Bittercon: Levels and Limits of Metafictionality

[kate_nepveu]

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.

Comments

[papersky.livejournal.com]

I think in The Interior Life the thing that impressed me most about that was when someone was talking to someone else, in the fantasy world, and used the character from the real world as an example of a friend's experience. I loved that. I really admire the way that book makes things work that shouldn't work, and also how amazingly positive it is. Downbeat is so much easier to write than genuinely positive.

As for the Secret Country books, the mechanism -- jnf gung fgbevrf cnffrq guebhtu sebz bhe jbeyq jurer vzntvangvba vf vzntvangvba, gb gurvef, jurer vzntvangvba naq perngvivgl ner zntvp, ohg lbh pna pubbfr jurgure gurl svg lbh be abg. Zrynavr tnir gur puvyqera fgbevrf be fbzrguvat sebz gurve jbeyq jura gur puvyqera jrer va bhe jbeyq (vg'f abg rkcynvarq ubj, abe ubj gur puvyqera fb pybfryl erfrzoyr gur Eblny Puvyqera) ohg gur tnzr gurl cynlrq gura nssrpgrq gur Frperg Pbhagel jbeyq... rkprcg jvgu pubvpr va gurer.

Va gur svefg obbx, orsber gur zheqre naq pbebangvba, V ernyyl yvxr gur jnl vg vagrenpgf, jura gurl'er gelvat gb fgbc jung gurl xabj vf tbvat gb unccra. Va gur frpbaq obbx, guvf nyfb jbexf jryy, naq gura va gur guveq jurer gur crbcyr va gur jbeyq xabj gurl'er vzcbfgref gung tvirf vg serfuarff, ohg V qb svaq vg yrff pbby, rfcrpvnyyl jura vg arrqf gb or rkcynvarq. Ubjrire, V ybir gur npghny raq fb zhpu V'yy sbetvir vg nalguvat.

Great books.

[kate_nepveu]

Man, now I want to re-read _The Interior Life_. Can't! Must read all this stuff to vote in the Hugos and Campbells!

It doesn't really surprise me that it didn't sell well, even without the terrible cover, but I do wish it could be made available now from Lulu or as an e-book or something.

Thank you for the explanation of the Secret Country books--that was very embarrassing.

I love books that prove wrong the instinctive reaction that "no, that couldn't possibly be done well."

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

The Interior Life might have done better published a mainstream novel-- it reminds of Anne Tyler as a fantasy writer-- but maybe not. It strikes me as being too mainstream for most fantasy readers, and too genre for most mainstream readers.

[kate_nepveu]

Yeah, that's why I'm not surprised. My guess is that it's a book with a really small but fervent audience.

[martin-wisse.livejournal.com]

That horrid cover did stop my partner, who for the most part has an excellent taste in literature, from reading it.

[kate_nepveu]

They make these fabric-y book cover things . . .

[mikeda.livejournal.com]

So did you catch the bit with the fonts in _The Interior Life_?

If I recall correctly, the idea was that there were different fonts for the different worlds (and perhaps other things but that's the one I remember).

It didn't work as well as hoped, since the fonts used were too similar in appearance.

[kate_nepveu]

I noticed them, but I notice things like that. Unfortunately I don't think they could've done three really different fonts without problems--either being ugly, or taking up too much page, or being unreadable. There's a reason books are basically printed in similar-ish serifed fonts, after all.

[mikeda.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately I don't think they could've done three really different fonts without problems

Perhaps.

But they should at least have been able to make the two main fonts more distinct.

(If I'm interpreting the relevant rasfw discussion correctly, the third font is used much less than the other two.)

[readinggeek451]

Yes, the third one's only used a little.

It's really at least five fonts, though, because both of the two main ones also appear in italics.