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kate_nepveu) wrote2007-05-25 09:39 pm
Bittercon: Levels and Limits of Metafictionality
Bittercon panel number three. And dual-purpose of getting something off my to-write list!
Levels and Limits of Metafictionality
Stories about stories. When can the teller of a story successfully interact with the story, and when is it a cheat?
Examples that I think work (how they do is spoiler-protected and cut for length): Pamela Dean's Secret Country trilogy, in which kids cross into another world and it looks like their "let's pretend" game is real; the musical The Drowsy Chaperone, where a fan of a musical plays a record, imagines the production, and talks to the audience about the songs, staging, artists, and story; Katherine Blake's (Dorothy Heydt) novel The Interior Life, in which a housewife has detailed daydreams about a secondary fantasy world. What else? And is Dream of the Endless automatically disqualified?
(Don't spoil people, please: ROT13 spoilers or put them between <span style="color: #999999; background-color: #999999"> </span>.)
All spoilers are ROT13'ed, which I prefer because I'm sure no-one's styles will mess it up.
The Secret Country trilogy: hzz, rzoneenffvatyl V qba'g guvax V pna npphengryl qrfpevor gur zrpunavfz orpnhfr vg'f orra n juvyr, ohg pregnvayl gur bgure jbeyq jnf erny; gurer jnf whfg fbzr jnl gung fgbevrf sebz bhe jbeyq pebffrq bire naq unq rssrpg ba gurvef. Evtug?
The Drowsy Chaperone: gur aneengbe trgf nyy fnq ng gur raq naq cnhfrf gur erpbeq, naq gur punenpgref va gur zhfvpny pbzr bhg bs gurve sebmra cbfrf naq vapbecbengr uvz vagb gur qnapr fprar—juvpu ng svefg unq zr ivoengvat jvgu vaqvtangvba, ohg ng gur raq bs gur ahzore ur'f onpx va uvf punve, naq vg frrzrq pyrne gung ur jnf vzntvavat orvat cneg bs vg gb yvsg uvf fcvevgf, be vg jnf n zrgncube sbe gur cbjre bs fgbel gb erzbir barfrys sebz bar'f gebhoyrf; gur zhfvpny jnfa'g ernyyl gnxvat cynpr va uvf ncnegzrag.
The Interior Life: V jnf pbaivaprq gung gur ubhfrjvsr jbhyq pebff vagb gur frpbaqnel snagnfl jbeyq, naq V jnf fb vzcerffrq jura fur qvqa'g.
no subject
I do think the metafiction needs to play fair, but even then there are some readers who won't follow a writer there. They're just not interested in the same way someone else would not be interested in a story about a detective who has conversation after conversation about some incident that occurred in the past. I love it, but I can see why others wouldn't.
And I completely forgot a metafiction "book" I read years ago: the Animal Man comics from the late eighties.
Animal Man was an uninspiring hero in the DC Universe that had a string of very strange issues at the end of Grant Morrison's run. Ur svefg zrg n pnegbba Jvyr R. Pblbgr jub unq onetnvarq jvgu uvf navzngbe gb or frg serr sebz uvf bja ivbyrag jbeyq vagb gur pbzvp obbx jbeyq. Gur raq bs gur vffhr npghnyyl fubjrq na navzngbe'f cnvag oehfu pbybevat va gur fprar.
Bire gur arkg frireny vffhrf, Navzny Zna'f snzvyl vf xvyyrq, naq juvyr ur tbrf penml gnxvat eriratr, ur ortvaf gb ernyvmr gung ur'f n svpgvbany punenpgre va n pbzvp obbx. Ur geniryf gb gur arirejbeyq jurer hahfrq punenpgref jnvg gb or jevggra vagb gur fgbevrf ntnva. Ur zrrgf punenpgref jub erzrzore gur erinzcf naq erivfvbaf gung gur rqvgbef unir qvpgngrq bagb gur QP Havirefr. Punenpgref gnxr abgr bs gur cnary obeqref naq pbzzrag ba gur tvnag snprf bs gur ernqref ybbxvat qbja ba gurz naq rawblvat gurve zvfrel. Navzny Zna rira zbirf bhgfvqr gur obeqref bs gur pbzvp cnaryf gb tnva na nqinagntr va n svtug.
Svanyyl, ur zrrgf uvf bja jevgre, naq gur gjb bs gurz fcraq na ragver vffhr gnyxvat nobhg nyy gur ubeevoyr guvatf gur jevgre qvq gb gur punenpgre, naq gur jevgre'f whfgvsvpngvba sbe vg. Gurl raq gur vffhr, nf V erzrzore, jvgu gur jevgre oevatvat Navzny Zna'f snzvyl onpx gb yvsr--rffragvnyyl jvcvat njnl gur ynfg frireny vffhrf jvgu "Vg jnf bayl n qernz" be fbzrguvat fvzvyne.
At the time I first read it, I didn't care for it much. I was looking for something specific and this wasn't it. I'd like a chance to go back to it again now that I'm older and very, very slighty more mature.
no subject
What a very peculiar comic you describe. I have a hard time believing it could work, but then, it's all about the execution, isn't it?
no subject
Makes me think of Van Allsburg's Bad Day at Riverbend and Pratchett's "Final Reward".