This series was always amazing and ends magnificent, so why are publishers afraid of giving more progressive, fresh authors a possibility to make the This series was always amazing and ends magnificent, so why are publishers afraid of giving more progressive, fresh authors a possibility to make the lives of all reading beings more delightful?
The final part gives a pretty good answer to this question, relating to the National Stupidity index that gives the Goliath corporation immense power over the already weak CommonSense party. Satire and reality are fusing more and more, sometimes it´s difficult to differentiate, remember, and realize what is what. Am I just reading a comedy or the news, it must be a comedy as I don´t read newspapers or did someone play a trick on me and mixed news together to a novel? It´s all of the same deliberate or collateral, unnoticed stupidity.
But here lies the real-life reason for why mainstream has become an ultimate mantra, forcing the producers of content to satisfy the needs of an audience used to a very small variety of genres and conventions, even including reading. The topic is too big to deal with it here, cultural imperialism and the usual stuff, but the inherent irony that the endless potential of literature is, both by publishers and readers, lead towards more monocultures and clones of running systems is to a certain part frightening and depressing.
Of course, it´s the same with music and movies, but a book is something so personal and different that I am sometimes wondering why people aren´t more interested in going new ways, exploring different ways of storytelling, breaking out of the conventions and reading restrictions one creates for her/himself without even recognizing. To exaggerate a bit and stay in the spirit of the book, there are not just genres but ways of telling that are not dying, but stagnating and not developing further because there are not enough readers to make them profitable.
Going the conspiracy road and saying that this series is a bit too close to real life and that it might offend many readers in how it describes economy, political parties, religion, and society may be an option too. In a mixture of this and the fear of publishers to fail with an ingenious work that is too ahead of time might lie the reason why even works like this one that aren´t too long, complicated, too specifically written for one audience, and general masterpieces often have such a difficult and deferred start.
What were the pearls and ingenuities of these novels that will very probably be reread to discover all the overlooked hidden easter eggs?
The chrono gWhat were the pearls and ingenuities of these novels that will very probably be reread to discover all the overlooked hidden easter eggs?
The chrono guard protecting the consistency of everything, satirizing all kinds of similar special forces in the history of Sci-Fi, fantasy, military, spy, agent, and thriller novels.
It´s a bit biopunky, as genetic engineering is highly developed with Neanderthals, mammoths, and dodos with less advanced computers and has some Steampunk elements in it.
The Goliath corporation, what a contrast to the average common evil empires in serious novels, but they effectively do the same, just a bit less evil and funnier.
Literature is of great importance for the society, a bit as if sports, politics, faith, and economics would be combined in our world and close to everyone would be interested in it in some way.
Ultimate breaking the fourth wall: Innuendos, connotations, references, exaggerations, and neologies about so much regarding literature, genres, the writing process, and, primary, outstanding milestone novels. Jurisfiction for the execution of working plots, bookworms as one of the best allegories of bad writing, and many other elements are examples of the special language used to describe the world.
Bookworld and great library: A parallel universe created out of the ideas of all authors that ever lived, including all manuscripts and ideas that never got finished or published.
Bookjumping, jumping at the point one imagines oneself while reading, is one of the most fitting descriptions of getting lost in a book I´ve ever read.
Genre wars, the fusion of elements of not easy to consolidate literary genres and the chaos this causes, are a kind of backfiring attempt to breed hybrids, convention busting babies of completely different parents.
I would go so far as to say that much can be learned by this series, be it about creative writing, the sense and nonsense of literature, and especially how one initializing, creative idea can be turned in such a groundbreaking series.
The title itself is a good indicator of the clever use of innuendos, references, and connotations in this unique universe.
The time travel element is bThe title itself is a good indicator of the clever use of innuendos, references, and connotations in this unique universe.
The time travel element is big in this one and unleashes the full potential of caricaturing with this trope and exaggerating the potential for confusion by multiple everything possible, people, worlds, whatever. The only problem might be that, without the foreknowledge or better said reading the other novels of the series first, it might get too complicated with all those elements, not to mention the many references to world literature many won´t have fun with without knowing the original, which turns them into useless puns.
Many multi versions of one person is an often used, mostly Sci-Fi element, but using it as a comedy character is a tricky thing. Fforde used it to create a mesmerizing, never too complicated mix of storylines and leaves the reader with the question of how it would be with many similar, the same, or completely different versions of oneself. I, highly subjectively, am wonderful, so it would be certainly great fun. For me, not for you poor others, having to wait until my billions of clones armies start marching after landing on your home planet. Worship me!
