How (not) to do research. · 1:56am Aug 4th, 2020
John Boyne is a serious author, who writes serious books. None of this "genre" malarkey, you know.
And as it would happen, his most recent novel, A Traveller at the Gates of Wisdom, spans thousands of years across the whole of human history. Because he is a serious author, you know.
And, in the span of human history, Boyne relates a recipe for red clothing dye ... that's from a Zelda game. OOPS.
There is a lesson, here.
Though now that I look into it, Boyne seems to have a track record for having absolutely terrible historical inaccuracies throughout his books. He writes these errors off as "fables" which, roughly translated, means "cop out answer for being a hack."
Because he is a serious novelist.
Anyway! Lessons aside, I'm actually doing fairly well. Had some unexpected news get dumped in my lap, which ... well, it's GOOD news, at least? I'm vaguebooking (vagueblogging?) about it because I like to keep an Air of Mystery(tm), but hey. I'm gonna try to buckle down and work on some writing stuff in the next couple months, so yaaaay. Though it will likely not be pony things-- sorry to disappoint. Though I might sneak in something short and silly as a palate cleanser at some point, especially if an idea takes me.
But yeah. The world is still freaking crazy outside, but at least I've got some stuff to focus on to distract me from it, so ... that's something, right?
Anyway, stay safe out there, ya weirdos.
Gosh, this blog is mysterious! :O
Hey... 5 seconds on Google is research. Millions agree.
I mean, are we sure Attila the Hun wasn't an incarnation of Ganondorf?
Good luck with your current project.
He's also super-transphobic and awful, for the record.
5328720 Millions of students, if nothing else.
Research: Have a 1399 AD era Swords and Sorcery story in process where I wanted the main character to wear a green vest. Heck, all the classic stories are full of green clothes, from England's Robin Hood to elves and various... Oh, the year 1399 was a century before Lincoln Green? And the green from the 1800s had enough arsinic in it to kill the wearer? Heck. Ok, since it's a sorcery novel, the color green then can indicate the magical dying process which is temporary and fades, so if you meet somebody clad in bright green, you can be fairly certain they are a mage, or have one in close employ who may have warded their employer with magic protections etc... So a little research led me to add specific background to the world in a way that I can use to 'paint' expectations for characters.
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Which makes the schafenfraude all the sweeter, I suppose.
Honestly I've been too transfixed on dead authors to notice this kind of shit 95% of the time. Just blazed through D. H. Lawrence's Studies in Classic American Literature. Way campier than what one would expect from a book with such a title, but then Lawrence was a flamboyant (and probably queer) dude.
Personally, I never understood why "genre" gets so much hate in the literary world. Genre or not, it is all just a bunch of words strung together. The real test of skill is if you put them together in a way that is interesting to read and engages the audience.
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Eh. There's been a subset of people who have always been snotty about 'popular' literature. It doesn't help that Sci-fi/Fantasy/Mystery/Romance all have origins in cheap, mass-produced formats often of dubious quality-- both in the binding and in the writing.
To some snobs, anything that isn't about a middle aged white guy cheating on his wife and buying a boat isn't worth the time.
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I wonder how they react to being called an indie rock groupie of the literary world. "I'd rather be special than popular. I'll just ignore the fact that neither special nor popular are directly equatable to quality and simply use this arbitrary distinction to claim I'm better than you. Also, the goal posts are so mobile even I dont know where they're at."
As for questionable origins, I'm pretty sure most authors were once wrinkled balls of squalling illiterate flesh that had just gotten done being shoved through some poor woman's overly distended vagina.
Okay, given that this is a reply to a blog post on a fanfiction site, I'm preaching to the choir. Literary snobs just bug me, I suppose.
Write what you know, I suppose. Now we just need to start referring to it as escapist fantasy and watch their heads explode.