yakalskovich | Epic fantasy is epic

Entry tags:

game of thrones,
tv

Epic fantasy is epic

Slowly getting hooked on 'Game of Thrones'. I like how they take time to tell the story, give you time to start caring about all those characters. My favourites so far are Tyrion Lannister, and Littlefinger, and I must admit to a certain predilection for Danaerys despite the fact there this feeling of "one trope too many" around her which so far prevents her from developing much non-tropical personality.

I find it slightly worrying that the entire series of books isn't even completely written yet. Eventually, Wikipedia assures me, people are certain that the three story lines (only starting out at where I am) of a power struggle in King's Landing, Danaerys beyond the sea, and Jon Snow up at the Wall will come together. But how can they if they aren't written yet?

What I like is how there are really alien elements in the familiarity of High Fantasy's perpetual middle ages, starting with the odd square things the priests (or whatever, Maesters?) wear on their shoulders at Jon Arryn's funeral rites at the very beginning, mediterrenean/oriental elements both in King's Landing and beyond the sea, and the steampunk/fallen former technical civilisation elements at the Wall. Suddenly, clockwork elevators and steel t-beam constructions, whoops! That tells us that many long winters ago/before the dragons came/ whatever, civilisation was much more advanced. The Wall itself -- what in blazes might have built it?

So many delightful answers that might be so many years in the coming. I don't know that I'll want to read the books (my to-be-read-pile has reached Pluto, who tells the books on top of the stack that he's a planet, never mind what those haters say), but I guess until somebody commits bad shark-jumping the way Supernatural has, I'll be along for the ride, show-wise.-

ETA: Ahahahahahahhhh, Guppy Sandhu as a barbarian warrior! I knew I know that face!!! That made me hoot with laughter, and totally killed my Suspension of Disbelief there, as bad as Caserta in Star Wards Episode 1... Now I scared the cats away with my raucous laughter.-

ETA2: Now with pictorial proof:

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Perfect!

Actually the state hospitals were a vast improvement over the asylums -- which were essentially holding pens for anyone deemed unfit.

The danger is the state hospitals is that this was the era of eugenics and the beginning of experimentation in psychiatry. While the insulin-induced seizures were not yet tested, the idea of "shocking" the brain into fixing itself was already being discussed.

And then we enter the 1930s and the nightmare era.

Yes.-

And that is why old state hospitals are such a favourite subject for scary stories of all sorts. I don't know how much you want to make your protagonist suffer, but with a little stretch of imagination, you can have really bad things happen to him. Or not, if you go for the private clinic things.-

It's not that I want to make my protagonist suffer...

Well, there are two of them actually. One is an immigrant who has witnessed unspeakable things in the old country and then in the treatment of immigrants in America. The other -- the gay one -- is from a wealthy, sheltered existence who has never experienced anything negative in his life.

Until he meets his friend who "corrupts" him, in the minds of his parents. In the end, he is forced to sign a statement to that effect which results in the imprisonment of his friend. (The friend is an adult; the character is 17).

After a severe bout of depression and a half-hearted suicide attempt, his mother whisks him out of town to seek help from a forward-thinking group of psychiatrists, neurologists, psychologists. I chose the group in Worcester as they were exposed to Freud and Jung (Hall, the head of the group, was the one to invite Freud to give the lectures). Hall is certainly not a savory character (he was a eugenicist and a proto-Nazi), but he exemplifies a major current in the society at large.

As character #2 (our immigrant friend) is a doctor, I also felt he would be able to find a place in this environment -- working in some lowly position that enables him to observe the masters at work.

The story is a series of conversations between the young, depressed boy who is unable to accept what happened to his friend (and himself, mostly) and the older man who has witnessed so much over the course of time.

I think the suffering is crucial because it shows the young, rich boy how comparatively cushy his life is.

But perhaps I just have an axe to grind. LOL

I'd really like to read that when it's done. Sounds fascinating.-

Are you kidding? You are getting my first born for holding my hand and giving me a leg up on research!

:D

Also, I have been looking into modes of transportation outside of the big cities (Worcester isn't Egypt, but it's hardly New York). I actually assumed that the standard form of transportation would still be carriage for the streets (trains for the longer haul).

