 Fantasy: October 16, 2024 Issue [#12790] |
This week: Harvest Edited by: Robert Waltz  
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It is only the farmer who faithfully plants seeds in the Spring, who reaps a harvest in the Autumn.
—B. C. Forbes
Before the reward there must be labor. You plant before you harvest. You sow in tears before you reap joy.
—Ralph Ransom
In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.
—William Blake |
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It's autumn (or fall) in the Northern Hemisphere, and that means harvest time.
The most obvious harvest festival here is Halloween, or Samhain, which is really the culmination of several months of different harvests.
It's taken on other aspects, and most of us aren't farmers anymore. Further, we live in a world generally distanced from the cycle of planting, tending, harvest, and storage. It's easy to forget, when we can obtain fresh produce year-round, that this sort of thing used to be a Big Deal, and it was important to ensure having enough provisions to make it through another winter, or else... well, there's a reason Halloween imagery includes depictions of death.
For writers, there are metaphors lying around here, waiting for us to pick them up. The sow/tend/reap cycle doesn't just apply to farming; it can represent other aspects of life, including life itself: we plant the seeds of achievement in youth, tend them in adulthood, and, hopefully, have some victories to celebrate before our personal winters, when we can, ideally, live off the harvest of a prosperous life.
There's nothing new or startling about this observation, I know, but sometimes, a reminder can help.
One thing to consider, when writing fantasy, is how a society, or an individual, might mark these cycles (either literally or metaphorically). Some worlds might not have seasons at all, not as we know them. Even on an Earthlike planet, the cycles may be different in the tropics, where the differences between seasons are not as pronounced. At the other extreme, polar areas don't just have winter, but darkness. And, of course, the timing gets reversed in the other hemisphere.
Whatever form it takes, though, the cycle is usually marked in some way. If nothing else, it's a great reason for a holiday, and a good excuse for a party. |
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Last time, in "Colorful Language" , I talked about color.
I suppose my colorful language offended everyone, because there were no comments to share.
Until next time,
DREAM ON!!!
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