Allusions in Eathel ⚔️ Bastard
or, a-losin’ readers of Eathel the Bastard.
Before we begin, I should note that I keep all typos in. This is to demonstrate that my writing is AI-free. Furthermore any bad granmar is intentional to show you that I’m not skynettt
Later on tonight,1 I'm going to post the first 30 minutes of my book and I'm really excited about it. Here's a note on a big part of Eathel the Bastard.2
An allusion is the literary tradition3 of putting in quotes and references to other pieces of literature. Growing up, I was really entranced by their use in Stephen King's The Stand,4 which may well be my favorite book, now that I think about it. Specifically, The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition, with the author’s forward n errthing, made a ‘deep impression on me’5 as a reader.
Anyway, I loved how Frank Herbert used fictional reference material in his stuff. And I loved all the appendices in Lord of the Rings.6
So I knew I wanted to do it in Eathel. Each episode is going to come with in-world allusions that are fun…for me to make. We’ll see how they come across.
We’re already at Tier 1-Nerd status here with cerebral, lyrical7 fantasy.
I’m going full-on final form with in-world reference material, à la Dune.
There’s no going back once you create a fake primary source document for your fantasy world.
I totally get if a reader is like, ‘yeah that's not for me.’
So in the print version you'll obviously be able to skip ahead. In the audio episodes you will find all the allusions at the end—so you can skip ahead to whatever you want to do next.
As a side note, before the foot notes begin8
Writers by the way are often admonished to show rather than tell. The idea being that you shouldn't have to explain things to readers.
The stronger writing is that which demonstrates indirectly.
And that’s something fundamentally at odds with world building.
I think a lot about exposition and how much of it I'm doing.
I think at times it's going to sound like quite a bit.
I don't really know how that’s gonna come across.
This may change as time goes on.
I do know I'd rather live in a fantasy world than the real one right now.
Strangely, isn’t it curious that this exposition most explicit (literally publishing a map so people aren’t wondering where the fuck the elves are at) is kind of a way of showing and not telling?9
Literary traditions
Speaking of literary traditions, an example of a ‘tragedy’ might be the story of someone so nerdy he is fascinated—not merely by fairy tales about dragons and princesses—but by the reference material to said märchen.10
This brings me to a second key question with which I reckon (the first one is how much exposition I’m doing).
Is it sadder that:
a child was more interested in the back matter11 in Lord of the Rings; or,
an adult man is still captivated by bedtime stories?
Time will tell. Few will care.12
Now, regarding footnotes13
Tonight, excited to post my first substantive piece of content, I neglected to give the whole 30 minutes a good listen to. So there were some edits that needed to be made. Blah blah blah. Anyway, I'm writing this as I proof listen.
Thinking of trying to get "Eathel x Bastard" and "Eathel ⚔️ Bastard" to become a thing. People put x’s in stuff to make them cooler. I’m not knocking it. It works.
More on “Literary traditions” continues under that header.
If you consider yourself a fantasy fan who has not read The Stand by the Dean of American Fantasy (a term I’m coining as an epithet for Mr. King) then get ur mind right.
“Deep impression on me as a…” is one of the most classically overused, jejune²⁻¹-ass U-turns-of-phrasing that echo throughout the halls of every middle school in America. But I’m trying to pull off a jujitsu²⁻¹ move here. These snippets and samples²⁻² little portals into other worlds were like hyperlinks to other new discoveries of art and culture. The Stand really is something I think about all the time.
2.1 a…{timing}…jejunjitsu move, if thou wilt; also…double footnote son. Fuckoutahere.
2.2 Sampling will be something I seek to do in various forms throughout Eathel the Bastard. I'm using of it in the sense that it's used in hip-hop, in which samples of other songs are literally incorporated into new creations.
Bonus example: ‘pedantry’ is not a literary tradition (per se, at least; wherever goeth he who useth words like unto ‘literary tradition,’ therewith goeth pedantry). But anyway, it would be pedantic to point out the distinctions among allusions, citations and references. ‘Tragic’ remains une appellation très apte pour someone who knows about such things (see also: ‘lost cause’).
Celeryrical, anyone?
Character naming process exposed:
a) ‘Celeryrica’ sounds like a woman’s name, as well as the word ‘celery.’ We can’t have someone named “Celery.” So…mess with it until it becomes…maybe…Clarìsynae [come down hard on that short ‘i’] for a noblewoman and Clàrica for a nice simple commoner’s name. Either one could go by Clary. I know Clari is the more obvious choice but…’y’ not?
A…calf note. If you will.
I'm putting a pin in that one to explore later, but it's an interesting thought. There’s some kind of postmodernist half-joke about the medium being the message or something. Prepare to be underwhelmed.
“Back matter” is a broad term that encompasses all the sections of a book found after the main body text. Examples of stuff that can be found in the back matter are: appendices, glossaries, bibliographies, indexes, colophons, acknowledgments, etc.
Also, claiming dibs on “Time won’t tell” and “Time won’t tell; few will care”, for use at a later date that…time will tell won’t happen.
I’m coming out in favor of infinitely nest-able footnotes and idfc⁶⁻¹ who knows it.
6.1 I don’t fundamentally care.