Satires and references in Arcanum

I think this is a matter of targetted audiences. The majority of mass-produced, automated romance, sci-fi and fantasy novels are really only telling a few stories over and over with different names and settings. Their audiences are like tourists who go to foreign countries only to reside in Hiltons and Holiday Inns, and take the shopping tour of the best malls with the same designer labels they can buy at home. (I am definitely *not* saying this is true of your work. I am only making this point about markets.) This compares with other travelers who, like some readers, relish the experience of culture shock, and the moe unusual and well-developed the setting, the better.

In the latter category, Jack Vance, L Sprague de Camp, Fletcher Pratt, and James Branch Cabell are all examples of fantasy writers who deliberately wrote against expectations. Arguably, whether their markets were bigger than the automated trade books, many of their works have become regarded as classics in the field, while nothing from those who wrote in the safe vein has.

Yet it certainly is possible to write using familiar cultures. There, as elsewhere, a level of personal insight, high literary skill, and good handling of plot, character and themes are vital to success--whether you write about Elves, Humans, or the Shlemfixnox race of tax-collecting mice on the planet G'fern G'fern.

 

I guess, to me and only me; this is strictly my personal POV), that book would be less enjoyable for using the cliches of endless, recent fiction. Unless, of course, the author's race really is distinctive--in which case, calling them Orcs will probably drive away those who prefer their fantasy done by-the-numbers. In fact, they may even feel betrayed by being led to believe they were getting one kind of novel when it was actually another.

The desire to provide familiarity to a potential audience has caused problems for at least a few authors, in the past. ER Eddison, for example, deliberately chose the planet Mercury and races labeled Demons and Witches for his masterpiece, The Worm Ouroboros. Yet the setting is typical of the poetic Eddas and Proto-German Minnesangers, or even Beowulf. The two races are completely human, and identical. It was a blunder, writing the prologue that "set the stage" in such a fashion.

On the other hand, Jack Vance has certainly benefited from creating his own Elves, who act and think like some race from another planet or dimension. He's gotten his small share of detractors who scream that he's not "authentic"--rather amusing, that, since Vance was writing excellent fantasy 30 years before D&D appeared. But he's built himself a reputation for quality writing and well-thought-out cultures that differ from the standard. In his case, writing about elves and such meant writing about something new, not something redundant.

 

I personally enjoy fantasy when it isn't done by the numbers, to a certain extent. I mean, if you are writing a book based on D & D, I would expect the basic ideas of the D & D races to be reflected in your book. If you're writing a sequel to LOTR, then the LOTR descriptions should be portayed as accurately as possible. But when you are making a new series why bother? I mean, fantasy series like LOTR, or D & D, they aren't about any character, they're about a world. If you proclaiming to be in that series, you are in your own world. It's a blank slate when you start, and then you get to mold it into whatever you want. So what if your world and Tolkien's don't match? You didn't call your book LOTR 4 did you? The reader shouldn't expect them to be the same, and if they do, they will have to acknowledge that in the book.