Standard Fantasyland

[bloodyrosemccoy]

You know how everyone always asserts that all fantasy is derived from The Lord of the Rings? It’s a tired old claim, and I have a whole fleet of arguments as to why it’s a rather silly one, too.* But there is one thing I understand: I think people also regard it as the default Fantasy Saga. It sets the standard; while other works might not be derived from it, people traditionally hold it up as the norm and all differences from it are deviations.

 

I realized recently that, in my head, this is not the case.

 

For me, the default Fantasy Saga is David Eddings’ Belgariad.

 

I just started rereading it again, and my god I’d forgotten how bloody good it is. I had recently reread a few of his other series, which were all right, but there is something wonderful about The Belgariad that, I realized as I read, is the standard against which I set all other Epic Fantasy Quests. It is the one that makes me want to write my own fantasy novels.

 

This is not to say that the series is without flaw. Actually, there are some major drawbacks in Eddings’ work. His Machiavellian worldview and his characters’ firm belief in their own god-given righteousness both scare me a bit, because it smacks of the Bush Administration.** There is some distressing racial and sexual stereotyping going on throughout everything he writes, as well as the assumption that the nuclear family is the only really happy way to be. His inability to kill off any character he even remotely likes means that his redshirts can be spotted from a mile away. His stories always end the same way—“they fixed the universe and everyone got married.” And I suspect that, like another favorite author of mine, Philip Pullman, David Eddings himself is a jerk.

 

All this gets shoved by the wayside, however, when I read his stories. They’re funny. They’re clever. They’re insightful. The world is built well and thoroughly. But the real greatness of this series is one that people seem to overlook, and it’s a little difficult to explain.

 

The characters in The Belgariad are a strange duality. Eddings draws heavily on myth, so each of his characters is an archetype. However, they also have a very serious Ordinary Human side to them, so that the duality makes them act like not-quite-either.  They are archetypes, but their human sides find that just a bit obnoxious and rail against it, make fun of it, and satirize it, even as they find themselves caught up in it. Those who accept their dual role (even though they all grumble about it) are more at peace with themselves than those who don’t.  But the fact that they are aware of their own archetype means they can make jokes about it, and it’s hilarious. And it allows them to have insight into their own actions without destroying the story.***

 

It’s like teaching you how a standard fantasy saga goes, and being entertaining about it in the process. It’s a worthwhile read, and a damn good story, too.

 

 

*Although I will admit that a whole lot of people derive their idea of Elves from Tolkien, and that gets really obnoxious.

 

**I could defend the characters by pointing out that in their world the gods really have chosen these people, but then I assume that people in this world believe the same thing about their mission from god.

 

***The archetypal mythic saga is also a good excuse for his plot holes.  “We really should have killed that guy long ago.” “Yes, but we need to have climactic battle with him later, so he must be kept alive.” Yes, they actually admit this. Transparent, but it works.

Comments

[medusasowl.livejournal.com]

The Belgariad is AWESOME. I love that series and the characters oh so very much. :) I'm also a little in love with Pol. ;) I pretty much agree with everything you said about it and Edding's work.

[chairman-wow.livejournal.com]

...I think I need to read this book.

[gwalla.livejournal.com]

What really annoys me is how some people assert that fantasy fiction began with Tolkein, like Lord Dunsany never existed.

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

Since Tolkien was basing *his* writing on the Edda and the sagas, one might say that fantasy fiction began with Beowulf. ;-)

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

He went to the future and stole Tolkien's work. Christopher Tolkien is still trying to figure out how to sue.

[shadesofmauve]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that Edding's stated goal when writing the Belgariad was the create The Archtypical Fantasy Saga. Somewhere there is a foreward or introduction where he explains that he used included every genre cliche as a literary experiment.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

I believe you're right; in the Rivan Codex he even gives his formula he uses. It gets to the point where you can tell which variables he's manipulating in his other series (swapping his Clueless Hero in the Belgariad for a savvy seasoned one in the Elenium, that sort of thing.)

That's part of why I consider it the default--he clearly was MAKING it that way.

[cjtremlett.livejournal.com]

Eddings has said various things about the Belgariad - I recall something along the line of his avoiding reading a lot of fantasy and sticking with older sources and the Journey of the Hero as his model. I have a love-hate relationship with those books. But I still reread them, usually in winter. I reread Tolkien in the summer.

Sometimes I read them and just go with the fun of the characters and their self-awareness and how they poke fun at each other's stereotypes and poke away at the fourth wall at times. And other times, the inconsistencies annoy me and how he refuses to ever check what he's said before on the subject (the first Rivan King that Pol hid has had at least two names, for example), and the annoying fantasy cliches (only the Ulgos seem to have a different language, while people from a different continent don't?) and the blatant sexism piss me off.

They're brain candy, though. And sometimes you just want junk food.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Yeah, sometimes it's hard to get past some of the blunter stuff in his stories.

I think part of the inconsistency was deliberate--in all the prologues you get a different version of the story, and some of it is embellished or rearranged. Other times he just dismisses it, though--Polgara the Sorceress often describes the exact same scenes from Belgarath the Sorcerer in very different ways, and she just says, "He got it wrong!" It actually amuses me.

The sexism and his moralizing are the hardest things to come to grips with, but I can do it. I do get bothered by how there is a firm divide of attitudes toward things depending on sex--all women disapprove of alcohol, and all men love it, that sort of thing. But Pol is awesome anyway, even if her ultimate reward for 3000 years of badassery is motherhood. *sigh*

The Ulgos weren't the only ones with a different language! The ... uh ... let's see ... um ... oh, look, the Marags have a different language, too! Ha! So there. ;) (I liked how he did it in the Tamuli saga: "Hold still. I'm going to magic-teach you another language." "What?" POOF! "Hey! I can understand Tamul/Trollish/Atan now!")

[cjtremlett.livejournal.com]

There was also Old Angarak, but evidently no modern Angarak. The whole reef of Korim/Turim thing in the Mallorean brought up language shift, but that got brushed off, too. And somehow everyone else spoke the same language. The magically learning languages trick is a cop-out, but at least it acknowledges that multiple races spread out across continents and over vast amounts of time would have some differences in language.

Not that the various problems stop me from enjoying the Belgariad and the Mallorean. *g*

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Well, his grasp of linguistics has always been a bit farfetched. There's the Drasnian finger-language, which I think would be more evident than he suggests; there's his explanation of lip-reading; there's the wolf language; and of course there's Polgara and Beldaran's idioglossia. But he has a certain basis in fact, I suppose. ;)

[cjtremlett.livejournal.com]

Language just wasn't what interested him. I don't know if that was a deliberate avoidance of any association with Tolkien, or just a fall out of the fact that he wasn't into languages himself and he was far more interested in archetypes and prophecies as the themes he wanted to play with in those stories.

The broad sweeping stereotypes get annoying, but they are in their own way realistic. The whole "money obsessed Tolnedran" and "sly Drasnian" thing isn't that far off of "snooty French" or "repressed English". Though he keeps his characters far more true to their stereotypes than people in the real world are.