbdy Blah Blah slew the children of Grand Poobah Yadda XXXIV in pursuit of a long standing feud, three thousand years ago. Then to hide from the wrath of the aforementioned Grand Poobah, he kidnaps twenty buxom maidens and hides himself away and creates a secret order (of his suddenly numerous children) to perpetuate his legacy. This is the High and Mighty Order of the Yakkidy-Yak that now holds this semi-wonderful trinket that Our Hero just heard about in some exotic bazaar, and then never hears about again." You can only do that so many times before it gets old. Don't forget that during the course of this digression that we (the reader) were no doubt subjected to IN DEPTH descriptions of his "heroic" exploits in...er...creating that legacy with his kidnapped maidens. That kind of laying on irrelevant fact (dare I use the word?) just spoils the story. Especially when the author does this about five times in every chapter. This attempt to create false depth makes the story shallower. [ August 04, 2002: Message edited by: Kuruharan ] __________________ ...finding a path that cannot be found, walking a road that cannot be seen, climbing a ladder that was never placed, or reading a paragraph that has no...