Stealing Fire (from heaven)
Aug. 25th, 2013 08:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dorindaNo writing done today. >:[ New place ate some of my time, but also the family members I'm staying with while the new place gets fixed up had an unexpected (by me) dinner-party and guests, which soaked up all of the late afternoon and evening with thoroughly tedious conversation and about eight million dishes. I have never seen someone use this many dishes just to serve "some sandwiches". Gah. I mean, it was nice food and all. But...y'all gonna use this many dishes to serve your byzantine mealparts, I want to see a Bunter or a Jeeves all up in here or something. (Mmmmm...Bunter and Jeeves. ♥ )
(Full disclosure: I feel like a big baby, complaining like this while some of you are writing and posting and whatnot while caring for actual...babies. Feel free to roll your eyes at me.)
I was thinking today about my latest lunchtime re-read, Jo Graham's Stealing Fire, a historical/fantasy set after the death of Alexander the Great. (I haven't read her earlier books in the same nominal "Numinous World" series yet--I figure I'll enjoy them, but I have to confess, I'm waiting to read Black Ships [the first one] until I've actually read the Aeneid. I have to admit I never have! Yet.) (Which reminds me...I was kind of on the lookout for an unabridged reading of The Aeneid, because I like to listen to The Odyssey and The Iliad so much. But then I was thinking, well, Aeneid wasn't created in/for the same kind of oral culture as Odyssey and Iliad, so maybe I should just read it. Any opinions or suggestions?)
Anyway, I enjoy Stealing Fire on its own terms. But I was thinking today about how I also enjoy its fanfictional aspects--or at least, aspects that make it feel fanfictional to me. There's something about it that feels for all the world like a followup to Mary Renault's books about Alexander's life, Fire from Heaven and The Persian Boy. Alexander and Hephaistion are in it (in flashbacks), paired as lovers just as in Renault. Bagoas the eunuch is in it, serving as Alexander's lover/favorite/de facto chamberlain, just as in Renault. Ptolemy is in it, as Alexander's illegitimate older brother, trustworthy and honorable, as in Renault.
Now, I'm not at all saying Graham is being derivative of Renault, or anything negative. And I mean, the things I mention above that feel Renaultish, Renault herself derived from historical deduction (that Bagoas could have served as a sort of chamberlain to help the Persians and Alexander adapt to each other, for instance), so it's fair game.
But still. It has a nice Renaultish tang to it, with the same take on who the heroes and villains are; and hell, Lydias not only is in hero-worship/love with Hephaistion (and gets some intimate time with him), but he also has a sweet affair and friendship with Bagoas. That can't help but feel fanfictionish to me (not to negative Gary Stu levels, but lightly along those lines).
Although--perhaps the biggest difference in tone between Graham and Renault is the fantasy aspect of Graham's historical/fantasy...she brings out magic, gods, demons, etc., and has them running around directly talking to and influencing people. It's fine, that's Graham's universe and enjoyable enough, but I have to admit I actually prefer a slightly more toned-down take. Renault, even in the more primitive world she paints in early settings like Theseus's Bronze Age in The King Must Die, always walks a razor's edge between actual magic/spirits, and magical/spiritual thinking. It isn't that I think Graham needed to remove the fantasy from her historical, down to Renault levels...but I was thinking I'd prefer if maybe it was toned down a tad, or given more possible ambiguity (e.g., having Lydias be the only one we see having the direct experiences, instead of having other characters, like Ptolemy, be right in there during very drastic magical experiences).
(Full disclosure: I feel like a big baby, complaining like this while some of you are writing and posting and whatnot while caring for actual...babies. Feel free to roll your eyes at me.)
I was thinking today about my latest lunchtime re-read, Jo Graham's Stealing Fire, a historical/fantasy set after the death of Alexander the Great. (I haven't read her earlier books in the same nominal "Numinous World" series yet--I figure I'll enjoy them, but I have to confess, I'm waiting to read Black Ships [the first one] until I've actually read the Aeneid. I have to admit I never have! Yet.) (Which reminds me...I was kind of on the lookout for an unabridged reading of The Aeneid, because I like to listen to The Odyssey and The Iliad so much. But then I was thinking, well, Aeneid wasn't created in/for the same kind of oral culture as Odyssey and Iliad, so maybe I should just read it. Any opinions or suggestions?)
Anyway, I enjoy Stealing Fire on its own terms. But I was thinking today about how I also enjoy its fanfictional aspects--or at least, aspects that make it feel fanfictional to me. There's something about it that feels for all the world like a followup to Mary Renault's books about Alexander's life, Fire from Heaven and The Persian Boy. Alexander and Hephaistion are in it (in flashbacks), paired as lovers just as in Renault. Bagoas the eunuch is in it, serving as Alexander's lover/favorite/de facto chamberlain, just as in Renault. Ptolemy is in it, as Alexander's illegitimate older brother, trustworthy and honorable, as in Renault.
Now, I'm not at all saying Graham is being derivative of Renault, or anything negative. And I mean, the things I mention above that feel Renaultish, Renault herself derived from historical deduction (that Bagoas could have served as a sort of chamberlain to help the Persians and Alexander adapt to each other, for instance), so it's fair game.
But still. It has a nice Renaultish tang to it, with the same take on who the heroes and villains are; and hell, Lydias not only is in hero-worship/love with Hephaistion (and gets some intimate time with him), but he also has a sweet affair and friendship with Bagoas. That can't help but feel fanfictionish to me (not to negative Gary Stu levels, but lightly along those lines).
Although--perhaps the biggest difference in tone between Graham and Renault is the fantasy aspect of Graham's historical/fantasy...she brings out magic, gods, demons, etc., and has them running around directly talking to and influencing people. It's fine, that's Graham's universe and enjoyable enough, but I have to admit I actually prefer a slightly more toned-down take. Renault, even in the more primitive world she paints in early settings like Theseus's Bronze Age in The King Must Die, always walks a razor's edge between actual magic/spirits, and magical/spiritual thinking. It isn't that I think Graham needed to remove the fantasy from her historical, down to Renault levels...but I was thinking I'd prefer if maybe it was toned down a tad, or given more possible ambiguity (e.g., having Lydias be the only one we see having the direct experiences, instead of having other characters, like Ptolemy, be right in there during very drastic magical experiences).
