At Play In The Fields Of Fantasy

AT PLAY IN THE FIELDS OF FANTASY I love fantasy, and science fiction, and horror, which is why I get very nervous, delicate, prickly, impatient, and so forth. once I get the sensation somebody’s making fun of it. During my time at Wizards of the Coast we had been often confronted with exactly this sentiment from D&D, Forgotten Realms, and Dragonlance followers. When we released books that had a “tongue-in-cheek” or worse, outright satirical take on any of those properties, boy did the followers push again, and finally, they have been proper. I feel the same means in regards to the “silly episodes” of Star Trek (why did they do those in each sequence?) and no variety of favorable reviews or heartfelt recommendations (okay, go ahead and submit them within the feedback here, it’s okay) of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books have managed to coerce me to learn one. I don’t need fantasy to be made fun of, as a result of meaning you’re making fun of me for liking it, for writing it, for helping different pe ople write it . . . for my whole life and a strong decade and a half (no less than) of my grownup, professional life. Ridicule fantasy and you’re ridiculing what’s paying my daughter’s faculty tuition even as we communicate. If fantasy is foolish and solely to be laughed at then the house I’m living in, down fee courtesy of R.A. Salvatore’s War of the Spider Queen Book V: Annihilation, is a 1700 square-foot joke. See how defensive I get and the way shortly I get there? This weekend, once more based mostly on private recommendations from pals whose opinions I respect (one of the simplest ways to search out anything good) and taunted by too-revealing commercials on Xfinity On Demand, I rented The Cabin in the Woods. Here’s another thing you possibly can flame out on me about: I’m not a big Joss Whedon fan. There. I said it. That doesn’t mean I hate him or need to censor him, and I respect him as a successful creator, and I tried to love Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but I simply couldn’t. There’s lots I like about Alien: Resurrection, nevertheless it’s my least favorite of the 4 (seven when you count the two AVP motion pictures and Prometheus, which I suppose I ought to, which might then make it my sixth favorite with the second AVP movie taking over the rear) . . . however I digress. I think Joss Whedon has a fantastic humorousness, however lots of Buffy got here off as mocking to me, and that’s enough to knock me right out. I missed Firefly. I know. Whatever. Anyway, back to The Cabin in the Woods. SPOILER ALERT! Look at this picture of a bunny and cease right here if you haven’t seen The Cabin in the Woods yet. No bunnies have been harmed within the writing of this publish. Okay, now that we’re alone and can discuss. Someone had already spoiled the ending of The Cabin within the Woods for me, at least in broad phrases, assuming I’d seen it. So I knew it ended with the apocalypse, but otherwise I had no idea what to anticipate from it . Only after the fine of us at Xfinity started exhibiting me scenes of the “puppet masters” did I even know it had that angle. Damn you, Xfinity. You couldn’t just show a picture of a bunny? It’s simple. The web’s crawling with them. Here’s another one: Who does this bunny work for, really? The Cabin in the Woods, being more than slightly tongue-in-cheek, and conceived and written by Joss Whedon, should be something I don’t like, even hate. But I freakin’ LOVED IT, and here’s why. I’ll admit that I’m a little didactic on my entire funny fantasy (or SF or horror) is at all times dangerous, and in reality I don’t always really feel that method. I love Mel Brooks’s Young Frankenstein, as an example, which I suppose is one of the funniest movies ever made. But it was made with an actual love of the style. You may see it within the perfect units and the amazing care that was taken with the source material. I couldn’t say the same for his insulting and terrible Space Balls, which, properly, let’s not ever point out it once more. The Cabin in the Woods takes not just particular horror (and fantasy and SF) tropes and turns them on their ear, but as with Young Frankenstein, I didn’t get a sense that the filmmakers were trying to say “horror movies are silly and if you like them you’re stupid, too” however spoke to actual followers, like me, and stated, “We’re not going to spoon feed this. You have to spot the callbacks to different films and franchises. If you’re a horror film fan you’re ‘in the know’ and we love you for it sufficient to make your experience of the transfer richer than people who didn’t get the Hellraiser, Exorcist, etc. references.” You’re talking to me like a fan, like a member of the club. I’m in. That scene where the final two sacrificial victims release all the various horrors was superb fun. That thing that attacked them in the little management room, was that a wyvern? I saw it as a wyver n, straight out of D&D. The Hellraiser man was the obvious, however I’ll be watching this one once moreâ€"I’ve actually already watched it twice, once with my spouse and once more with my son and his pal from next doorâ€"to pick more. The nugget of recommendation: If you’re dead-set on inserting an inside joke into your narrative, make damn sure your core audience will actually get it, and recognize it. Though I will proceed to warning authors to tread frivolously with outright comedy or “spoofs” in genre fiction, possibly it’s time for me to unclench slightly no less than in the hope of finding extra gems like The Cabin in the Woods or Young Frankenstein. Still, I will not defend Once Around the Realms. â€"Philip Athans About Philip Athans Fill in your details beneath or click an icon to log in: You are commenting utilizing your WordPress.com account. (Log Out/ Change) You are commenting utilizing your Google account. (Log Out/ Change) You are commenting utilizing your Twitter account. (Log Out/ Change) You are commenting utilizing your Facebook account. (Log Out/ Change) Connecting to %s Notify me of recent feedback via email. Notify me of latest posts through email. Enter your e mail address to subscribe to Fantasy Author's Handbook and receive notifications of recent posts by e mail. Join 4,779 other followers Sign me up! RSS - Posts RSS - Comments