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attackfish) wrote2010-07-23 11:27 am
attackfish) wrote2010-07-23 11:27 am
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The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones: Dark Lord Approved
I first found this book in my middle school library, just about the time I was getting a little oversaturated with medieval fantasy, and then after I checked it in, couldn’t find it anywhere else. I hadn’t really discovered google magic yet. When I saw it in Borders the other day, I got this little nostalgic smile on my face and snatched it up. I sprint to the cashiers’ counter a lot in that store.
CASHIER: Next.
FISH: Meeeeeee!
BOOK: Prrrrrrrrr
FISH: That’s my sweet baby.
CASHIER: Do you mind her, um, petting you like that, poor baby?
BOOK: We’re old friends
FISH: You tell ‘em, baby.
BOOK: Very old friends.
CASHIER: Ooookaaaaay.
I can’t really give an accurate summary of The Tough Guide to Fantasyland above the cut the way I do for most books. It doesn’t have a plot. It’s a series of entries dictionary or encyclopedia style about the workings of a place called Fantasyland, designed for tourists. It’s also one of the funniest, most accurate things I’ve read in a long time.
Diana Wynne Jones is one of the greats of the fantasy genre, and so while she lambasts the most outrageous common plotlines and characters in high fantasy, she does it with such love and warmth and knowledge. And The Tough Guide is as much a compendium of that knowledge as a parody. Her deep understanding of her genre comes straight through. It’s a parody by and for high fantasy fans.
And as such, it needs a thorough grounding in the genre on the part of the reader to enjoy it. Of course, most of the people reading this blog for more than the fanfiction have that understanding, and the ones that don’t have no idea how much they’re missing anyway, so it doesn’t matter.
Jones’ primary conceit is that this book is the official tour guide of a company (referred to throughout as management) and the management has official terms and phrases. These official management terms are sentences that should never ever find their way into any high fantasy novel written after the publication of The Tough Guide.
One of the longest entries is on color coding the characters in fantasy, and ends rather snarkily that none of this holds true in real life. Jones carefully details how to tell wether someone is good or evil, a magic wielder, a royal, or someone with a disturbingly interesting life, who should therefore be avoided, just by looking at them. Needless to say, she points out how stupid and occasionally creepy this is.
Jones especially delights in poking holes in the deeply unrealistic. This is fantasy, you say, the unrealistic is commonplace. No, she focuses in on things that have no sound magical reasoning. The horse entry has become a bit of a legend in certain parts of the internet (Jones theorises that horses in Fantasyland reproduce by pollinization and are in fact some sort of walking plant). Also, she notes that rivers in Fantasyland sometimes flow uphill. There goes my willing suspension of disbelief for any novel.
More than simply detailing numerous cliches and idiosyncrasies of the fantasy genre, Jones discusses in a humorous way, the racial, gender, and sexual mores of the genre. For example, she concludes that the tour management doesn’t believe in Dark Ladies (and therefore sticks exclusively to Dark Lords) because they’ve never met her great aunt Clara. She pokes her nose into the xenophobia and religious intolerance inherent in the portrayals of fanatical Middle Eastern fantasy counterpart cultures, the destructive stereotype of the beautiful, perfect, gay mage, and the different gendered expectations of male and female characters. It's a book that'll open your eyes if they aren't already open, and after you stop laughing, make you think. If they are already open, it’ll make you able to laugh at the rough spots.
After finishing The Tough Guide, Jones went on to set a pair of (mostly) serious high fantasy novels set explicitly in fantasy land, just to prove that she could. I should warn you, I ran into them first. After you read The Tough Guide, go out and track down The Dark Lord of Derkholm and The Year of the Griffin, and get ready for one of the most novel takes on Tolkieneque high fantasy ever written.
Some of the entries don’t ring true, such as the statement in the dragon entry that dragons and female humans get along better, and may even fly them places, whereas male humans are less lucky. Um... What? But most of the entries are so spot on and so wittily dissected, that the book will have you laughing from beginning to end.
There are some cliches listed that are more like conveniences for the sake of poor readers’ minds. The lack of chilblains and scurvy for example (or periods, for that matter) in Fantasyland are beautiful things, as far as I'm concerned.
I keep it as a desk reference. Whenever I have a killer idea (tm) I think to myself, is it already in The Tough Guide? If it is, clearly I need to leave it alone. It’s good to have at least one desk reference that’s as entertaining as it is useful. Also, when I’m convinced I’m a complete hack, I reread it and think “At least I didn’t write that cliche” and feel all better.
I’m completely convinced this should be required reading for anyone writing fantasy, and recommended reading for anyone reading it. Buy a copy! Sleep with it under your pillow! Try not to drool on it! Really, dear reader, I have no idea how to express the sheer awesome that is Diana Wynne Jones’ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland. All I can say is it's short, it's fun, and it's magnificent. Spend a couple hours with it. You won't be sorry. Really, it's just a good idea every so often to take a good hard look at the warts and flaws of our genre, and then be able to laugh at them and go back and love the genre anyway.
