Someone once said that there’s no such thing as an original plot idea; it’s all been done before. The thing about this game is that the inventiveness and the freshness revolves around how that idea is spun. It can be as old as the hills but as long as the telling is something new, or not even new, but entertaining, then that’s what makes a good book or story. King exemplifies this in the simplicity of his ideas. Let’s think about some of them. A big dog goes bad. A car goes bad. A fan goes bad. A clown goes bad. There’s nothing particularly fresh or original about these ideas. It’s all in the telling or in the twist that puts familiar things together in a new way.
Sometimes I wonder at our readership. Some time ago, after the release of my second novel, Metal Sky, I was virtually accused online (including by Amazon reviewers) of plagiarism. I will come back to the subject of Amazon reviewers shortly. The simple fact of the matter is that the book is an unashamed homage to The Maltese Falcon. There is a great tradition within literature and film, especially in genre, of the homage. Witness Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai followed by The Magnificent Seven and thence to Battle Beyond the Stars. How many times has Shakespeare turned up in a plot somewhere else. Even Clive Cussler’s done it. I can’t remember the title of the book, but it was a new twist on King Lear in a few ways. Despite this, one reader even wrote to me, copying my editor, complaining about what I’d done. I answered, of course very politely, explaining the tradition of the homage and how it worked.
My first novel, Wyrmhole, drew heavily from The Big Sleep, and again, this was unashamed. I guess it just wasn’t so obvious, or people weren’t as familiar with the movie. I love noir, I love the images and the darkness and the grittiness. I love the underbelly and the wisecracks that go with it. The hardbitten, jaded protagonist, somewhat lost in the world as an iconic figure stands as an existential moral to us all. These are some of the things that inform and shape my writing, just as the things we live and the things we read influence the words that come from our fingers. Plagiarism? No. Writing about what I love? Yes.
The difference is, that not only do I love noir, I love the genre, our genre, in all its forms. Science fiction, fantasy, horror, dark fantasy, but with my novels, it’s not a car gone bad, or a big dog gone bad; it’s a classic noir figure stepped into a science fictional world.
So, where does this take us? The readers are important, always will be, yet sometimes I am dismayed at the reactions posted on message boards, or more damaging, in places like Amazon. The particular posts I was referring to earlier said things like “It was a good read…but”, or another which said “Entertaining but troubling.” Come on people. Isn’t that what we want? Entertainment and a good read. Taking it the step further and calling it plagiarism, well, that’s something I find entertaining but troubling. Why people don’t get it, and feel a need to post to the world that they really don’t get it is beyond me.
Still, someone once said to me that reviews are like horoscopes. If they’re good, it’s wonderful. If they’re bad, well, who believes that stuff anyway?
8 Comments, Comment or Ping
Anonymous
Non illegitimi carborundum
I once got an amazon review complaining that the second book in my fantasy trilogy was difficult to understand if you hadn’t read the first one. That can pretty much set the level of the room a good chunk of the time.
-richard
Jul 28th, 2005
Justine Musk
I’ve often thought that the nature of artistic influence is possibly the most misunderstood aspect of the whole creative process, at least by people who aren’t creative themselves. Every writer develops over time their personal palette of influences from which to work, and one of the keys to ‘originality’ is expanding that palette to include odd and esoteric things that most people perhaps don’t even know exist, as well as synthesizing everything into a voice and body and flavor uniquely your own. (One of the big problems with Hollywood movies is that they’re being made, with not a great deal of style or artistry, by a generation that obviously grew up on the same post-1975 blockbusters, so we keep getting stuff recycled from the stuff we still remember seeing ten or fifteen or twenty years ago. No wonder remakes of Asian horror films — something *new*, at least to us — were such a hit).
At any rate, I’m resigned (sort of) to the fact that some readers will assume the last third of my novel, which involves the desert and rock’n'roll (and supernatural drugs), was inspired by Anne Rice’s QUEEN OF THE DAMNED — when in fact it came from the idea of the Burning Man Festival gone demonic. But there *is* a section in the book that so obviously owes a creative debt to SILENCE OF THE LAMBS I can’t believe no one has called me on it. Yet!
And finally, Jay — I believe we share the same editor, Liz Scheier — she gave me a copy of Wyrmhole many months ago, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Jul 28th, 2005
Jetse
For one: good homages are very hard to do.
For another: reviews?
Of course, I’ve written reviews myself for The Fix, so will probably have offended many a writer.
Still, I do hope I’ve never asked for the impossible, like in Mark Watson’s review of Interzone #199, and especially your story (”Sunset”): http://www.bestsf.net/reviews/interzone199.html
“Probably could have done with a little more length.”; “perhaps a tighter approach featuring just one couple who faced the dilemma might have been better?”
So Jay, you must use “a tighter approach”, “with a little more length”. I’d like to see how you–or anybody else, for that matter–can pull it off…
Jetse
Jul 28th, 2005
Jay Caselberg
LOL, Jetse. My first reaction to that review was “Grrrrr,” and then it went to “Meh.” Personally, I think he got it wrong. I’m far more heartened by the readers on the TTA Board who said they enjoyed it. That’s enough for me.
Jul 28th, 2005
David Niall Wilson
I suppose I’ve given up on the notion of everyone “getting” it. I’d probably have made sure that in an acknowledgment, or in the cover copy somewhere, it mentioned that it was an homage, just for the added safety of it. I don’t think the Amazon reviews are damaging, though…most bad ones are written at the same level they are thought through, and I can’t imagine an intelligent reader getting snared by them..
DNW
Jul 28th, 2005
terry
This board is starting to seriously creep me out…
When Janet wrote about anthologies I was just finishing up on one and her post deftly added a bit of insight to what goes into their creation which helped to balance my experince. Having finished the book now, I have been wondering about where to offer my review of it. Eternal Night have welcomed me a as reviewer for them and I have a review pending posting there at the moment. I also have a couple of books coming from SF Reader which will of course be reviewed there.
I guess my question is: do any of you have any places where you most like to see your work reviewed? Places you believe readers are more likely to trust? Do you feel better seeing your review in a first rate, small circulation print source or some where there is less scrutiny of the skill of the reviewer but wide exposure? (Amazon excluded of course. I would decline to review something before I’d post there. I have my dignity.
I used to submit my reviews to Alien Online before Ariel made the decision to discontinue reviews there and I felt it provided a good balance of credibility and accessabilty to readers and newer reviewers like me. Frankly, I miss it
Jul 28th, 2005
Janet Berliner
Thanks, Terry. I think we’re all happy to be reviewed by someone who gives a damn. That’s a whole lot more significant than where the review appears, at least it is to me. The ppb of ARTIFACT will be out in November. I imagine Forge will send you one if you ask. Janet
Jul 28th, 2005
Scott Nicholson
Well, by the third book, I’m sure you’ll stop reading Amazon reviews!
Jul 29th, 2005
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