Introducing Mr Perky: Subverting the Fantasy Trope of Immortality in Contemporary Speculative Fiction
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Introducing Mr Perky: Subverting the fantasy trope of immortality in contemporary speculative fiction Jennifer Ryan A novel (published under the pseudonym Jennifer Fallon) and exegesis submitted for the requirements of the Masters of Arts (Research) Faculty of Creative Industries Queensland University of Technology 2009 i Key Words Fantasy, immortal, immortality, fantasy tropes, immortality tropes, desire for immortality, fiction, genre fiction, publishing, ways to kill immortals, plot device, Fallon, Canavan, Tolkien. ii Abstract The Tide Lords series of fantasy novels set out to examine the issue of immortality. Its purpose was to look at the desirability of immortality, specifically why people actively seek it. It was meant to examine the practicality of immortality, specifically — having got there, what does one do to pass the time with eternity to fill? I also wished to examine the notion of true immortality — immortals who could not be killed. What I did not anticipate when embarking upon this series, and what did not become apparent until after the series had been sold to two major publishing houses in Australia and the US, was the strength of the immortality tropes. This series was intended to fly in the face of these tropes, but confronted with the reality of such a work, the Australian publishers baulked at the ideas presented, requesting the series be re-written with the tropes taken into consideration. They wanted immortals who could die, mortals who wanted to be immortal. And a hero with a sense of humour. This exegesis aims to explore where these tropes originated. It will also discuss the ways I negotiated a way around the tropes, and was eventually able to please the publishers by appearing to adhere to the tropes, while still staying true to the story I wanted to tell. As such, this discussion is, in part, an analysis of how an author negotiates the tensions around writing within a genre while trying to innovate within it. iii Contents Key Words .......................................................................................................... ii Abstract ............................................................................................................. iii Contents ............................................................................................................ iv Statement of Authorship ....................................................................................... v Acknowledgements ............................................................................................. vi 1. Introduction – The Fantasy Definition of Immortal ........................................... 1 2. Methodology - Fitting a Square Peg into a Round Hole ..................................... 5 3. Literature Review ........................................................................................ 10 3.1 Trope: that immortality is desirable ........................................................... 13 3.2 Trope: that immortals can be killed ........................................................... 17 4. Case Studies ............................................................................................... 19 4.1. Priestess of the White – Book 1 of The Age of Five Gods by Trudi Canavan .. 21 4.2. The Immortal Prince – Book 1 of the Tide Lords ......................................... 25 4.3. Reflective Case Study - The Gods of Amyrantha – Book 2 of the Tide Lords .. 29 5. Conclusion .................................................................................................. 34 6. Bibliography ................................................................................................ 36 iv Statement of Authorship The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted for a degree or diploma at any other institution. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made. Signature ________________________ Date ___________________ v Acknowledgements I would like to thank the members of my cohort for their support, particularly Sonny Whitelaw for writing an exegesis which helped me define my thoughts, Anita Blake for her advice and Valerie Parv for posting simple but brilliant questions that helped solve a potential plot problem in the subsequent books that followed The Gods of Amyrantha. I must also mention the help of my supervisor, Craig Bolland, for his input and Nike Bourke, who made our retreat so interesting. vi 1. Introduction – The Fantasy Definition of Immortal As a writer, I have always laboured under the belief that my creative work — the story I wished to tell and the world in which I wished to set it — was sacrosanct. I have never been averse to new ideas, criticism or editorial input, because, by and large, it has always served to improve the tale I wished to tell. If I disagreed with suggested editorial changes, I have been able to defend my stance and have usually won the argument. I am also fortunate to enjoy a very close and effective working relationship with Stephanie Smith, my editor at HarperCollins Publishers, Australia, who has overseen my previous nine successful fantasy books, all of which were published by HarperCollins, in Australia, as well as being published in the US, the UK, Germany, France, and Russia. In 2005, I sold a new, four-book fantasy series to Tor in the US and HarperCollins Publishers, Australia. Sold on synopsis and a detailed plot outline, the overarching premise of the series was immortality. Specifically, it related to the simplest definition of immortality — not subject to death (Collier 1977, 514) — rather than allowing my characters an “out”, or, as fantasy author Trudi Canavan refers to it: “the fantasy definition of immortal” (Fallon 2005). According to Canavan (ibid), the “fantasy definition of immortal” in contemporary1 speculative fiction2 presupposes two things. Firstly, that one desires immortality, and secondly, that immortality means long-lived and not subject to ageing, rather than the inability to die. 1 In this exegesis, contemporary is regarded as the period in which the work was published or produced. 2 In this exegesis, speculative fiction is regarded as works of fiction published under current publishers’ imprints, such as Voyager, Orbit, Tor, etc., which by their own admission, specialise in publishing this genre. 1 Faced with the challenge of creating a world where immortality defied these suppositions, the first book of the Tide Lords series, The Immortal Prince3, was submitted to HarperCollins Australia in early 2006. Following several lengthy discussions with both my agent and my editor, two issues were identified as follows: 1. The protagonist — an immortal desperately searching for a way to die — was unsympathetic. Readers liked the idea of immortality and it therefore was dangerous to present the idea as being less than desirable. 2. Because the immortals of this series (who are the enemy of mankind) could not be killed, the human characters would never be able to kill them. Therefore, the story lacked hope for a happy ending. It became clear that this was genre, not literary, fiction, and as such, it must work within the tropes of the genre. Charles Babbage’s view of immortality, expressed as early as 1838, “The wish universally felt, and expressed in every variety of form, to remain in the memory of our fellow creatures... has sometimes been explained as being founded of an instinctive belief that we are destined to be immortal..." (Babbage 2007, 82) appeared to be the prevailing sentiment and my editor at HarperCollins, Stephanie Smith, was adamant Voyager’s readers shared this view (Personal interview, 2006). A rewrite was commissioned with the request that the “manically-depressed, suicidal immortal protagonist” be re-worked so he was more upbeat. 3 The proposed title of the first book in this series was Suicide of the Immortals but this title was rejected for being unmarketable. 2 This suggestion was problematic. Not only would such a change invalidate the entire premise of the series, but also made the plots of the other three books to follow redundant. I do not think this hesitation on the publisher's part to buck the trope of immortality was intended to force me to produce a work I did not want to write. Rather, in my opinion, the eager acceptance of my four-book proposal now seems solid poof of the strength of the trope. It is my belief that my original proposal, and its implications, were not examined in detail when first submitted, where my intentions were revealed at the outset. Rather it was skimmed over, the key words “immortals” and “Jennifer Fallon” identified, and the series purchased on the strength of two key factors: the immortality trope, a repeating theme that historically always does well in fantasy, and a named author with a sufficiently sound sales record to take a risk on a publishable work on the subject being produced. Only when confronted with a work that defied the tropes did the publisher express concern. In my opinion, had the proposal been submitted by a less well-known author, it would have been examined more closely, and these issues raised prior to the sale of the work, not on receipt of the first manuscript. The time frame in which the publisher’s concerns were identified did not mitigate the need to address them, however. In order to deal with these issues, the tropes needed to be defined, and a way around them discovered, that would allow the