Sime~Gen Inc. Presents

ReReadable Books

May 2009

"Life As A Problem Set"

By

Jacqueline Lichtenberg

Also see my blog entry on Life as a Problem Set focused around the May 2009 issue of Wired guest edited by J. J. Abrams. 

This column has been running since 1993 ( http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/   ). During that time, we’ve discussed Writing as Art, and the place of Art in the study of Magick. Now let’s look at the relationship between the fiction we enjoy and Life as we live it.

Through Tarot, Astrology and an intensive reading of biographies, we can see how "Life" has a definitive shape within which are wide variations.

The role of the Artist is to use the Seer’s craft to discern vast truths about reality and then convey hints of those truths to others. We all enjoy Art that reinforces our notion of reality, and some of us are bold enough to enjoy Art that defies our notion of reality.

Science Fiction and Fantasy readers tend to straddle those two categories and to enjoy being challenged to believe six impossible things before breakfast, as long as the being prepared breakfast smells right. When we get what we expect, we enjoy finding something startling, stimulating and challenging in addition.

So there is a mounting trend in publishing of combining or crossing genres. These combinations work best when a familiar template – such as Mystery or Romance – is combined with the spice of The Unknown – such as new science or technology, or an invented fantasy universe.

Deja Demon by Julie Kenner is a good example. It’s the 4^th in a series about Kate Connor, billed as a demon hunting soccer mom (before Palin was chosen as McCain’s running mate). Connor is married, raising kids, and trying to protect everyone from the vision of the World that she knows – reality perched over a seething cauldron of vicious creatures trying to take over the world.

Deja Demon is an excellent novel in a best selling series, a kind of post-Romance Action novel. It is "Urban Fantasy" in the Buffy The Vampire Slayer style with plenty of humor and hilarious situations. But the plot is not straight Romance, nor is it typical action. It is an Action-Mystery where Kate Connor has to figure out what is really going on, anticipate where the threat will strike, and thwart that attack. Agatha Christie never did it better!

I recommend Deja Demon just because it’s a refreshing and fun read. But it also gives us something to think about especially as this Fantasy Universe vision of reality becomes more popular.

Why do we like it? What is so fascinating?

Maybe we can find a clue in Mark del Franco’s best selling Urban Fantasy, Alternate Universe series. Unquiet Dreams is the 2008 entry in del Franco’s series. As Jim Butcher does in his Dresden Files series, del Franco gives us a magic using crime investigator, Connor Grey. In del Franco’s series, we are in an alternate reality where magic users have rights under the law but they’ve drawn battle lines between fairies and elves in a Boston turf war.

In a previous volume, Grey lost his magical abilities, so now he’s half-crippled and nearly unemployed because of it. Investigating one innocent little murder leads him back into the world of magical warfare – but nobody knows what’s really going on, least of all Connor Grey.

Grey is a complex, well drawn character, and this novel, like Deja Demon, is written so that you don’t have to have read the prequels to feel the intensity and suspense.

Next we have Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs, a Mercy Thompson novel. Mercy is a shapeshifter. Check out my reviews of Moon Called and Blood Bound in this series in 2006. Iron Kissed is a clean, direct Murder Mystery plot with Magic, Action, Heroics and a fast paced love story too.

Again, beings from another dimension called the Fae are legally recognized citizens of our world, magic and all. These Fae are apparently refugees washed up on our shores, somewhat like the Tenctonese in the TV show Alien Nation. They have established a Reservation where they can begin to live as they were once accustomed to, recharge their magical power and open a dimension gate to home. But there has been a murder on the Reservation and Mercy Thompson must solve it before worse things happen – which they do.

Sarah A. Hoyt brings us into an Alternate History with Heart of Light and its direct sequel Soul of Fire, where Magic provides the technology, complete with huge flying carpets with ocean liner sized buildings atop them, cruising the skies from England to Egypt. The flavor of the writing reminds me of Elizabeth Peters mysteries set in Egypt, but here Hoyt dares to do what Peters didn’t – make magic real and explain its principles so we can believe it.

The story starts from the point of view of a woman of upper British Society who is on her honeymoon with barely a clue about what that means, physically. And her husband doesn’t perform his duty. And she doesn’t know why. The rest of two long novels are about her adventures (and his) as she stubbornly investigates what has gone wrong with her marriage while he desperately tries to make everything right with her.

Following his point of view, we discover he’s been sent on a secret mission by the Queen to protect the Kingdom and the wealth of magic that the Queen holds. But he’s a total amateur expecting to be met in Egypt by professional spies and do the job on the side while on his honeymoon. He finds his contacts all dead, slaughtered.

Heart of Light takes us into darkest Africa, and Soul of Fire takes us on a trek across India under British rule. Rebellion, international intrigue, mysteries and love affairs with shape shifting dragons abound. Gradually the fantasy universe premise is revealed in a very satisfying Relationship driven plot. I will definitely be reading more Sarah A. Hoyt titles!

Now what do these 5 novels have in common? What can we learn about Life from the avidity of the readers of these novels? All 5 have a main character who is surprised and bewildered by a turn of events. All 5 are plotted around an investigation of that event which reveals something fundamental about the fantasy universe that does not appear to be true about our Universe. In the end, the protagonists are satisfied that they have solved their mysteries and figured out something new about their own Universe.

Even in series where the ending has to beg for a sequel, the current mystery is solved. These complex, magic based universes show us that determination and grit can penetrate any mystery. The universe is overwhelming, dangerous, infernally complicated, but ultimately comprehensible. There is an answer to every problem.

OK, in a series, the answer usually leads to another question, but the thematic point is that intellect backed by true heroism can prevail, if only incrementally. And that’s the main theme of most Science Fiction. Rigorous scientific thinking can crack any mystery of the universe, you just have to keep your nerve while it is trying to kill you.

Given the culture we live in, that is the world view most of us start out with. We grow up through High School and college taking math and science courses which consist mostly of problem sets. In later grades, textbooks come with the answers in the back of the book – and the professors challenge the students to find the answers that are misprints or mistakes for an automatic A for the course.

We learn science and math doing problems and checking our answers, finding our mistakes, and doing it over until we get the "right" answer. Schooling is the search for the "right" answer. Everything we study in undergraduate courses has answers.

With that process ingrained in our psyche, we find Art that portrays a universe where our reliable problem solving methods work to be very reassuring, very satisfying. Thus Mysteries are still favorites. Today you can enjoy a good mystery written in almost in any genre.

Mystery is a favorite because we have been taught to look at Life as a mystery to be solved, or specifically as a problem set. That might not be an unproductive way to view Life. In advanced math, we deal with equations that have more than one right answer, just as Astrological Natal Charts have more than one interpretation as do Tarot spreads.

Because we expect to find answers in the back of the book, we pick up the subliminal message that Life has nice, safe, secure answers that anyone can find – even if people don’t always agree on which is the best answer.

So Art that shows us a complex world full of imponderables, unknowns, and wild cards such as demons popping through portals from another dimension gratifies that need for the familiar – the whiff of breakfast sizzling – and puts us in the mood to believe at least six impossible things.

But in our Reality, are there any books with the answers in the back?