Author Feedback - Norseman

[Norseman]

On the sci-fi story... Let's hope it doesn't come to that. It doesn't need to come to that. But that doesn't mean it won't. But alot of these issues just need time to resolve themselves. We just need time.

When reading that story I remember a quote, I can't remember who from, but I think it's Napoleon.

"Ask me for anything but time."

Well that is a point yes. It's a critique of modern society, and certain modern trends. Still, it's for a competition which means that it has to stand on its own as a story, not just a warning.

[Norseman]

And for the record I've put out a new edition of Into the Abyss which removes the lengthy dialogue section that was so soundly criticized. Hopefully the new version works better.

[frigidmagi]

Okay so I have caught up on Polar Invasion (more like Polar trade mission honestly :P). Interesting so far, the Electric Elves as I will now dub them don't seem to be that far ahead, decades yes but not centuries in most things.

Are they only dealing with the British at the moment?

[Norseman]

Okay so I have caught up on Polar Invasion (more like Polar trade mission honestly :P).

So far! ;)

Interesting so far, the Electric Elves as I will now dub them don't seem to be that far ahead, decades yes but not centuries in most things.

It is steampunk, or will be, but yes we are talking a century ahead or so at most. Though when you get into the steampunk technology figuring that out can be tricky.

Are they only dealing with the British at the moment?

They are probably doing minor trade etc with other nations too. Most particularly the French. I chose Britain because I know more about Britain than about any other gov't in this period. However the next few chapters will indeed touch directly on diplomatic efforts.

[frigidmagi]

Sleeping on a stove is not something I would care to try honestly. It is nice to see that some things will never change though.

[Norseman]

Sleeping on a stove is not something I would care to try honestly. It is nice to see that some things will never change though.

Big Russian brick stoves looked like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_oven one of the pictures show how you could sleep on it.

[frigidmagi]

Your protagionist comes off as rather foolish and a bit selfish. It's an interesting if slightly disturbing experiment so far.

[Norseman]

Your protagionist comes off as rather foolish and a bit selfish. It's an interesting if slightly disturbing experiment so far.

Well it is a vision of a hell, so it ought to be disturbing. And portraying beauty where the medium of beauty is in itself evil is quite hard to do. Though I must admit that being able to just work the descriptive itch out of my system feels great.

EDIT: Added chapter 2. I should also add that I'm trying to give the piece a sort of dreamlike / opium haze feel, occasionally running partly on dream logic or associative logic.

[LadyTevar]

So, is there a reason your prose is attempting to be more purple than Lovecraft?

[frigidmagi]

If I am following the story correctly, the character is actually from the 1800s and is a high class woman. Which means writing in the blunt stark manner you and I write in would be wildly out of character.

[Norseman]

So, is there a reason your prose is attempting to be more purple than Lovecraft?

Yes.

But seriously I was inspired by the decadents and the aesthetes, and the way that they use language and description. There are some seriously descriptive passages in the "Picture of Dorian Grey" for instance. The exoticism and lavish descriptions were in some ways a reaction to realism.

There is also the fact that in "Vale of Tears" (one of my best works) I constrained myself heavily in my writing, and now I really want to gorge a bit in description.

If I am following the story correctly, the character is actually from the 1800s and is a high class woman. Which means writing in the blunt stark manner you and I write in would be wildly out of character.

There is that too, a high-class literary writer inspired by cutting edge aestheticism. The story is set in the fin de siècle period too. I am also trying to give it a somewhat dreamlike atmosphere, that works according to associative logic and dreamlogic.

Normally I'd make it straight fantasy, but since this is supposed to be written in the 1890s I use the device of this being an opium dream.

[frigidmagi]

She's a clever little thing I'll grant you that. She still comes off as very heartless and not very smart though.

[Norseman]

She's a clever little thing I'll grant you that. She still comes off as very heartless and not very smart though.

In a sense the place I'm writing about is what you get when you take:

"There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all."

and

"No artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style."

To their natural extreme. A place where morality has nothing to do with art and beauty, not even trying to oppose it. And I am trying to do so without the wagging finger, without cheap moralism and a "lesson to profit by."

So yes heartless may be very apt, at least in the sense that the protagonists heart is in the wrong place.

EDIT: Though I'm a bit curious about how the protagonist is clever but not smart, I think I get what you mean but could you elaborate a little?