Gillian Rubinstein - aka Lian Hearn
I just finished Gillian Rubinstein's computer trilogy for children. They are Space Demons (1986), Skymaze (1989), and Shinkei (1996). An interesting if now a bit dated childhood fantasy mixing computer gaming and psychology told in the teenage voice.
A quote in Shinkei clarified for me the direction and preparation she takes in her storytelling.
This took me back to all the English lit classes in high school, Northrop Frye and his theory that in literature there are a universal set of archetypes and symbols.
Using Frye's framework, you can see how Gillian is attempting to write her 'archetypal' story. Looking at the different reviews of the series on the net, you can see that she captured some of her readers, but not all of them. Sometimes, the voice she used seemed to be beyond the narrator and comprehension of her targeted age group 11-14.
Interestingly, this also explains how using the alias Lian Hearn (thanks Chris), she wrote the 'Tales of the Otori' trilogy. I've got to reread the first book of this series, 'Across the Nightingale Floor'. Now I understand why of the three books in this feudal Japanese fantasy, this first one spoke to me the best. In Across the Nightingale Floor, the voice used (a teenager), the plot, along with the symbols and 'archetypes' seemed perfectly matched while in the following two books, the magic was just not the same; the followups completed the story plot but the tricky balance of needing to age the voice as the protagonist aged to fit the story broke the magic.
I will be interesting to see if Gillian Rubinstein or Lian Hearn can in her future books capture the magical archetypal story again.
A quote in Shinkei clarified for me the direction and preparation she takes in her storytelling.
Somewhere, there exists the archetypal story. All over the world people are trying to write it, to compose it, to film it. But you all fall short. Your minds are human, finite, separate...(pg31)
This took me back to all the English lit classes in high school, Northrop Frye and his theory that in literature there are a universal set of archetypes and symbols.
Using Frye's framework, you can see how Gillian is attempting to write her 'archetypal' story. Looking at the different reviews of the series on the net, you can see that she captured some of her readers, but not all of them. Sometimes, the voice she used seemed to be beyond the narrator and comprehension of her targeted age group 11-14.
Interestingly, this also explains how using the alias Lian Hearn (thanks Chris), she wrote the 'Tales of the Otori' trilogy. I've got to reread the first book of this series, 'Across the Nightingale Floor'. Now I understand why of the three books in this feudal Japanese fantasy, this first one spoke to me the best. In Across the Nightingale Floor, the voice used (a teenager), the plot, along with the symbols and 'archetypes' seemed perfectly matched while in the following two books, the magic was just not the same; the followups completed the story plot but the tricky balance of needing to age the voice as the protagonist aged to fit the story broke the magic.
I will be interesting to see if Gillian Rubinstein or Lian Hearn can in her future books capture the magical archetypal story again.
posted by Wayne at 9:24 PM
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