SH Comments
Reged: Feb 16 2004
Posts: 1056
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This thread is for comments about Displaced Persons, by Leah Bobet, illustration by Alex McVey.
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PickyBastard
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Reged: Jul 18 2004
Posts: 21
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I wonder if I'm missing something really big about Strange Horizons. Was this story even... a story?
I have to admit, I found it very fascinating. The gimmick is clear and present -- that's for sure. I can't help but feel that a simple narrative sentence, or two, would have drastically elevated this from personal essay (albeit fictionalized) into the realm of story.
From what I can tell, Leah Bobet writes some fantastic prose -- I can't wait to read one of her stories!
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PickyRatbastard
Unregistered
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just wanted to say that i really dig SH's non-stories. your editorial selections are funky counterpoints to a genre where plot is king (i've got absolutely no problem with plotlines, mind you, but i'm grateful to have some tone in the field at large).
leah's "displaced persons" is both fun and harsh, a tough combo, with poignant lines like "the blood that marked our path until it stopped, and the tears that kept on going."
my only crit is its length. as a memoir, it needed more gritty pearls from this character's POV about her/himself, more revelations about his/her blood, and the tears that kept on going on a character level.
but i liked it a lot. brave of you, leah, to take a stroll through such thoroughly explored terrain and return with something new, lovely.
-barth
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Anonymous
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I enjoyed this story. I wish it had been a little longer, though.
--Simon Owens
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Lodestone
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Reged: Jul 21 2004
Posts: 13
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Recently, I've become very suspicious of 'gimmick' stories. The most common version of this is, of course, the old adult version of a fairy tale trick. Done one of those myself, in fact - which is when I began to be suspicious of it. If a rank amateur like myself can do, it, then...?
My suspicion is that, in the desperate quest for originality, we're doing this thing of turning a known story on its head far too often. I still get that 'Wow! what a great idea" grab when I read gimmick-prose, but then, more often than not, I find the rest of it empty.
The argument that'll be put to me now is: "But it's about the emotional questions that the story raises." Here, again, however, I'm always seeing the same things: betrayal, anguish, and, as is so desperately clear here, displacement.
Perhaps it's time to look at the genre of gimmick stories with a more wary eye?
NB: I'm aware that I'm posting largely negative comments about stories in this forum. Sorry about that. I shall endeavour to be more positive next time. Let's start now: the prose in this piece was absolutely stunningly written. It was just the ethos (if that's the right word) that I found a little off.
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Anonymous
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I don't see how this story fits into the category you describe. This isn't an adult *retelling* of a fairy tale, but rather it's a story set in the same world that happens *after* the original world.
I didn't find this to be a gimmick, Leah was simply writing a story taking place in someone else's world.
--Simon Owens
www.livejournal.com/users/sdowens
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Lodestone
New user
Reged: Jul 21 2004
Posts: 13
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Adult *expansion* on a fairy tale, then. PickyBastard used the word "gimmick" first, which is why I chose it. Perhaps I should have chosen a less pejorative word; sorry.
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PickyBastard
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Reged: Jul 18 2004
Posts: 21
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I don't know why gimmick has to be a bad word.
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Merrie Haskell
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Reged: Jul 22 2004
Posts: 7
Loc: Michigan
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Quote:
I don't know why gimmick has to be a bad word.
Gimmick certainly has its roots in a negative denotation--a gimmick having been a gadget for rigging gambling endeavors. The modern connotation is somewhat more positive, I agree, but still, it has an indication of flashiness for the sake of drawing attention.
However, I don't believe this story is about gimmick. It is a fantasy, and yes, it uses a well-known fantasy setting to discuss the fact that war has consequences--in this instance, the disbandment of enemy armies and the plight of refugees. Sure, one side of the story, the familiar side, is all gleaming green cities and golden roads--but the other side... Is it gimmick or more a handy trope? Leah could have set a similar story in any number of fantasy worlds for similar effect, including ones of her own devising (it just would have taken a lot longer to build up the glittering/happy side of an original world in order to deliver the effective punch to the stomach we get here).
Also, I believe she deliberately chose the Oz mythos over other fantasy milieus because it's equated with childhood and associated with a bright, fake technicolor world in which people spontaneously burst into song. That makes the contrast within the story all the more brutal. I wouldn't call it a gimmick, but more of something balanced between choice and necessity to make the contrast effective.
Semantics, probably.
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