analect (
analect) wrote in
writerslounge2011-09-13 05:46 pm
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Artistic license: thoughts?
All righty... in the interests of leaving some discussion open for those who want it, I have a question. How far do you take artistic license when dealing with something in a fictional context, and how much knowledge - either of the thing itself, or in terms of acknowledgement of the license you're taking - do you expect your audience to have?
I'm sure we all have different approaches here, so I'm curious.
As a kick-off point, I recently posted a story of mine that's been kicking around for a while to my journal. The Red Man is a horror short that involves references to Celtic druidism [click to read]. Though I researched a bit for the story, I don't know a lot about either historical or modern practice - however, I do have a few druid friends.
Their religious/philosophical slant is very different to the angle the story explores (notions of Awen and bardic tradition, while awesome, are not terribly horrific). So I guess you could say, here, I've taken the same kind of artistic license that The Wicker Man (the proper film; let's pretend the 2006 remake never happened) took with ideas of preserved pagan practice; i.e., it could have happened that way.
Is this something you do with different ideas? Or are you a stickler for realism and research? Does artistic license always (or ever) mean pandering to stereotypes, or is it a useful tool for playing 'what-if' with?
I'm sure we all have different approaches here, so I'm curious.
As a kick-off point, I recently posted a story of mine that's been kicking around for a while to my journal. The Red Man is a horror short that involves references to Celtic druidism [click to read]. Though I researched a bit for the story, I don't know a lot about either historical or modern practice - however, I do have a few druid friends.
Their religious/philosophical slant is very different to the angle the story explores (notions of Awen and bardic tradition, while awesome, are not terribly horrific). So I guess you could say, here, I've taken the same kind of artistic license that The Wicker Man (the proper film; let's pretend the 2006 remake never happened) took with ideas of preserved pagan practice; i.e., it could have happened that way.
Is this something you do with different ideas? Or are you a stickler for realism and research? Does artistic license always (or ever) mean pandering to stereotypes, or is it a useful tool for playing 'what-if' with?
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I've seen a *huge* number of novels (mostly Mists of Avalon inspired crap) that go off in these weird, alternate histories, but never really mention that things didn't work like that. (Yeah, sorry, but the druids did sacrifice humans. In inventive and creative ways! And, no, the Celts were not these sweet, peace loving matriarchs. They were a patriarchal Indo-European group, just like the Mycenaeans and the Teutons. There were some mild differences but...they still have these big epics about raiding cattle and getting drunk.) And it bugs me to no end as people read them and are like, "oh, this is how history happened" when it really, really didn't.
I can tolerate minor inaccuracies...and I can also understand some whitewashing of events (i.e. I can see how writing a world that's been as racist, misogynist, and otherwise vile as most of history might not appeal to a modern audience and I get that as a writer you may want to say...mute some of these elements.) BUT, if the writer goes off into an alternate universe, I prefer for them to at least, you know, make it clear that it's an alternate universe. Otherwise it's just fail!historical fiction, which I hate. (And which there is a LOT of out there.)
So, tl;dr, but I have a high tolerance for fantasy that rips off history to the extent that you're like "Hey...isn't this basically a retelling of what happened during the conquest of Spain?" but a very low tolerance for fantasy that pretends it existed in the real world.
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I wish I could find Celtic historical fiction based on the archaeological and historical record without neopaganism mixed in. :-/
Anyway: when it comes to historical and modern-day fiction, I research until I absolutely hit a wall and HAVE to extrapolate. If the research doesn't work for the story I have in mind, I tend to pick different research. For fantasy I'm more flexible, although I think research-based fantasy tends to feel more solid and realistic.
I get the impression most people don't care nearly as much.
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Either way, though, none of these groups were either peace loving or matriarchal. (In fact, the few existing matriarchal societies we know of were not particularly peace loving. Certainly the Iriquois managed to be feared despite being a matriarchy.)
It would be nice to find historical fiction, though, that actually used history. (Esp. in less common eras. I think I have enough Enlightenment stuff to last me for the rest of my life. Yes, yes, the Tudors were like a soap opera, but there are so many other fascinating eras!)
I agree that at a certain point, a writer has to extrapolate. We honestly have no idea how a Gallic tribe in 1,000 BCE differed from a Romanian tribe. (I'd guess that probably your best basis would be the Myceneans, who were ethnically fairly similar and we have some archaeological and oral records of.) But you really do hit a point where you don't know and can't find out (or could but it would take forever). And that's fine, really. I just wish that people who wrote things in these times opened a few books on the period once in a while and read them. *sigh*
I agree, too, that research based fantasy tends to be a lot better than "I just want to throw stuff in here" fantasy. But I have a higher tolerance for crap there as it can be handwaved away. (How does a queen who spins with a drop spindle have 400 dresses? MAGIC!)
