Determining the Setting of a Fantasy

As some of you know, I continuously attempting to begin a fantasy story that I have had turning over in my head for a good period of time. I’ve mentioned before how important opening lines are to me while writing, however something that is equally as important is the setting. Now, typically determining the setting for a story is relatively easy – you go with something you’re familiar with, and something that fits the story in your mind. For instance, most of John Steinbeck’s stories occur in rural California while a lot of Stephen King stories at least partially take place in the state of Maine. Well, writing a fantasy is different, at least to me. My problem is I’ve always pictured two different settings for my story – Michigan – and a fantasy world that is similar to the time period of the Wild West in our world. I’ve also considered writing a story that takes place in Michigan, but in DC’s world where the likes of Superman, Batman, The Green Lantern, and others exist (of course that’s sure to be illegal due to copyright infringement). So now I’m going to take a step back and look at famous fantasies and see what kind of setting they take place in.

J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy is probably the most famous and influential fantasy epic of all time. It’s also a set of books that I as of yet have not read in their entirety – though I do love the movies. Tolkien famously created a fantasy world for the books that he called Middle Earth. I know that he spends a great amount of time within the books detailing the setting, but as I said I stil have to read these books through to get an idea of just how he goes about dealing with his setting.

C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia came out around the same time as Tolkien’s fantasy – in fact the two were good friends. This series takes place in several worlds, though mainly our own and a fantasy world in which the country of Narnia exists. In this series children unwittingly find their way into Narnia from the real world. Lewis also plays with the idea of time, as the children can spend a lifetime in the world of Narnia, and come back into our world without losing a single second since they left. Other fantasy worlds also appear in the Narnia, as does an interpretation of Heaven. So, Lewis uses both the real world and created fantasy worlds.

In my mind, the next great fantasy series is Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, probably most famous for being offensive to Christians. I’m on the third book in this trilogy, and thus understand it enough to comment on the setting. The first book occurs in a fantasy world very much like our own, even with the same places. However, the world is different in various fantastical ways and the time period in this world is also hard to label, but seems to mimic what would have been the first half of the 1900’s for our world. Pullman’s trilogy plays with the idea of parallel worlds, and in the second book both our own real world and and third parallel world take turns as the setting. So, like Lewis, Pullman uses created fantasy worlds and the real world as settings.

The fourth important fantasy series is J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter. This series takes place within our own world, yet almost forms a seperate world in our own by introducing a world of magic that is secret from the non-magical. In this way, it’s almost as if Rowling also uses both the real world and created fantasy world, which would mean that three of these fantasies use both the real world and a fantasy world. I may just end up doing the same.

Great Game – Unless You’re a Wings Fan

Last night’s battle between the Penguins and Red Wings was a game that featured great hockey. It was one of the more physical games I have seen and while Pittsburgh outshot Detroit significantly over the first two periods the action really was back-and-forth. I’d actually even say that Detroit had as many chances, they just couldn’t seem to get the puck on their sticks or on net (Datsyuk’s seeing-eye feed to Zetterberg in the first minute of the game comes to mind). However, as a Wings fan it was heartbreaking to watch the team lose even though it means a chance to win the Cup on our own ice. I just don’t want to see Pittsburgh do to us what we did to them last year – which is now a real possibility though I do have a lot of faith in Detroit winning game seven. There are two things I must comment on though. First off, while I have been a fan of the refs for most of this series, the first penalty of the game was ridiculous. Jordan Staal pushed Henrik Zetterberg into Fleury after Zetterberg had just shot the puck and was off balance and Zetterberg gets called for goaltender interference. It wasn’t so much that the call itself was awful (it wasn’t a good call, but I could have lived with it) as when it was called. The game was back-and-forth at that point and while Detroit killed it off, it put Detroit on the defense, something that it seemed to take them a while to recover from. The other thing that I feel a need to comment on is Marian Hossa. We all know he’s a great talent,  but where has he been in this series? Pittsburgh has a much weaker defense than Chicago and especially Anaheim. The Red Wings paid Hossa 7.4 million to have a player that wanted to raise the Cup for the first time and would contribute in doing so. So far in the finals Hossa has not contributed, when he should have been extra motivated playing against his former team. He was Pittsburgh’s best player in the finals last year. Hossa needs to break out in game seven.

