The Cultural Convention: Part Two – Smile and Wave, Boys, Smile and Wave…

In last month’s blog, I discussed the dilemma of the fantasy writer in creating a different world – how different exactly does one make it? I concentrated specifically on matters of time but that is far from the only consideration when one is crafting a whole new world out one’s imagination. For beyond the temporal, as indicated by the original title of this blog (can you tell it got a bit away from me in the writing? Typical! I’ve split my novels and now my blogs!), there is also the cultural.

All fantasy realms have their own cultures, sometimes based on the historical or geographical cultures of our world, sometimes a thing in and of themselves. That is a fantasy world standard – indeed a necessity – and isn’t what I am referring to. I’m talking about the imbedded social things that most people wouldn’t even think about. From my cultural perspective, a nod is yes, a shake of the head is no. Thumbs up is positive, thumbs down is negative. Waving is a greeting or a farewell. Eating certain plants, birds, fish and other mammals is fairly widespread but eating lichen, reptiles and insects is repellent. A smile is friendly, a frown is not.

And then there is the way we speak. Certain phrases are scattered into our cultural lexicon. Most have origins so deeply ingrained that we haven’t a clue how they came into being. People write whole books about them. The origins of many are so obscure they can’t be clearly recalled. Others are the result of recent media. All nations have their own - indeed, even some of what I in my Britishness considered perfectly normal phrases have bewildered my American editors, who had never come across them. But both phrases and gestures come from our cultural conventions, our societies, our way of being. Hence these are things a different culture in a different world would not share.

So should a fantasy writer be changing these things? To an extent, altering them could create an interesting alien nature to a fantasy culture. But they would need to be explained. And other than inserting some poor soul from our world into a fantastic scenario, how does one get one’s characters to explain something to someone that is perfectly normal for them without it taking the reader out of the story? Plus, it places a layer of obscurity between the reader and the character. The reader has to remember or be reminded what this gesture means in this world, whereas simply saying “he shook his head” conveys the meaning to them immediately. It uses our own cultural shorthand in its favour.

So, as with time, most authors don’t mess. They avoid more obviously modern cultural references but don’t bother to try and unpick the older ones. And that makes sense as it keeps that familiar connection with the reader. It allows them to lose themselves in the bits of the world that need to be different while giving them that lower layer they can still relate to. Oddly enough, it forms a connection.

With my Realm, again, certain concessions were necessary. Life is very different there and certain phrases and ways were needed to make it make sense. But for that reason, I didn’t mess with the basics. A nod was still yes, a shake of the head still no – for those with heads attached at least. I moderated the phrases within reason but didn’t interrogate too hard. Frankly, I had enough to explain without adding any more.

Because, let’s be honest – to create a true fantasy realm, one would need to have an extraordinary cross set of skills. A fantasy author would need to be a scientist in order to make sure the physics of their world functioned correctly. They would need to be a geographer to create an accurate physical landscape and atmospheric system. They would need to be an anthropologist to create an accurate series of societies and culture with their own norms and behaviours and ways of interacting with each other. They would need to be a linguist (step forward JRR Tolkien, probably the closest anyone has ever come to actually managing all this) to create each culture’s language and linguistic lexicon. And they would need the time and the nous to pull the whole darned thing together and then think of a way, short of writing an encyclopaedia (which does happen!), to tell their audience all about it without losing them completely.

But most of us are just writers. So – outside of the privacy of our own notebooks at least - we don’t bother. Oddly enough, as I believe I’ve said before, I love creating fantasy worlds, the bugger is coming up for a story to put in them. But what is a fun exercise for the writer would probably turn off a big chunk of audience when it came to the explanatory crunch. We all crave a bit of familiar amidst the alien. So I say to all you fantasy writers out there, in my own little cultural throwdown – keep the smile wave, boys, keep the smile and wave…;p