I suspect you are right regarding people not caring much, seeing as how much stuff that fails wildly on that is published. It still doesn't mean that I can't care, though. ;)
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I just wish that people who wrote things in these times opened a few books on the period once in a while and read them.
Me, too. I actually mostly can't read historical fiction in periods I know a lot about anymore, which means I mostly read historical fiction in periods I don't find very interesting. I do have a higher crap tolerance in fantasy, but...I think it's going down as I get bored with using magic to paper over the holes (and I've always preferred swords and politics fantasy with very little or no magic, although it's hard to find it done well).
I suspect you are right regarding people not caring much, seeing as how much stuff that fails wildly on that is published. It still doesn't mean that I can't care, though. ;)
Oh, believe me, I TOTALLY understand. :S
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I have a hard time with historical fiction too, as so much of it is really, really bad. I tend to prefer fantasy which is a bit more gritty and realistic, too. (With less magic, since as you said, it tends to be used more in a deus ex machina way than in a way that really works for the world and culture.) But, eh, at least I can go "fine, I'll suspend disbelief", while I really can't do that in a story that claims to be from, say, Classical Rome, yet has a Roman lady who is all "Slavery is horrible and I am a modern liberated woman with modern concepts of self-esteem!" (And in a particularly bad case, is a princess who wears a purple velvet ball gown.)
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(I love really good, interesting magic systems where the magic is coherent and comes with a price--or small and everyday and like tech, but not deus ex machina useful--but those stories seem to be rather rare.)
With fantasy there's definitely more leeway. Bump the invention of velvet earlier? Sure! Base a culture on a culture with slavery but remove the slavery? Sure (although consider the ripple effect this will have--fantasy Rome without slaves would look quite, quite different from just Rome without slaves, and that could be interesting to explore)!
(One of my irks is alternate history like "Rome never fell" that assumes that slavery still exists, but so does pretty much all the modern tech we use now. I'm not at all convinced that a society dependent on slave labor would ever develop all the labor-saving tech we use, or that a society that developed that labor-saving tech would need slaves--or want to deal with the drawbacks of having them, like the constant threat of slave revolts. Machines don't revolt or require expensive wars to acquire large numbers of captives to operate them when you could pay a few poor people to do so instead. It's all about thinking through the logical effects of changes to society, and how real societies work.)
I could buy a Roman lady who has a problem with slavery--there are people in very era who question the underpinnings of society--but it really depends on how it's done. And "self-esteem" and ball gowns had better not come into it.
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I do like magic that is coherent and makes sense. But to make magic really work, you have to put a lot of thought into it - something that a great many writers don't do. But you can get away with stuff like "yeah, we figured out buttons in a different era. Roll with it." (Although I agree that Rome...really wouldn't have worked the same without slaves/some form of cheap labor.)
I do agree that a lot of the problem with alternate histories for me is that they do overlook how technology and economics drive change. I 100% agree that there wouldn't have been much of a reason for industrialization in a world where labor was cheap and plentiful (it's telling that a lot of industrial innovations were really adopted post black plague in Europe - and that some of them might have been lost if the Americas weren't discovered before Europe could entirely revert, thus likely keeping the somewhat unusual labor to capital ratio that was established in the plague. It's not certain, but it sure wouldn't surprise me if an unbalanced labor to capital ratio led to the industrial revolution.). The challenge, though, is that we're not even 100% sure why history happened the way it did now...far less how things would change. So I can get some strange stuff happening - but there's a point where my tolerance vanishes.
I could see a Roman lady not liking slavery, but probably for very different reasons than a modern woman would. It's one of those things where I'm willing to go, "Sure, she can question the underpinnings of society" (a lot did). But she probably at some level, too, realizes that her entire well being resides on, you know, having really cheap labor around. (Unless she's dumb, which could be kind of hilarious to play with. Ala, "Oh, let me free my 60 year old slave. It's wonderful to see him free!" just to have the poor guy starve on the streets as he can't find work at that age, etc.) And I'd see it as more likely that the sympathetic lady would question going into new territories and running off with captives to be enslaved, or abusing her slaves, or whatever, than necessarily questioning the institution that her entire world is based upon.
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I'd argue that at least some of that is probably due to influence of the underlying culture--I mean, that's part of why we have lots of forms of Christianity.
And I'd see it as more likely that the sympathetic lady would question going into new territories and running off with captives to be enslaved, or abusing her slaves, or whatever, than necessarily questioning the institution that her entire world is based upon.
