{"id":32498,"date":"2016-06-13T06:30:08","date_gmt":"2016-06-12T18:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=32498"},"modified":"2016-06-12T16:50:55","modified_gmt":"2016-06-12T04:50:55","slug":"having-fun-with-epic-fantasy-making-the-grand-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2016\/06\/13\/having-fun-with-epic-fantasy-making-the-grand-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"Having Fun with Epic Fantasy: Making the Grand Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few weeks back I posted on why epic fantasy keeps \u201cspeaking\u201d to us<\/a>, by which what I really meant is that despite its critics, people keep writing and reading in the genre. I discussed epic\u2019s mythic roots and how it allows readers to step outside the everyday and focus on a wider world\u2014but in a way that lets us have some fun as well. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Beowulf<\/a>Since then, I\u2019ve found myself coming back to the fun and reflecting on some of the elements of classic epic fantasy that I most enjoy. So much so that I thought I\u2019d share a few of those elements here, starting today with \u201cepic fantasy and the Grand Tour\u201d\u2014because ever since Beowulf first sailed to Hrothgar\u2019s hall, the quest journey has been one of the most distinctive elements of epic.<\/span><\/p>\n

Usually the journey is physically conceived\u2014something that\u2019s mighty fine by me because it facilitates world building, one of the elements I most love in speculative fiction. The characters get to travel and see their world, a journey that can operate at any number of levels, including the environmental \/ geographic, cultural, and magical. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Lord<\/a>The Lord of the Rings<\/em> set the standard, with the grand tour from the Shire to Mordor and side trips to such exotic destinations as Rivendell and Moria, Fangorn and Rohan. \u201cCultural\u201d diversity was derived chiefly from the difference between species such as elves, dwarves, and ents, but there was plenty of historical tourism woven in: for example, Weathertop as the locale where Elendel waited for Gil-galad in the Last Alliance between elves and men, Lothlorien as a remnant of the elder world, and the passage of the Argonath.<\/span><\/p>\n

The epic journey continues in Robert Jordan\u2019s Wheel of Time <\/strong>series, with the splitting of the party \"\"<\/a>enabling more destinations to be experienced in terms of social organisation\u2014the Aiel and Seanchan probably being the most distinctive\u2014weaponry, clothes, and food. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Gardens_of_the_Moon\"<\/a>Steven Erikson\u2019s Malazan<\/strong> series is more culturally and species diverse, with continents such as Genebackis and the Seven Cities comprising beings such as the Forkrul Assail, T\u2019lan Imass, Jaghut and K\u2019chain Che\u2019malle, as well as entities as diverse as the Azath Houses. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Hundred-Thousand-Kingdoms\"<\/a>Sometimes, as in NK Jemisin\u2019s The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms<\/em><\/strong>, the story only begins with a journey, but that in itself sets the scene for a diverse cultural and political world, bringing the focus squarely to the \u2018centre\u2019\u2014a city where the heroine\u2014Yeine\u2019s\u2014quest becomes both political and essentially internal in nature.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"New<\/a>Yet that, too, is the nature of epic fantasy\u2019s Grand Tour, not simply to \u2018see the world\u2019 in the context of travel miles, but to grow in knowledge and self-awareness through doing so. Often that growth may be painful\u2014something we see very clearly with characters such as Pippin in The Lord of the Rings<\/em><\/strong>, Cithrin in Daniel Abraham\u2019s The Path of Dragons<\/strong>,<\/em> and Jobber in Midori Snyder\u2019s New Moon<\/em><\/strong>. <\/span><\/p>\n

It may even be argued that the point of the external journey is to mirror the character\u2019s internal progress. But that would be getting away from the point, which is that the journey is part of the fun of epic fantasy, offering colour, adventure, fellow travellers\u2014both diverse and dull\u2014the opportunity to open one\u2019s mind or cling rigidly to previously held experience, and plenty of road dust.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet the real<\/em> point, and the fun, may simply be the journey itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

\"sfsignalLogov4\"<\/a>Recently, I and many others in the SFF \u2018verse bid a find and sorrowful farewell to SF Signal<\/a>. As part of my personal recognition of the site\u2019s contribution to the speculative fiction conversation, I thought I would \u2014 randomly! \u2014 re-post some of the articles I contributed over the past six years. I hope you may enjoy them again here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few weeks back I posted on why epic fantasy keeps \u201cspeaking\u201d to us, by which what I really meant is that despite its critics, people keep writing and reading in the genre. I discussed epic\u2019s mythic roots and how it allows readers to step outside the everyday and focus on a wider world\u2014but in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-epicfantasy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32498"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32505,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32498\/revisions\/32505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}