Thoughts?

Trains for longer hauls, carriages in the cities, first cars owned by the richest people in towns (in America, there were already Tin Lizzies, so not just the stinking rich but also the really well to do might have had cars at that stage), bicycles which were quite popular with young people, and lots and lots of walking. Larger cities would have had trams as well, of course. Horse trolleys were probably seriously on their way out by 1915.

I always associate horse trolleys with everything Mid-West and West and carriages with the East coast.

When I looked at the stats, even in the 1930s, only 1 family in 4 owned a car and the roads were so unreliable, it was more of a nuisance to have one.

Depending on where were, people might even have ridden horseback for transportation. Much really depended on the condition of the roads, you're right.

I think in the "older" towns -- because the East coast is old and established, it's reasonable to assume that they would have horses. Putting in horse-drawn trollies is such a major undertaking! I can see it in the newer cities, but I would think it would wreak havoc in the East (plus I know those roads and how narrow they are. Trying driving in Back Bay in Boston sometime.)

But I'm wrong!

The first important improvement over the omnibus was the streetcar. The first streetcars were also pulled by horses, however, instead of riding along a regular street, the streetcars rolled along special steel rails that were placed in the middle of the street. The wheels of the streetcar were also made out of steel, carefully manufactured in such a way that they would not roll off the rails. A horse-drawn streetcar was much more comfortable than an omnibus and a single horse could also pull a streetcar that was much larger, and carried more passengers, than an omnibus.

The first streetcar ran along Bowery Street in New York, and began service in the year 1832. It was owned John Mason, a wealthy banker, and built by Irishmen, John Stephenson. Stephenson's New York company would become the largest and most famous builder of horse-drawn streetcars.

Well, New York definitely had them.

But not Worcester!

It's funny, writing fic, I have the same feeling I used to have teaching undergrads: "What if they know more than I do???" *panicking*

I HATE it when readers call you on something. You're like, "er, oh that..."

Research is fun!!

I know! If only we could make a living researching exclusively what we want!

That would be enormous fun. I wouldn't even mind if I researched special historical and cultural subjects for people who need the knowledge in concise form. I pride myself on being able to get into anythings whatsoever on these wide fields.-

Yeah, unfortunately, making a living doing that is virtually impossible.

When I was in Soviet History, US Intelligence had a vested interest in knowing as much as they can so they generously funded Soviet Studies centers across the nation.

Those have now been replaced with funding for Latin American and Middle Eastern studies.

I don't have the staying power to be an academic; I research things until I am content, then move on. Especially the details of academic politics are not for me.

So no chance I'd ever get a grant for doing otherwise useless research...

For me it was the prospect of living in South Dakota or Alabama...

There just aren't any jobs out there and even then they don't pay enough to allow you to travel.

And I have no desire to live in a backwater. :)

I do it for fun, keeps my brain happy. Of course, if I get my novel published, I shall be happy, but I will never make a living off that.

If I don't research anything, I'm probably sick or overextended at work. Usually, there's always something I'm getting into and poking online and finding stuff out about.

I know! I could never have done religious history if I'd stuck with Soviet Russia and I was born to attend Divinity School!!

I sometimes suspect I like the process of hunting knowledge better than the actual results.-

I like both.

I love doing tons and tons of research just for the back ground. LOL

And details! Learning details about the most banal things is just wonderful. And places -- I love going to places I research and find out the things you only know by being there. Like St. Petersburg. Re-reading my WIP the other week, I was amazed how much research I'd poured even into throw-away remarks, like the way you couldn't possible turn left off Nevski Prospekt into the driveway of a palace...

I know! Like the street surfaces of Worcester, Mass in 1918! (too many potholes).

I have spent hours pouring over maps and have had a thoroughly enjoyable morning.

I should have been an archaeologist...

like the way you couldn't possible turn left off Nevski Prospekt into the driveway of a palace...

Soooooooo funny! When my husband was writing his history of jazz, his copy editor said "this stop doesn't exist on the Chicago line".

So he actually photocopied old pictures of the stop to send to her. It did exist in 1916, just not in 1996! lol

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