Yeah--or she might question it, but that doesn't make her willing (or able) to check out of the system, just as modern westerners may question the global inequality that makes the western lifestyle possible, but most can't fully check out of the system even if they truly want to. And of course a Roman lady would be very limited in her ability to advocate for any kind of social change (and a Roman man wouldn't be much better off, although you certainly get social critique).
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It's virtually impossible to check out of any established social system. (Note all the people, like me, who fully believe in global warming, accept that it's going to destroy the world, yet still drive. I wish I didn't have to, but there's not really a viable alternative.) The same is true in all...
I'm willing to give some leeway for historical characters. But so many writers decide that their heroine is going to be this...I'm not sure...like, feminist, anti-slavery zealot. Which I suppose she could be, but this would totally alienate her from the rest of society and probably get her locked away in some tiny room in her parents' estate rather than win her supporters.
That said, it would be kind of funny to see someone write a historical novel where their hero/heroine did behave like a modern person, with modern views and then was treated as such by the people around her. ;)
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The Celts (or at least the Irish) definitely seemed to go for the hot headed men (who were regularly pretty stupid. Oh well...). I'd argue that the Myceneans probably did too, considering that Achilles is their main hero. And, yeah, women do sleep around (not always without censure, although sometimes), which is different. But, yeah, lots of differences. And I agree that when you get a pagan Celt behaving just like a modern day person (or Elizabethian Englishman) that it really does throw things.
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I think you're right - there does seem to be a level of acceptance, either among readers or among perceptions of 'what people want', that accuracy isn't so much of an issue. For me, it's mental anachronism that gets me; failure not just to accurately describe historical fact, but to get behind the mindset of the time period... much like your point about the Celtic thing. There's a distinct difference between saying 'it could have happened like this' and saying 'it was like this, and they felt like this about it, because that's modern and relatable'... if that makes sense.
Really, I'd agree - it's a matter of, whatever the genre, the fiction working within believable rules. The only change is how far readers are required to - or are willing to - suspend their disbelief, as with historical fiction vs. fantasy. Interesting.
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I mean, I don't want to act like our ancestors were space aliens--whenever I see people go "No one bonded with animals or children! That kind of emotion is modern!" I want to pummel them with primary sources. But it's the kind of thing where going to the other extreme and going They Were Just Like Us tends to result in the costume-party feel.
Really, I'd agree - it's a matter of, whatever the genre, the fiction working within believable rules.
Yep! And there's a lot of fiction that collapses on examination--it can still be enjoyable (and popular, and best-selling), but I know I personally would like to do better.
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But definitely there were differences in all of those relationships from the modern world.
I think, sometimes, that it helps to extrapolate from autobiographies that are more recent, but still written from worlds that might be more similar to those lived by our ancestors. (i.e. Laura Ingles Wilder wrote some lovely novels that state exactly what she was thinking as she butchered beloved farm animals, smoked deer, etc. Admittedly, she was not a medieval peasant. And her life had a LOT of differences from that of a peasant. But she still lived a lifestyle that was probably closer to that way of thinking than is that of a modern urbanite, like me. So while it's not a perfect comparison, it can be used along with documents from earlier eras to go "oh, I can kind of see how that works..." The same would probably be true for reading the Iliad for an idea as to how a Celtic warrior might behave. There will be differences, but those two worlds are probably a lot more similar than our world is to that of a Celtic (or any tribal) world.)
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The whitewashing, though - writing out or writing around misogyny, racism, homophobia - is, I confess, what pees me off in the extreme. I know there are some imprints of certain publishers that allow it, or present it as a kind of escapist fiction (yeah, yeah, my esoteric little corner of the romance market again, I know...), but, to me, it saps a lot of valuable contrast and ready-made conflict out of the diegetic world. Which is pants. I agree, though - there needs to be a clearer line in what's 'real' or 'not-so-real'; not sure if it's because readers (or people's perceptions of readerships?) don't care about that much accuracy, or just a level of knowledge that isn't assumed? :\
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I'm actually reasonably OK with the whitewashing, just as I can see it being really hard to identify with a protagonist who is a sexist, racist, homophobic twit. (As he/she probably would be in most historical worlds. And I far prefer pretending that these issues don't exist than acknowledging that they do, but that your super special little snowflake isn't a sexist, racist twit because, you know, he/she magically got hit with the PC wand.)
I will admit, though, to a certain fondness for novels that paint the past as a less than glowing place. But I can see the reason as to why a lot of stories don't go there and it doesn't particularly bother me, really. If a story is really a romance or soap opera set in Rome, I'm not sure that I need to see the hero freeing elderly slaves so he didn't have to support them now that they were useless (as historically happened on a regular basis), nor do I need a treatise on the evils of gladiatorial combat. I'm fine with it just being fluffy escapism with bits of history dabbed in. But that's obviously a huge YMMV kind of thing. (And I'll admit that one of the things I loved about the mini-series Rome was that it definitely showed a world that had very different standards and values than our modern era.)
