First, no problem with digression! I welcome digression, especially when it means I get to see someone else analyzing the details & explaining the conclusions. My brain gets happy at that.
Second, it's not like there are that many characters possible, after all, and Jack/Laurence could be argued to be similar archetypes, or coming from the same root (or one-step-removed, in Laurence's case): personable young naval captain, well-liked by crew, good-ish family but somewhat awkward father figure, etc. -- and I can name several other high seas adventures with similar captains at the helm. When I read the Temeraire series, not knowing the M&C stories themselves (only by reputation, really) and mostly being familiar with its forerunners (Kidnapped, Treasure Island, High Wind to Jamaica, etc), I instead was thinking, "wow, she totally captured the genre, and mixed it so well with fantasy." I didn't get inorganic character details that anvil'd me with "this makes no sense but it's HERE and what the HELL anyway, over," which to me is a sign of fanfic ripping going on, akin to the character who for no explicable reason hates milk or won't remove his mask or wears a priest's outfit.
I would say that yes, Novik did it right, and just as importantly, the fannish fossils she left in the story are elements that are almost archetypal in and of their own right -- but that her characters are unmistakeably and completely her own, which for me is the heart and soul of making an old story your own and thus new all over again.
no subject
Date: 9 Feb 2010 04:52 am (UTC)Second, it's not like there are that many characters possible, after all, and Jack/Laurence could be argued to be similar archetypes, or coming from the same root (or one-step-removed, in Laurence's case): personable young naval captain, well-liked by crew, good-ish family but somewhat awkward father figure, etc. -- and I can name several other high seas adventures with similar captains at the helm. When I read the Temeraire series, not knowing the M&C stories themselves (only by reputation, really) and mostly being familiar with its forerunners (Kidnapped, Treasure Island, High Wind to Jamaica, etc), I instead was thinking, "wow, she totally captured the genre, and mixed it so well with fantasy." I didn't get inorganic character details that anvil'd me with "this makes no sense but it's HERE and what the HELL anyway, over," which to me is a sign of fanfic ripping going on, akin to the character who for no explicable reason hates milk or won't remove his mask or wears a priest's outfit.
I would say that yes, Novik did it right, and just as importantly, the fannish fossils she left in the story are elements that are almost archetypal in and of their own right -- but that her characters are unmistakeably and completely her own, which for me is the heart and soul of making an old story your own and thus new all over again.