Shakespeare Imitation: So Low

I was outside on the side of my house yesterday in this screen room that we have when I observed a thunderstorm approach. I had gone outside for some peace and quiet and to clear my mind, however I was entirely entranced by the approaching of the thunderstorm. After the storm came and went, I had a sudden urge to write a quick little poem and decided to mimic the style of William Shakespeare’s sonnets (maybe because watching the storm reminded me of King Lear?). While the result was relatively lackluster and full of some of my more ridiculous writing tendencies (Satan’s hellhound?), and the poem comes off as being kind of emo – not something I ever aim for – at this point I was just happy to write something. So here it is:

Sitting in the deadly silence before

A lightning storm crashes upon my home

Turning over sad facts about my core

Rain falls, thunder roars within my very dome.

My father’s teachings fresh with me

A family’s anger pouring around

Cutting words that I have allowed to flee

From within me just like Satan’s hellhound.

Once I thought myself to be a hero

Here I am: a ghost of a villain.

My life nothing more than a sad zero

Alienated those that are my kin.

Lightning crashes, thunder roars; and I know

That you can save me from being so low.

A Chance for the Cup

After a terrific showing Saturday night in which the Red Wings defeated the Penguins by a score of 5-0 in the game where Pavel Datsyuk returned, the Wings now have a chance to win the Stanley Cup again on Pittsburgh’s ice. This is a chance that the Red Wings need to capitalize on, as all bets would be off in a game seven. It also gives both Marian Hossa and Ty Conklin a chance to win the Cup in front of their former team and former fans. This would be particuarly bittersweet for Hossa, who signed the infamous one year contract with the Wings claiming he felt it was his best chance to win a Cup. Now, he gets a chance to show that he was right in a most dramatic fashion. I still don’t get why people outside of Pittsburgh bashed Hossa for his signing, as he did what fans want most atheletes to do: take less money for a chance at winning. Anyway, it promises to be a great game tonight!

All Even

Well, the Stanley Cup Finals between the Detroit Red Wings and the Pittsburgh Penguins are all even. Both teams won both games at home. As anyone who was watching or listening (as was my case) saw/heard, there was a six minute meltdown by the Wings that allowed Pittsburgh to take control of a game that was slipping away from them. As soon as Staal scored the shorthanded goal on the second of back-to-back penalties I felt as if the Wings were in trouble. And in trouble they were.

On the flip side, this is now a pretty good series for the NHL. It will be going to at least six games and a seventh wouldn’t even surprise me as these two great teams continue going to battle.

I was surprised that Babcock elected to scratch Abdelakder over Leino. I’m a fan of both players, but Abdelkader has easily outplayed Leino in the playoffs so far. Not only does he have a pair of big goals, but he also has been throwing his weight around and would have seemingly been a better fit with Draper and Maltby. I’d expect seeing Abs in for Leino Saturday unless Datsyuk plays. Either way, Leino probably won’t be playing again in this series.

Opening Lines: 1

In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.

“Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”

When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow. When it healed, and Jem’s fears of never being able to play football were assuaged, he was seldom self-conscious about his injury. …

When enough years had gone by to enable us to look back on them, we sometimes discussed the events leading to his accident. I maintain that the Ewells started it all, but Jem, who was four years my senior, said it started long before that. He said it began the summer Dill came to us, when Dill first gave us the idea of making Boo Radley coem out.

The Salinas Valley is in Northern California. It is a long narrow sale between two ranges of mountains, and the Salinas River winds and twists up the center until it falls at last into Monterey Bay.

These are the opening lines from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, and John Steinbeck’s East of Eden. In my opinion, they are the three best American novels that I have ever had the good fortune of reading. The reason I offered the opening lines from each is for a kind of series of posts I plan on doing that I shall be calling Opening Lines: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly. See, whenever I write a story one of my major struggles is with having a satisfactory opening line or paragraph. I simply lose my desire to write the story if I am not satisfed with how it begins. I can guess at all kinds of reasons why this is, but the simple truth is that it simply is true. This poses a problem for me as I’ve been trying to write a certain story for several years now, and have yet to be satisfied with the story. Of course, since I haven’t been able to do anything more than attempt to start the story, the story has been constantly evolving and changing and well, getting quite a bit larger in both length and scope. Writing a sprawling epic is not an ideal project for a first novel length story, but it is my aim. Anyway, I plan on looking at the opening lines from some of my favorite stories and seeing what I can learn from them. I shall end up rating the lines as either good, bad, or ugly – a reference to the legendary Clint Eastwood/Sergio Leone movie. So, without further ado, let us start.