CASHIER: Next.
FISH: Meeeeeee!
BOOK: Prrrrrrrrr
FISH: That’s my sweet baby.
CASHIER: Do you mind her, um, petting you like that, poor baby?
BOOK: We’re old friends
FISH: You tell ‘em, baby.
BOOK: Very old friends.
CASHIER: Ooookaaaaay.
I can’t really give an accurate summary of The Tough Guide to Fantasyland above the cut the way I do for most books. It doesn’t have a plot. It’s a series of entries dictionary or encyclopedia style about the workings of a place called Fantasyland, designed for tourists. It’s also one of the funniest, most accurate things I’ve read in a long time.
Diana Wynne Jones is one of the greats of the fantasy genre, and so while she lambasts the most outrageous common plotlines and characters in high fantasy, she does it with such love and warmth and knowledge. And The Tough Guide is as much a compendium of that knowledge as a parody. Her deep understanding of her genre comes straight through. It’s a parody by and for high fantasy fans.
And as such, it needs a thorough grounding in the genre on the part of the reader to enjoy it. Of course, most of the people reading this blog for more than the fanfiction have that understanding, and the ones that don’t have no idea how much they’re missing anyway, so it doesn’t matter.
Jones’ primary conceit is that this book is the official tour guide of a company (referred to throughout as management) and the management has official terms and phrases. These official management terms are sentences that should never ever find their way into any high fantasy novel written after the publication of The Tough Guide.
One of the longest entries is on color coding the characters in fantasy, and ends rather snarkily that none of this holds true in real life. Jones carefully details how to tell wether someone is good or evil, a magic wielder, a royal, or someone with a disturbingly interesting life, who should therefore be avoided, just by looking at them. Needless to say, she points out how stupid and occasionally creepy this is.
Jones especially delights in poking holes in the deeply unrealistic. This is fantasy, you say, the unrealistic is commonplace. No, she focuses in on things that have no sound magical reasoning. The horse entry has become a bit of a legend in certain parts of the internet (Jones theorises that horses in Fantasyland reproduce by pollinization and are in fact some sort of walking plant). Also, she notes that rivers in Fantasyland sometimes flow uphill. There goes my willing suspension of disbelief for any novel.
More than simply detailing numerous cliches and idiosyncrasies of the fantasy genre, Jones discusses in a humorous way, the racial, gender, and sexual mores of the genre. For example, she concludes that the tour management doesn’t believe in Dark Ladies (and therefore sticks exclusively to Dark Lords) because they’ve never met her great aunt Clara. She pokes her nose into the xenophobia and religious intolerance inherent in the portrayals of fanatical Middle Eastern fantasy counterpart cultures, the destructive stereotype of the beautiful, perfect, gay mage, and the different gendered expectations of male and female characters. It's a book that'll open your eyes if they aren't already open, and after you stop laughing, make you think. If they are already open, it’ll make you able to laugh at the rough spots.
After finishing The Tough Guide, Jones went on to set a pair of (mostly) serious high fantasy novels set explicitly in fantasy land, just to prove that she could. I should warn you, I ran into them first. After you read The Tough Guide, go out and track down The Dark Lord of Derkholm and The Year of the Griffin, and get ready for one of the most novel takes on Tolkieneque high fantasy ever written.
Some of the entries don’t ring true, such as the statement in the dragon entry that dragons and female humans get along better, and may even fly them places, whereas male humans are less lucky. Um... What? But most of the entries are so spot on and so wittily dissected, that the book will have you laughing from beginning to end.
There are some cliches listed that are more like conveniences for the sake of poor readers’ minds. The lack of chilblains and scurvy for example (or periods, for that matter) in Fantasyland are beautiful things, as far as I'm concerned.
I keep it as a desk reference. Whenever I have a killer idea (tm) I think to myself, is it already in The Tough Guide? If it is, clearly I need to leave it alone. It’s good to have at least one desk reference that’s as entertaining as it is useful. Also, when I’m convinced I’m a complete hack, I reread it and think “At least I didn’t write that cliche” and feel all better.
I’m completely convinced this should be required reading for anyone writing fantasy, and recommended reading for anyone reading it. Buy a copy! Sleep with it under your pillow! Try not to drool on it! Really, dear reader, I have no idea how to express the sheer awesome that is Diana Wynne Jones’ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland. All I can say is it's short, it's fun, and it's magnificent. Spend a couple hours with it. You won't be sorry. Really, it's just a good idea every so often to take a good hard look at the warts and flaws of our genre, and then be able to laugh at them and go back and love the genre anyway.