DargonZine
Volume 15, Number 3 |
Distributed: 5/13/2002
Circulation: 701 |
 |
DargonZine is the publication vehicle of the
Dargon Project, a collaborative group of aspiring fantasy writers on the
Internet. We welcome new readers and writers interested in joining the
project. Please address all correspondence to
<dargon@dargonzine.org>
or visit us on the World Wide Web at http://www.dargonzine.org/, or our FTP site at
ftp://users.primushost.com/members/d/a/dargon/.
Issues and public discussion are posted to newsgroup
rec.mag.dargon.
DargonZine 15-3, ISSN 1080-9910, (C) Copyright May, 2002
by the Dargon Project. Editor: Ornoth D.A. Liscomb
<ornoth@rcn.com>,
Assistant Editor: Jon Evans
<godling@covad.net>.
All rights reserved. All rights are reassigned to the individual
contributors. Stories and artwork appearing herein may not be reproduced
or redistributed without the explicit permission of their creators, except
in the case of freely reproducing entire issues for further distribution.
Reproduction of issues or any portions thereof for profit is forbidden.
|
Editorial
hat would you do if I asked you to allow a complete stranger to
control your thoughts, senses, and emotions? Just for a little while, of
course. Would that be okay? I hope so...
Because that's exactly what you're doing every time you open a
book. Fiction is, at heart, just such a subversive little beast.
Most fantasy and science fiction readers will immediately recognize
Samuel Taylor Coleridge's catchphrase "the willing suspension of
disbelief", which describes the recipient's intentional receptiveness to
storytelling of any sort, be it written (novel, short story, poetry) or
performed (theater, movie, music, television program). In all these
cases, the recipient seeks out these experiences for the pleasure of
leaving their own lives and being immersed in someone else's dream,
created for their pleasure.
Therefore one of a writer's primary goals is to create something
that readers find pleasurable. Of course, if fiction were all
friendliness and goodness, people would soon find it tedious. Like yin
and yang, goodness only exists in the presence of evil, and triumph can
only occur where there is a real likelihood of loss. That's why authors
must concern themselves so much with negative things like the various
types of conflict, foreshadowing, plot complications, and dramatic
tension. In order to make you feel good, a good writer must first make
you feel bad. But both of these depend on one thing: that you give the
author the power to make you feel what he or she wants you to feel.
This conspiracy between reader and writer seems, on the surface,
very one-sided. You give the author the freedom to control what you see
in your mind's eye, so that you can vicariously experience the sights,
sounds, smells, and other sensory images that he or she creates.
Furthermore, you allow the author some ability to manipulate your
emotions when you become engaged with a work of fiction. The author's
first concern is to get you to care about the characters in his or her
work, and then use that leverage to take you on an emotional ride
through the events of the story. The writer can also expose you to new
ideas or ways of thinking that you might otherwise avoid or not
consider.
Yes, as a reader, you let the author get away with a lot, expecting
only that the writer entertain or amuse you in return. But what happens
when the reader's pleasure isn't the author's only (or even primary)
motive? What if the author wants to make you consider a new idea or
convert you to their way of thinking on some controversial topic of the
day? One doesn't have to look very far to see this in action; the
world's greatest literature is filled with examples of stories that were
specifically written in order to manipulate the readers' opinions --
some subtly, some less so. Any story with a clear theme, rather than one
written simply to entertain, has some element of this.
Of course, no writer can force you to see or think or feel
something you don't want to; you can always put a book down if you don't
like it. But if you are indeed willing to suspend your disbelief, that's
our opportunity to connect with you. While it'd be unfair to say that
all writers want to manipulate the hearts and minds of their readers,
it's true that every story requires you to be open to the images and
concepts that the author chooses to depict.
One of the biggest challenges for DargonZine's writers is to learn
how to show you what we want you to see, tell you what we want you to
think, and compel you to feel how we want you to feel, in a package
that's delightfully pleasing and enjoyable to read. As our contributors
develop into really good writers, we hope that we can exercise that
control proficiently and with subtlety, while providing you with
entertainment that is second to none.
In this issue we begin two new series and introduce you to our
newest writer.
Nicholas Wansbutter returns to DargonZine with the first half of "A
Matter of Faith", which follows one of the two protagonists he
introduced in his first story, "A Matter of Honour".
It's always a particular pleasure to print the first story from a
new writer, and our second debut of the year is New Jersey resident Dan
Toler with "William Zeneca's Bad Day".
Finally, after a year's hiatus, Rena Deutsch returns to the pages
of DargonZine to begin a new series entitled "Spirit of a Woman" which I
hope you'll enjoy.
Our next issue will be a little delayed by this year's Dargon
Writers' Summit, but we'll get it to you as quickly as possible, along
with Summit photos and a debrief.
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