When I read The Great Gatsby in high school my teacher had us memorize the first two lines. I didn’t understand why then, and to be frank, I still don’t. While an intriguing way to start of a story, and good insight into the character of Nick Carraway as being a reliable narrator, I don’t feel as if the opening lines are in any way essential to the novel. However, the opening lines are well-written and do provide insight into the narrator that earns his trust with the readers, so I have to say that this is a good opening.

The teacher that taught me To Kill a Mockingbird did not request that I remember the opening of the novel, however it has always stuck with me anyway. While I can’t recite it word-for-word, I can always remember the jist of it. It talks about the climax of the book indirectly – about Jem’s broken arm. More than that, almost every significant character is introduced within the first two paragraphs: Jem, the narrator Scout (though unnnamed at this point), Dill, the Ewells, and Boo Radley. It also clues us in to the fact that no matter what, we know that the narrator and her brother Jem are going to survive this story as they will discuss it in their future. I remember hearing that Harper Lee spent ten years writing To Kill a Mockingbird and that is at times evident in her attention to detail. This is a great opening.

John Steinbeck’s sprawling epic East of Eden I read for pleasure one summer, and instantly thought it was the greatest book that I had ever read. I plan on re-reading it soon, as it receives a lot of mixed reviews from people. The entire first chapter describes the setting of Salinas Valley, where a good portion of the book takes place. Being an avid fan of nature and the outdoors, I applaud dedicating an entire opening chapter to the describing the natural setting of the story. It’s something I would like to emulate at some point, but in order to emulate it one would have to have a story that remains in one setting for the most part. Also, I’m sure it is an absolute bore to quite a few readers. Still, it’s well-written and brings about a sharp image in the reader’s mind, so I’ll say it’s a good one.

Thoughts After Two Games

The Detroit Red Wings have beaten the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first two games of the Stanley Cup Finals by a score of 3-1. Rookie Justin Abdelkader who grew up in Muskegon (Michigan), played for MSU and the Griffins scored the third goal in each game. He has never scored in a regular season game. The same can be said of Darren Helm, who has 5 goals this postseason along with a few last year but has yet to scoe in the regular season due to hardly playing.

The two games have been closer than the score indicates, as both teams have taken terms controlling play occassionally and more often simply scrapping it out. It’s not the high-octane, high-scoring series some people were hoping for and even some were expecting. I’m not sure why anybody expected that to begin with – last year’s series between the two teams wasn’t the highest scoring of affairs. Sure, both teams are among the most offensively gifted to ever take the ice in the NHL, but both teams are playoff teams first – offensively gifted teams second. And playoff teams play defense first hoceky.

There were three things last night that upset fans. First, Pittsburgh fans were livid over Zetterberg covering the puck up in the crease. I never saw a definitive replay showing that Zetterberg closed his hand over the puck, or any other part of his body. Until I see such a replay, I have to side with the refs on that one. I also know that something similar happened in game one, but was unfortunately at work and missed that play. The second thing also upset Pens fans, as some thought that Hossa hooked Dupuis’s stick leading to a Red Wings goal. However, I only saw Hossa get Dupuis’s stick, and never slash it. The last time I checked, lifting a player’s stick off the puck with one’s own stick was a good defensive play. The third thing upset Wings fans and some others, as Malkin’s mandatory one game suspension was rescinded by Colin Campbell. The penalty was for instigatin a fight in the last five minutes of the game. Once again, I’ve got to side with the officials – in this case Colin Campbell. The rule is to prevent teams from sending out goons to send a message in the last five minutes of a losing game. Malkin is no goon, and the fight was pure emotion.

This series has caused me to think more on the second round match-up between Detroit and Anaheim. I have to wonder how Pittsburgh would have fared in a match up against Anaheim, as I believe they were among the top three teams in this years playoffs. I also have gained a newfound respect for Ryan Getzlaf (and I instintively hate the Ducks, they cause the Red Wings too much trouble). In the playoffs, the Red Wings have managed to pretty much shut down Sidney Crosby yet weren’t even able to contain Ryan Getzlaf. So Getzlaf may not be the amazing talent that Crosby is, but in the playoffs he is much more of a threat in my mind. Also, I know many think the Ducks will be broken up this year, which really is a shame as much as I hate them. They are simply a great team, and with a little more offense would be near unstoppable.

