>London David <london@ERE.UMontreal.CA> wrote:
>> Frankly, I found Gareth's comments about the writing in Zebulon and
>> the other games to be pretentious claptrap. It's not exactly clear
>> what he considers good writing, but, from what he wrote, I suspect
>> that I would be bored to tears.
>
>Well, it's clear that I consider the writing in "The One that Got Away"
>and "A Change in the Weather" to be good. My favourite novelist is
>Russell Hoban. Perhaps you could say a bit more (by e-mail, if you
>prefer) about what aspects of my comments were "pretentious claptrap,"
>so that I can improve in future.
>
First off, I want to offer a public apology to Gareth for my comments.
Although what he wrote rubbed me the wrong way (more below), I should
have shown more restraint in my post. Sorry, Gareth. (Still, I think
that Gareth could also have been more prudent - calling someone's
writing "lifeless and humourless" can hardly be construed as constructive
criticism, and is unlikely to lead to a balanced discussion.)
Here's what I reacted to:
To me, IF is a diversion. Nothing more, nothing less. At its best
(e.g. Theatre, Christminster), it can be totally engaging and
captivating. At its worst (fill in your least favourite IF game), it
is uninspired and pedestrian -- in short, boring.
What IF is *not* is highbrow art. I do not expect to gain any insights
into the human condition through IF. It is therefore inappropriate to
analyse IF in the same terms that one would use to analyse serious
fiction, films, etc. This is what annoyed me about Gareth's comments.
I felt that he was criticizing the games (Zebulon in particular) using
criteria (i.e. the quality of the prose) which is of minor importance
to IF.
As I said in my previous post, I don't think one has to be a good
writer to "write" a good IF game. Indeed, a number of IF authors have
said that they don't consider themselves good prose writers. It doesn't
detract one whit from their games.
>Magnus Olsson said himself in r.a.i-f, "I tried not to be too literary;
>the more flowery the prose, the more time one has to spend polishing
>it." It might just be that I appreciate so-called "literary" writing.
>
>I think that it's very hard to strike the right balance in IF between
>the four P's (puzzles, plot, people and prose). Some games in the
>competition were very strong on one aspect to the exclusion of the
>others, such as the puzzles in "The Mind Electric", or the prose in "The
>One that Got Away". "Uncle Zebulon's Will" was the game in the
>competition that had the best balance between all the aspects.
>
I agree with you here. I just want to add that, because I don't play
IF games for the prose, "The One that Got Away" didn't grab me much.
Still, it's interesting that a number of people were quite taken with
the fishing world in this game, even though the puzzles were quite
straightforward and there wasn't much of a plot. It just goes to show
that people enjoy IF in a myriad of different ways. And that's as it
should be.
David London