From: bdsm@poincare.WPI.EDU (Billy Don McConnell)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.piers-anthony
Subject: Re: TCHOP + Knowledge...
Date: 8 Oct 1992 09:33:36 GMT
Organization: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: poincare.wpi.edu
Originator: bdsm@poincare.WPI.EDU


In article <92281.234318IO10536@MAINE.MAINE.EDU>, <IO10536@MAINE.MAINE.EDU> writes:
|> BTW- was anyone else kinda bugged by PA bringing in Jenny Elf
|>      from an entirely different world?
(Sorry I deleted your name...)

I admit I was a little put off by that the whole Jenny Elf thing.  I mean, I 
can _understand_ his wanting to make his friend Jenny happy, but he could 
easily have made her a Xanth native.  I don't dislike the Jenny Elf character,
but I find her other-worldly derivation just a little unnerving.

I think, if we were to closely examine the latest of the Xanth novels, we'd
find real reasons for the apparent loss of solid intellectual material.  I
say (write) this, of course, not even intending to do any text analysis, but
only intending to present my sense of things as held in my memory. (WARNING:
This post is kinda long, and I don't think I make my point as clearly as I 
would want.  So even though there are a lot of words here, they are not
necessarily my last words on the subject.)

It doesn't seem as though Piers is "composing" his works anymore;  rather, it 
seems more like he's just "arranging" stray parts.  That is to say, in the
beginning the books had real stories to tell, and it just so happened that they
could be told with characters from a tightly woven family unit, with perhaps a
few strays.  But with just a few books, Piers created what every writer wants
to create:  a living, breathing world that to which the reader can react with
some feeling; he had created theories of magic, history, and mythology that made
quite a bit of sense, and mixed well.  Readers enjoyed the environment,
especially the pun-inspired terrain and social situations. Therein lies the bulk
of the problem, I think.

Piers was too eager to accept pun-suggestions from folks.  By putting these
suggestions (many of which were really good) in his novels, he legitimized reader
contribution. (Don't get me wrong, reader contribution can be a wonderful thing.)
But as more and more puns flowed in, Piers worked hard to integrate them into 
his books; he was beginning to write more "things" and fewer "stories".

Then readers began to provide constructive literary criticism:  "You claimed
this, so shouldn't THIS happen?"  For example, in _The Source of Magic_, the 
Demon XANTH (no cool typesetting here) left the peninsula momentarily without
magic;  thoughtful readers commented how this would have, among other things,
voided the Forget Spell on the Gap Chasm.  So Piers had to take that kind of
thing into account:  and thus were born all the references to Forget-Whorls
that flew randomly through the later novels.  Things like the Gourd (which I
really like better as JUST the hypno-gourd...no mystical portal to the Realm
of Dreams!) and Reverse-Wood and the Com-Pewter just appealed too much to the 
imagination to be left alone, so readers wrote in with comments, suggestions, 
things.

So Piers was deluged with all of these ideas.  I'm sure he felt some urge to 
right whatever plot-wrongs he may have commited or present solutions to
previously unsolved problems (like Dolph's marriage woes and Humphrey's
youthening predicament).  Whatever the reason, it seems that Piers began to
write more and more to clean things up rather than to make any story-line
headway.  Like I said, he didn't seem to be composing; he wasn't creating
brand new ideas.  He was arranging;  he was trying to fit in reworkings of 
previous material, tying up loose ends, around some poorly constructed new plots.

But that's not to say that this doesn't work.  I happened to like _Question
Quest_ quite a bit, except for the beginning and the end, which belong to the
"loose ends" type of writing that Piers seems to be dealing with now.  I think
_Question Quest_ did for Xanth what _The Magician's Nephew_ did for Narnia.
It provided a new, unifying slant on the history of the land.  And only by having
heard all of the earlier stories could one appreciate that unified history.  
(That's why I urge readers of the Chronicles of Narnia to read them IN ORDER of
publication, not in chronological order.  You miss the whole appeal of _The
Magician's Nephew_ otherwise.)  At the same time, I thought that some of the 
details of Humphrey's history were just too far beyond the limits of coincidence.
Who would think that almost everyone he met in _Question Quest_ would each turn 
out to be a major (or at least not too minor) character in a half-dozen other
Xanth novels?  (In particular, I was REALLY stunned...annoyed...by the revelation 
that Crombie was Humphrey's son.  Why did Piers do that, when there was no 
precedent for it in earlier books? ...when there was "anti"precedent in the 
earlier books:  Crombie and Humphrey travelled on an adventure together (I forget 
the book)...you would think a stray "Dad" or "Son" would be passed between them!  
Can anyone tell me Anthony's rationale for making Crombie Humphrey's son?  The
rationale must, of course, be based on references made before _Question Quest_ 
if it is to be considered reasonable.)

Then there's the Jenny Elf thing.  She falls into the category of "Intrusions
from Anthony's personal life".  Along with the Com-Pewter.  And the cameo
appearance of the folks who wrote the Visual Guide to Xanth.  Some of these
things are given pretty good treatment.  Others are just "there" because...
well, just because.  And they detract from the story by reminding the reader
that it IS a story.  Jenny Elf WAS imported by the author to make a girl's
day...the Com-Pewter illustrated the power of the word processor to alter the
reality of the story-book world...Okra Ogre wanted so much to be a "major 
character"...these things show that the stories of Xanth are taking on lives
of their own:  the STORIES are characters themselves and are to be dealt with.
Again, I do not mean that this cannot or has not been done effectively in some
of the Xanth books, but I think Okra's problem and some of the Com-Pewter stuff
was really kinda lame.  And the Author's note to _TCOHP_ bothered me a little
too, but since it was outside of the real story I didn't mind;  having Jenny
"read the credits" was mixing reality and fantasy a little much...in the sense
that maybe Piers will have Jenny keep her memory of that experience for later
stories.  A character that knows she's in a story can only be effective when
that story is VERY carefully constructed;  Piers doesn't seem to be trying all
that hard to be careful lately.

But golly it's getting late.  I didn't intend for this posting to be this long.
I apologize to those of you who suffered through it this long, waiting for my
point.  It's simply this:  I have to agree that the later Xanth novels (and
in fact the later Adept novels and perhaps a couple of the Incarnations novels)
show a certain lack of innovation on the part of the author.  The books seem
more to be writing themselves, since each one presents new problems that will
have to be solved in some later edition.  It's "Loose Ends" literature, pure and
simple. I wish I were more articulate, but we can't all be great writers.

Of course, I have a great level of respect for Piers Anthony, or else I wouldn't
read this newsgroup.  I believe him to be a real stand-up kind of guy; honest,
sincere, the kind of guy I might like to hang out with, and all that.  His 
Author's Notes are sometimes the best parts of his books. The Xanth novels are 
always a "fun" read, no doubt.  But I think most of us realize that they have 
over time become less of a "deep" read.  And that's OK, too.  I just thought 
I'd comment on what I saw were particular aspects of the decline in depth.  
(Of course my opinion is only as good as the paper it's printed on, so don't 
make a hard copy of this post unless you agree with it!)


Perhaps someday I'll be able to make myself more clear on the subject.  Until 
then....

Billy Don Mc Connell
(just call me "Don")