One final thought: not nearly enough is being made out of how the Red Wings are winning without Pavel Datsyuk. Even when Datsyuk was healthy, he wasn’t scoring, and now the Red Wings don’t even have his defensive prowess on the ice and are still finding ways to win. I’m sorry but even the best teams in the league wouldn’t be able to do that in the playoffs, can you imagine Pittsburgh without Crosby or Anaheim without Getzlaf or Carolina without Staal or Chicago with Toews being the playoff teams they were? I didn’t think so.

An Epic Series

The Detroit Red Wings will be playing the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Stanley Cup Finals, for the second straight year. It doesn’t get much better than this.

Not only will Pittsburgh be looking to exact revenge against the Wings, but they’ll also be looking to prove Marian Hossa wrong. Hossa, who was with the Penguins last year, signed a one-year deal with the Wings believing it was his best opportunity to win a cup. Well, now he has to beat his former team to win that trophy.

On paper, when healthy, the Wings are still better than the Penguins even with Crosby and Malkin being monsters in the postseason. However, the Wings aren’t healthy. In the last game against Chicago the Wings were missing Lidstrom (captain, Norris trophy finaliste), Datsyuk (assistant capatain, hart finalist), Draper (assistant capatain, faceoff specialist), Lilja and Ericsson. This will set up for an intriguing series as even if those some of those players return, they aren’t likely to be a 100%.

Pittsburgh’s two stars have been able to run away with scoring in the playoffs. However, they have also played against three subpar defensive corps in my mind. While the Wings have played a more wide open game this year, their defense still is rock solid. The Wings also have played against arguably the best defensive corps ever iced in Anaheim, a great but young corps in Chicago, and a solid one with Columbus. And the Wings have played against three top-flight goaltenders while Pittsburgh played against two if you count Varlamov, who had played only a handful of NHL games before. What I’m saying is that with all respect to Philadelphia, Washington, and Carolina (three teams I quite like), Detroit has had to go through touger teams.

This could be good or bad. Carolina had a difficult path, and were spent by the time they squared off against Pittsburgh. Detroit is at least twice as deep as Carolina though, however they do have all those pesky injuries while Pittsburgh remains healthy. However, Hossa will be driven to play the best hockey of his life. Franzen never slows down in the playoffs, and neither does Zetterberg. Filppula and Helm are young and enjoying their added responsibilities and I see no reason for those two to slow down. The defense could be a bit different, even without Lidstrom, the pairing of Kronwall and Stuart will be something quite unlike anything Pittsburgh has so far faced. Osgood never seems to let anything get to him in the playoffs, and I’m expecting a good series from him.

All in all thise should be an epic series.

I’m trusting my Wings though, and am calling them in seven.

Edmonton Makes a Slick Move

The Edmonton Oilers have hired Pat Quinn as a head coach and Tom Renney and as associate per TSN. This is a great move for the Oilers, as they now have two coaches on staff that are head coach caliber. It could be a fun year for Oilers fans.

Comparing Parts of a Mountain Range: Adirondacks vs. Smokies

The last two summers I’ve been lucky enough to visit parts of the Appalachin Mountain Range in the Eastern United States with my family. Last summer, I visited the Adirodnacks in upstate New York for the first time ever while this year I returned to the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee and North Carolina for the first time in probably ten years.

Last year I fell in love with the Adirondacks. I loved the lakes scattered through the range, the “up north” feeling, and the town of Lake Placid that is rich in hockey history. We found a very pleasant campsite to stay at and though we didn’t see much wildlife (always important to me on any vacation I take) it’s somewhere that I hope to go back to regularly.

As for the Smokies, we found a pretty cool campground in Cosby the first night, however sleeping was rough as the surfaces were something like gravel pits. I can sleep on almost anything in a sleeping bag, but that was difficult. We did however see a coyote just outside the campground, and a couple deer and a turkey whilst driving through the mountains. However, the mountains as a whole were just too touristy for me. We did our best to stay away from the crowds of Gatlinburg, and were disappointed by the town of Cherokee. We stayed in a hotel in Pigeon Forge… and I could hardly describe that city as anything but a mega tourist trap. And tourist traps can be fun, I must admit. But it just wasn’t quite the experience I had in the Adirondacks.

Anybody else visited these mountains?