 Fantasy: March 17, 2010 Issue [#3615] |
  Fantasy
This week: Edited by: Robert Waltz  
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The sun is brilliant in the sky but its warmth does not reach my face.
The breeze stirs the trees but leaves my hair unmoved.
The cooling rain will feed the grass but will not slake my thirst.
It is all inches away but further from me than my dreams.
- M. Romeo LaFlamme; The First of March
Equal dark, equal light
Flow in Circle, deep insight
Blessed Be, Blessed Be
The transformation of energy!
So it flows, out it goes
Three-fold back it shall be
Blessed Be, Blessed Be
The transformation of energy!
- Night An'Fey; Transformation of Energy
Spring is nature's way of saying, "Let's party!"
- Robin Williams |
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Spring
I spent last month's editorial talking about the end of things, so it should be no surprise to anyone that this month, I'll talk about... beginnings.
As I noted then, the calendar's pretty arbitrary. We can choose any point and call it the beginning and, consequently, the end as well. Even the much-hyped End of the Mayan Calendar coming in a couple of years is nothing more than the end, and beginning, of an arbitrary cycle (and hey, if the world ends, then you can make fun of me for not believing).
The Spring Equinox, then, is a good a point as any to pick as the beginning. Many cultures have done this. For instance, the Jewish festival of Pesach (Passover) is based on the time of the equinox - specifically, the night of the full moon following the equinox - and it begins the festival cycle of the Hebrew calendar (this is distinct from the civil New Year in the fall; think of that one as like a "fiscal year" in business and politics). Easter, naturally, is tied to this cycle as well. Both observances in some way celebrate rebirth and new beginnings.
The thing I kind of glossed over in the last newsletter was that for the ancient Romans, before Caesar's introduction of calendrical reforms (and delicious salad), December was already the last month of the year, and March was the first. What about January and February? Well, they simply weren't there. Legend has it that Romulus, the founder of Rome, established the calendar to begin in March (Martius), the month of the vernal equinox, and end in December, the month of the winter solstice. Whomever came up with it in reality, there's evidence that this calendar existed. They completely ignored the days in between, partly because the length of this period would fluctuate (as this calendar was a bastard hybrid of a lunar and solar calendar), and partly because, and this is mere speculation on my part, those days are just so damn depressing.
Okay, so what's the point, and why am I going on about this stuff in the Fantasy newsletter? Well... think of it this way: there are some ideas that are so ingrained and reinforced in this world of ours that we go about our lives thinking of them as immutable facts. The calendar is one of these, even though on some level we know that calendars are invented and refined by people. Our number system is another: we're used to base-10, perhaps because we have ten digits on our hands; some of us are also comfortable with the base-2 used in computing; but why not base-12? It makes as much sense as base-10 and would make certain mathematical operations much easier (our method of telling time on scales less than a year is constructed from base-12). Still another is a system of writing, based on the Phoenicians', that enables us to construct letters out of simple strokes, words out of letters, sentences out of words, paragraphs out of sentences, and so on - but even in our own world, there are systems of writing that aren't based on an alphabet as we in the West know it.
None of these things are etched in stone for all eternity, and to assume that every culture everywhere, in fantasy and science fiction, would automatically follow these conventions, is to miss out on an opportunity to open minds to new possibilities. And new possibilities are what spring's all about.
And as I write this, outside, most of the snow (except for the piles driven up by plows) has melted and lo, this very morning, I saw the first green shoots of whatever the heck those flowers are called that come up in the spring (I'm a guy, so the only thing I know of flowers involves roses in apology for something). The world is like a blank piece of paper awaiting words, or perhaps pictograms. It occurs to me that the long, slow winter is over, and in life as in writing, anything's possible.
Go for it. |
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Last month, in "Fantasy Newsletter (February 17, 2010)" , I channeled Eeyore to come up with a depressing February newsletter. Here's what you had to say about it:
Adrianna  : Poor old February. It's not all bad. I was born in February, so for me it signifies beginning. If you only ever focus on the negative in life you will never find a positive.
I like to think of it this way: If I always expect the worst, I can only be pleasantly surprised. See? That's positive! And I was born in February too - why else would I be so depressed?
NaNoNette  : That was a very educational newsletter. I never realized that the months are named for numbers that don't match the month's position on the calendar.
Well, it's not like it was staring you in the face, Octobersun...
Raine : And yet February, that dark, dead months, contains Valentines Day (a celebration of love) and Mardi Gras (the ultimate celebration). Irony or are we spitting in the face of Winter?
I dunno; my ironometer's rusty. Get it? Irony? Rusty? Oh, wait... wrong newsletter again. Seriously, though, the Solstice holidays spit in the face of winter... by the time February comes along, most of us are sick of even thinking about it. I know I was...
Angelica Weatherby- Bday mom15  : :-d Do Spring Equinox! Great newsletter! For my NaNo Novel (Yah, I am planning for NaNo nine months ahead of time!) I shall consider months and seasons then.
I'd say your wish is my command, but that's not true. I was planning this since last month. It's good to plan ahead, don't you think? 
kristiana: I'd like to hear the Fantasy Newsletter's opinions on creating a new language for your fantasy (sci-fi) stories. Here, for your enjoyment, is the language I created for the novel that I am working on in that genre. "Invalid Item"
It probably deserves a newsletter devoted to that topic (and I might just take up the challenge if no other editor beats me to it), but briefly: I've seen, somewhere, someone noted that the number of new words you can get away with in a science fiction or fantasy story is about five... unless your name happens to be Tolkien. Also see my response to the first comment in "Fantasy Newsletter (October 28, 2009)" , concerning stories containing too-exotic elements. In his masterpiece, Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein imagined an entire Martian language... and the only word we ever learn of Martian is grok. Plus, who needs another language when we already have Klingon, amiright? So that's my opinion - let's hear everyone else's! (Use the form below to let us know)
And that's it for this week - see you next month! Until then, support your other Fantasy Newsletter editors, and
DREAM ON!!! |
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