Roll Your Bones & UA Fiction (was Re: [UA] Bad Idea: messing with TNI)
Chad Underkoffler
chadu at yahoo.com
Fri Mar 28 10:55:21 PST 2003
> From: "Tim Bisaillon" <knightbane at hotmail.com>
> Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2003 09:51:14 -0500
>
> With LG$ you get a cool story.
(I've spoken to at least one or two people about the following,
and thought it was worth bringing up to the list at large,
especially after reading one of Chris' posts.)
Upon a recent re-reading "Roll Your Bones," I came to a
realization of why I didn't much like it, and felt it was "off."
This is not to say it was bad, just that I think it missed the
UA boat.
I realize I'm taking one of the game's creators to task, but,
frankly, neither bodybag in the story seems obsessed. Indeed,
few of the fictionalized adepts in the UA -- save Dirk Allen --
seem obsessed with magick.
Obsession, to me, is an overpowering urge and a focus for
thought for the character. And, in terms of the game setting,
these folks have a deep enough obsession to alter reality.
That's heady stuff.
When the character isn't thinking about magick, or doing magick,
or arranging the detritus of their lifes into magickal shapes,
they should be interpreting everything they say, do, or
experience in terms of their magick. I don't feel any of the
written characters I've read in the UA fiction really match
that.
If they're truly obsessed, their base-state is to chase magick
and do magick, and if they're not, they feel compelled to.
Something has to be earth-shaking to make them deviate from that
pursuit.
Characters should, IMAO, have this magickal style of thinking
operating in a story, even if they don't cast a single spell or
gather a solitary minor charge in the course of the story.
And, again, I'd point out Brinker -- we don't really see what
I'd consider a risk-mage's mentality in his internal or external
dialogue. He doesn't contextualize the false NG tape within his
worldview of chaos, risk, and chance. (Though this changes,
slightly, in "The Decision of Paris, TX", mostly because he only
speaks a few times; furthermore, during those times, he's using
risk-loaded language and is in a dangerous situation.)
And, perhaps it's just me, but the UA stories that really
hold together for me are "Two Thousand Zero Zero," "A Stone in a
Shoe," the Lucifuge story, and "New Joke City," with "The
Decision..." coming a half-lap behind, and the others at least
another lap behind that. Holding up "Roll Your Bones" as the
touchstone for UA fiction is unpalatable to me.
Just my opinion, mind, but I'd like to hear the lists' thoughts.
If you want, just take this as "Which is your favorite UA story
and why?"
CU
=====
Chad Underkoffler [chadu at yahoo.com]
My Writing: http://www.geocities.com/chadu/pubs.html
Live Journal: http://www.livejournal.com/users/chadu/
"Pardon me while I have a strange interlude." -- Groucho Marx
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