Sarah Kanning

Up this week is The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones. This book has been around since 1996 (first publised in the UK, now available from Penguin the US through their Firebird imprint) and has been justly lauded and reviewed LOTS of places, so I’ll be brief.

The Guide is arranged as an A-Z listing of anything and everything a Tourist (i.e., a reader of fantasy fiction) will likely encounter on their Tour of Fantasyland (i.e., reading any fantasy book). Also included are many editorial asides about things one might logically expect to find in Fantasyland but won’t, notably chilblains, the common cold, vast swathes of flora and fauna in the natural world, a viable economy, and any food except stew and on occasion yogurt.

The Guide is very, very funny; Jones has a dry, breezy, highly irreverent style that makes reading an A-Z listing, a task usually as exciting as watching paint dry, highly entertaining. The cross-references in particular are often a hoot.

Many writers swear by this book as a means of gently mocking all the clichés of the genre, thereby, we hope, discouraging them in future works, including our own. I suspect it’s most useful as a reminder about the importance of world-building (see especially the entries on ECOLOGY and ECONOMY).

In this summer’s novel-writing workshop, (World Fantasy Award-winning writer) Kij Johnson talked about the technique of “borrowed landscape,” a term she used for writing that alludes to some other cultural referent to help flesh out setting. “Chick lit” writers sometimes do this by name-dropping various products or designer’s names (The Devil Wears Prada); just about everybody writing in a contemporary setting uses this to some extent or the other by using pop culture references.

In fantasy fiction, the borrowed landscape might use elements of other fantasy works (Tolkien?) or folklore. The danger is in over-reliance on borrowed landscape, and on everybody picking the same few details to evoke the rest of the world they describe (which is why the animal and plant kingdoms in Fantasyland are greatly reduced compared to real life). In this way, the Guide serves as a reminder to choose those evocative details carefully. Plus it’s a lot of fun.

On a related note, I picked up my copy of the Tough Guide at a wonderful kid’s bookstore in Kansas City, The Reading Reptile, which has an amazing selection, from board books through young adult, in a kid-friendly environment. It was my first visit, but I’ll be back. They also sponsor a big children’s lit fest every year. Their lineup for 2010 (March 26-27)  includes Adam Rex, who wrote the wonderful and super-fun book The True Meaning of Smekday.

Oh, and another thing: special thanks to Rob and Lane for reciting the entire entry on STEW nearly verbatim from memory last Wednesday, reminding me that I really really needed to get this book.