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I am a stickler for research, I hate it when I come across something that just runs roughshod over fact, despite choosing to place the story in a situation that does have context. I'm a crap researcher. I'll go back and clean up, but when I'm writing I don't have the patience for it. That's why I fudge as much as I can to blur the lines and avoid precise details, but some things you just can't gloss over. My goal is to stay as accurate as I can while leaving room for the possibilities of my storyline.
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So, now I'm researching WWI and how Europe ended up divided the way it was; I want to change some of the facts so that the countries end up different, but not by much.
I'm struggling with how much research I need to do into what really happened before I can change it into what I need/want to have happened. This is background, but the more I read, the more I think I could use this background, the chaos and frustrations of WWI, as part of the story. Still, that doesn't help me know how much to include and how realistic I have to make it.
*sigh*
So, basically, I'm saying I don't know how much to steal and how much to change.
Stasia
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That sounds like a really vivid background to a story. It's certainly a massive, massive area to research and incorporate, but absolutely worth it. I'd think it depends on what aspects - social, economic, political - you wanted most to bring in. Why not post some details and bounce some ideas around here? We won't bite. ;)
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This is especially true with pieces I write set in antiquity, particularly Ancient Egypt. I have very solid background in the study because of my own independent work and the work of a family member and friends who are professional egyptologists at the university level. Take it for granted that some of us have spent decades studying the language and culture, so if you're full of it, you won't be able to fake it. Sorry.
From this, I believe, is my biggest pet peeve and that is just plain sloppy scholarship and applying certain judgements and modern day morality to a completely different culture and mindset. It's one thing to ask the reader to suspend disbelief and then tell them a good story for the favour they have granted. It's another thing entirely to insult their intelligence and assume no one is going to know the difference from when you actually did the research or just "channeled it". ;))
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No, that sounds really interesting. I've had a thing on the backburner for about two years that I wanted to do based off some of the material in the Leyden papyrus, and haven't got around to doing enough research for yet.
Absolutely - it's that modern mindset thing that really annoys me. It's not just anachronistic, it's a fundamental misunderstanding of the time and people you're working with... and there does seem to be a lot of it about.
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Leyden Papyrus! Sounds fascinating! That is my area of personal interest and study - AE medicine with an emphasis on the herbalism, etc. I would love to read some of what you have written. :)
Have you ever read anything by Pauline Gedge? To me she is the is the Gold Standard in the fictional realm of Ancient Egypt and her research is impeccable.
A co-writer of mine and I are actually putting together a writer's guide for ancient Egypt. There seems to be plenty of interest, but I think that sometimes bad research materials and previously published and poorly researched works cloud things up a bit.
I read this horribly written paranormal romance that dealt with Ninja trained vampires teaming up with buff Fallen Angels inhip hugging Levis. I didn't know whether to fling the book across the room or fall out of my chair laughing! ;)
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I usually try to go with the laughing. I suspect it's better for me.
I haven't read Pauline Gedge (yet), but I will definitely check the books out! Thanks for that. And oooooh yes! If you would take a look - once I'm a bit nearer actually having something readable properly beaten out of my notes - I would be very, very grateful.
At the moment, it's a case of knowing what I want to incorporate, but trying to find the time to blindly absorb enough to understand how it's all going to come together. Nebulous is not the word!
The writer's guide sounds like a fabulous idea. Definitely, it's one of those areas where *good* research material is hard to come by, as well as accessible information on aspects of daily life and culture. Sounds promising!
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That's what I was working with - okay, we're shunting away from ideas of human sacrifice in those specific contexts (though those theories are still what seem to sell the most books with shiny embossed titles), but there are other possibilities. It's a fascinating field.
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Hope he didn't hobble out of the shadows at you. Same thing happened to the guy who was editing the OMSCWP anthology, actually. What can I say? I like my creepies. *grin*
Agreed, though, I just think there's such room to play with concepts like this. From an archaeological point of view, it's very rare to encounter anything that can be proven as murder, ritual or otherwise, yet - human nature being what it is - one assumes it *did* happen. My feeling is it's one of those things that has enough of a 'maybe' to work.
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Human nature, yes - evil brutes that we are! It's amazing, some of the stuff that went down. It definitely worked, not hard at all to imagine.
I lightly touch on Druidic history (or lack thereof) in Becoming, mostly as a visual remembrance, some toppled stones provide a little hangout for my main character where he experiences some interesting things. My accuracy is pretty slapdash though, I have to admit research isn't a strong point.
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I suppose the thing with accuracy there, though, is that so much falls under 'it *could* have happened'. Sneaky get-out clause. ;D