The Danger of The Single Story

[andrewducker]

with many thanks to cavalorn.

On a similar topic - one of this year's BSFA nominations - I Didn't Dream Of Dragons. Both are worth reading for the effect that growing up reading the literature of another culture can have on a person.

Comments

[likeneontubing.livejournal.com]

OOH, that I didn't dream of Dragons thing was ace.

[khbrown.livejournal.com]

At what point does something become literature from my culture, especially if 'the past is another country; they do things differently there'?

And as far as fantasy is concerned, doesn't structural analysis suggest that most stories are basically the same anyway if you take out the specifics, so that dragon becomes monster?

[andrewducker]

With any kind of story, the specifics are pretty much the point, IMHO.

[khbrown.livejournal.com]

When you are consuming the individual text to be entertained, yes. Or when the text is being used socially/mythically to identify who 'we' are against who 'they' are.

My point was that, if you remove these specifics then at the level of structure fantasy writing from different places and times is perhaps more alike than the author of the article seemed to acknowledge.