Mixing reality TV with real literature parallel worlds and universes to boost the sales and fight against the declining readership by turning happenings and plots in options chosen by the voting audience, could be seen as a satire on the decay of western culture in general or as the dawn of the collaborative writing era. The utopia opens the option for readers, with livelong filled treasure chests of knowledge about their favorite literary genre, to collectively create fanfiction and even whole novels of extreme quality in shortest intervals, when amateur hobby writers all around the world combine their powers to continue a series, expand a universe, or create a new one. Just 50 to 100 genre addicts would do amazing jobs.
It could, of course, also go the wrong way, if already pretty constrained consumers of average to poor media dominate the market by their sheer mass and financial power and force the industry to produce more and trashier trash. Pretty good allegory if one feels the need to get negative and cultural pessimistic.
So here come some of the main ingredients of this part of the series of inimitable inter genre reading cocktails:
Propaganda, manipulation, and warmongSo here come some of the main ingredients of this part of the series of inimitable inter genre reading cocktails:
Propaganda, manipulation, and warmongering in politics and trade: the satirizing of all the conspiracy theories and real-life events in this regard play a key role in the series, as it´s often the evil corporation that is playing with the next attempt of real-world domination, literary world submission, or just mega sales of a new product, not caring about the potential causality, time loop, stability of the whole book universe, consequences. Some of the funniest and most profound scenes and plot twists are created by using real-life inspired happenings.
Hamlet has hardly ever gotten so many laughs instead of sighs, tears, and suffering. So it took four parts until we reached the soliloquizing skull wielder and I guess friends of Shakespeare (will hardly ever read it) may find much more pleasure than the average reader for whom there are wit, entertaining literary history, and some alternative plot use options for the old fellow.
What happens if real, living genres merge or are forced to interbreed and get monstrous, dysfunctional, mad kids? This, one of Ffjordes´most ingenious ideas, has become one of my favorite creativity technique vehicle and, once again, I ask myself why nobody else before had this idea before Fforde. Parody and satire used the idea of mixing not fitting and opposed ideas together for millennia, I don´t know if there might not be even the one or other cave painting, but Ffjorde nailed it and pimped it to perfection. Try it, take 2 or 3 genres with 2 very different authors and bam, that´s brainstorming and creative writing ammunition for a long time.
Literary detective rules and conventions of genres. Kind of relates to the last point and is one of the driving forces of the series, as Thursday is a mixture of different thriller genre tropes. But imagine it with another setting, this has a Pratchettian potential for more satire in close to every genre (except tragedy probably), or, my dream, to use the giant of satire again, Pratchett in space with sci-fi elements.
(view spoiler)[Goliath corporation as a religion, how cool is this? It also opens the question of where and if the differences between a religion and a profit and shareholder value-oriented company are and how much faith and belief there is in economics and fiat money in general, but we don´t want to get too reflective and have fun instead, jay. (hide spoiler)]
The continuity is big in this one and the later parts of the series keep referring to the happenings before, just that it gets more complicated than uThe continuity is big in this one and the later parts of the series keep referring to the happenings before, just that it gets more complicated than usual because of the parallel world theme.
The title alone says much about the idea of the reality of created universes and how, in this case the satirizing of the crime genre, it can be put in scene. It shows how conventions ruled genres over decades, that there once were strictly written conventions for everyone who wanted to get published and that we are just now coming to a point were genre lines are becoming more and more flexible to explore new dimensions of literature.
A highlight was the idea to create devices to control reading, plotting, and creating, changing, and imagining books to a dimension that is some kind of a fantasy AR/VR experience with fantasy elements and realism that goes a bit too far because it can get dangerous.
Imagining to be really able to enter those worlds, to have authorities that control the borders to those parallel universes, is something many might have already dreamt of, but Ffjorde was one who used it for world building and not just as an element of a stereotypical story. How he plays with the living tools of creative writing as characters is of such ingenuity I could just jay about it all day.
I could go on fanboying about all the creativity, innuendos, depth,… but I will instead just speak out a very heavy reading recommendation, as this series is even getting better and better and although the entry is a bit difficult because it´s so unconventional, it´s totally worth it.
