Preparedness for when

fuddle

Thank you nellie the viking

I suppose if we look at the psychology behind what motivates a voter in a competition we could probably assume that the ones that give us the most entertainment, the most to talk about or make us ridicule or defame are voted for and stay in right to near the time when a deserved winner needs to be selected. I do hope do this is the case with political voting right now. I mean it's a bit of a ridiculous show at the moment, in my opinion.

NewShadow

GreyQueen wrote: »

Oooh, fellow fantasy geeks, my kinda people. I always joke I have dual nationality; UK and Discworld.

I really struggled with shepherds crown.

I know it was the embu99erance, but I'd not really felt him in the books for a while, and I was so scared of being disappointed by the last book I didn't read it for months.

I actually read this before the book - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/terry-pratchett-wanted-different-ending-shepherds-crown/

I know none of us really knew him or had a claim on him (I assume?) but reading the article helped me realise why I was avoiding reading the book.

The mind's a funny thing.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

I am not, or ever have been a fantasy book reader, but by reading these books, do you think that there are elements in the creative writing that can help with thinking outside the box when it comes to SHTF ??

Hope that made sense

Mojisola

Karmacat wrote: »

I lived in Deverry for a while, in my head at any rate :j:j:j

Me, too!

And on Pern (by Anne McCaffrey) for a long time as well.

NewShadow

Good question.

I think it depends on if you're the type of person to learn from a book at all.

All books are the writer trying to pick the best possible words and phrases, to articulate an idea or concept, via the medium of print. For all its depth and detail, even a text book may not actually reflect what happens in life.

People learn from all books by analogy. If I tell you how I cooked a chicken last night, you aren't learning from my experience, you're learning from the image my words paint in your mind. It may have been an explicit attempt to recreate, as realistically as possible, a specific event, but it's only my view of what happened, and I very well may have gotten it wrong (or just picked really bad words).

What you, yourself, learn depends primarily on you.

Sure, high fantasy may require you to analogize a little more generally when you are applying it to your life since you're not actually a fairy princess, but the same can be said from history books (unless you are actually a 14th century French nobleman?).

Fiction and non-fiction are both just collections of words (mostly the, be, to, of, and & a) piled together by their authors and only come to life in our heads.

It's easy to say that one is "better" or "more fulfilling" than the other, or to dismiss one as "escapism," but that misses an essential point about why we read fiction and what fiction is actually able to do.

If the book is well written, you can find something that bears on you own life. When you read how Frodo feels confronting an overwhelming challenge despite feeling wholly inadequate, feel the chaos and sadness of unending battle in the Malazan Empire, feel the melancholy of looking back at the long-lost golden age of Arda, experience the wonder of exploration, or feel inspired by a charismatic leader. Fantasy has inspired generations, poetry has overthrown governments. "Fantasy" is just what we call a certain type of story.

You can ignore fantasy if you think it doesn't speak to you or if you just don't really like it, but the fact of the matter is that the line between "real" and "artificial" isn't so easy to draw, and may not actually be that important when you're trying to learn about life.

"Making history, it turned out, was quite easy. It was what got written down. It was as simple as that." (Jingo)

"Fairy tales are more than true – not because they tell us dragons exist, but because they tell us dragons can be beaten." (Coraline)

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/24/neil-gaiman-face-facts-need-fiction

(sorry for the essay)

nuatha

NewShadow wrote: »

Sorry, white wolf are a fantasy/role play system publisher. Loads of different authors, but the books all published in the same universe and often sharing characters - this is the set I have sat in a box. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_Champion#The_Eternal_Champion_Sequence

Thank you, I look forward to exploring the World of Darkness.

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

I am not, or ever have been a fantasy book reader, but by reading these books, do you think that there are elements in the creative writing that can help with thinking outside the box when it comes to SHTF ??

Hope that made sense

It can, not only are you exposed to the problems the character faces and the solution the author uses to drive the story forward, but inevitably you consider alternate solutions.
I predominantly read for enjoyment and relaxation, I don't read to broaden my mind or to educate me, though these things inevitably happen.
The broader your experience and the wider your influences the bigger the box becomes, whether you ever learn to think outside it, is another matter, but if a solution you propose is outside of someone else's box, then you can thank the difference in your influences and experiences.
I've cooked meals based on descriptions in fiction, I relearned how to sew and to work leather to make apparel based on such descriptions. Useful skills in many a SHTF scenario.
I've also cooked meals based on descriptions in travelogues, made apparel described in westerns and explored crafts and skills influenced by a wide range of sources including historical.

NewShadow wrote: »

Good question.

...
(sorry for the essay)

Thank you for the essay.
(and for the link to the Gaiman interview, I share his pleasure that Shepherd's Crown was published rather than steam rollered, but would have preferred Terry to be happy with it)

Karmacat

Now *this* is a discussion I can get behind! I can't take part right now, unfortunately, schedule right now being what it is, though I will later. Just this one thing though: I'm reading the Hunger Games, to write a post on my catblog about Buttercup ( ) and watching the three fingered salute, which I seem to remember being adopted by Thai protesters a few years ago. All I've found online written about it is a very sneering article in The Guardian, which they do occasionally but I think that link between a fantasy, and how people felt that year in that country, has to be respected.

Plus, an attitude that I've heard from many fantasy authors - the nuts and bolts have to be *more* real than everyday books, because of the fantastical elements - and that includes psychology.

I'm with Nuatha in mostly reading for entertainment and relaxation - I get enough stress at work.


PS - love Pern! Got a bit too dark when her son started writing them, again its that rest and relaxation thing that I need. I saw Anne McCaffrey once at a fan convention, and she said (to the whole room) "if you come to Ireland, come see the house that dragons bought". She was great.

RAS

Some great comments; I am not much of a fiction reader at the moment but have enjoyed Terry's tales. I remember the petition to Death asking for a reversal of his reaping of the man. Bonkers and wonderful and I think he would have been chortling if he had known.

There have been a number of instances in my life when something has happened and as a result I have re-assessed what I understood had happened and made major changes to my future actions based on the new paradigm.

I think fantasy allows us to explore alternative paradigms, but that is equally true when we share facts or experiences. When I see the dark sky I have a different understanding of my place and that of my species in the universe. When I see outsider art or Orcadian archaeology my understanding of material uses and possibilities changes.

One of the things about survivors appears to be that when faced with loss (of certainty, people, materials) they assess where they are NOW and work out what they can do rather than getting bound up in what is no more and cannot be in the future. That may also make them better at seeing opportunities when things go well.

pollyanna_26

Nuatha Do the recipes include Nanny Oggs cookbook ?:D
polly

nuatha

pollyanna_26 wrote: »

Nuatha Do the recipes include Nanny Oggs cookbook ?:D
polly

I've served Primal Soup, Celery Surprise and Klatchian Hot at a dinner party (and had requests for the Klatchian several times since) Unfortunately I didn't have a pie dish (or oven) suitable for her apple pie - which I think has the correct ratio of apples to cloves.