And apparently have agreed with in the past, without knowing it. Philip Pullman wrote a terrific thing just now for the New York Times on how fantasy is simply what you sometimes have to write if your mind is set that way. He glances sideways at, but doesn’t quite charge full tilt into, the idiot idea some people have that writing about “real things” is necessarily more valuable and useful than writing about “unreal things”. But we seem to be of one mind about the business of getting the writing done. This is not a democracy: if it’s going to work, we have to be despots. We can be benevolent ones, if we like, if the circumstances permit…but (in novel writing at least) no one else gets a vote as to what to do to make the story work best. Doing what we do — I’ll extend my vanity so far as to put myself in the same boat with Pullman — is a heart’s-blood matter. And nobody but God and I get to vote on when my heart beats faster, and for what.
Ooo, that sounded fierce. But it’s nice to know I’m not delusional when I think these things. Or if I am, millionaires share the delusion. (grin)
(As so often, thanks to Jessa at Blog of a Bookslut for the link.)