The idea of parallel universes, alternate timelines, uchronias,… is an often used trope, but in this constellation and with the interconnections and dThe idea of parallel universes, alternate timelines, uchronias,… is an often used trope, but in this constellation and with the interconnections and dependencies on and in the real book world and the not any more so just fictional second world, it gives the idea a whole new dimension.
It´s close to a literary and sociological experiment to integrate the worldview, mentality, history, of the time the novels were created and how they influenced the awareness about those times and how novels are more than just entertainment, but studies about different times of human history, of changing morality, genre pictures, true crime history distilled on pages.
The authors´ influence reaches a whole new dimension if one sees fictional works not just as something existing in the writers and readers mind, but as real and true worldbuilding, a kind of superpower to construct new worlds, the ultimate mind over matter proof, the option to be a creator of fictional universes for everybody.
Time travel, split up personalities that could develop in different directions, criticism of cartels, one world trying to take over the other, exaggeration of many character tropes, evil powers trying to destroy one of the worlds or subjects in it,… there is so much hidden in this universe that it´s difficult to get it all in just one read. It´s one of the greatest love letters to reading and literature in general too.
I imagine that a series like this could go on close to forever because the options are on the table and there is not just all literature ever written, but everything published this day, not to mention new forms of art such as video games and the good old buddies movies and series that are now having a renaissance thanks to VR and AR. An expanded satire universe like this would be something I want to totally get lost in.
Hardly an author has styled the parallel universe tropes with breaking the wall elements to such perfection as Ffjorde did.
Mix everything together The Hardly an author has styled the parallel universe tropes with breaking the wall elements to such perfection as Ffjorde did.
Mix everything together The integration of living literature in a parallel universe as a plot device is ingenious and a potentially endless source of innuendos, connotations, and options for more and similar novels. Imagine the same with video games, movies, or all mixed and it could get big quickly, depending on the main inspiration and idea of the chosen genres and works.
One of the really big comedy milestones I´ve rarely ever chosen such a comparison, but I would name similarities to Adams, Pratchett, Robbins, and some others because of the humor, character development, and uniqueness. It´s really tricky to get an emotion out of me, but this amazing series did it several times.
Disliking it may be caused by being used to genre conventions It´s an unconventional piece of literature, a true crossover hybrid that dances at many weddings, integrates, steals, persiflages, and makes me wonder why its quality is controversial. I see very much cherrypicking regarding the often average character and plot development of comedy and fast told stories that are necessary and essential for telling such a piece of literature. It smells for me like an aversion against too progressive, unconventional writing style, because I could hardly name a series that had both such a great idea, realization, and universally acclaimed greatness by nearly everyone I recommended it to.
Even the publishers first disliked the progressivity If we start bashing each author who dares to explore a completely new land of storytelling without getting artistic, boring, Nobel pricy, and bad, but instead keeps using the rules of the telling game in a brilliant new setting, many ideas will get lost. It shocked me to hear how long it took Ffjorde to get published and I think that many of the reasons for it lie in this grievance, in the tendency to troll true creativity because it´s too unfamiliar and strange to read.
To make it clear: I don´t mean people who just can´t get warm with his writing style, which is a question of taste and personal preferences and completely ok, I am avoiding many genres too.
Trying to be objective is a hard game I am more referring to people who rate very good, but stereotypical and always the same telling as usual high and are against progressive endeavors. Or the extreme other side, who love and read much high brow, so-called literature, that is often trash in my eyes, but bash popular fiction because of its predictability, popularity, and stereotypes or, if this is not the case as in this case, because it´s different. Nothing to talk about in academic circles, but something out of the line they can´t and don´t want to understand.
Both groups are enemies of too progressive authors and it´s quite a shame that they, instead of staying in their territory and not poaching in foreign lands, try out new things and don´t realize that their problems with the writing could be related to them and their subjective conditioning and thereby aversion and not a fault of an author. It´s so clear if someone interested in character-based, 3 setting novels reads Hard-Sci Fi space operas and vice versa, she/he won´t be happy with it and don´t like it because it´s not their thing, but in this case, the own reading preferences seem to have been forgotten. It´s like listening to music one hates and saying that the artist is bad, etc.
This first part of this series has the only problem of info-dumping and explaining the world a bit too much instead of directly jumping into action, but that´s a widespread issue.
Mario the lone bookwolf
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