Of Swords and Parasols

Wow, I think I've gotten most of those before.

*ponders to awkward femme fatale in the library*

Know what I wish was possible? A non-woe-is-me female assassin of Makie's level(as in, can slaughter a dozen without getting a drop of blood on her) who's blind. But I doubt you could pull that off without stretching imaginateions beyond where they'll stretch.

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I think it's possible. You have to have a world which can support that - other warriors with that level of skill, characters and situations with that level of crackfic whatsit so she doesn't stand out, etc. - and you have to be able to write it in a way that it's not a self-parody ~~like Death Trance~~.

rachelmanija and I had a short conversation on LJ some time ago that I can't find now, in which I wondered why we completely accept the wonky worldbuilding of Saiyuki, where nobody blinks an eye at jeeps and gold cards, but there's no evidence of the wider economy and technology required to support such things (mechanics, fuel, telephony, etc.). And she pointed out that it's because Minekura is spot-on with the emotional worldbuilding, such that it carries the story all on its own and we rarely stop to examine the flaws inherent in the setting.

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It would actually work pretty well as a bodyguard, but as an assassin, well, the person has to be sent there, most of the time, and has to have some understanding of the layout and location. Which will typically mean (1) having received a guided tour before or (2) having a companion with eyes at the time. Both of which will lead to at least some question of "wouldn't it be cheaper to higher someone else?" or "how good is the companion?" "how much time is wasted familiarizing this person with the layout that wouldn't be wasted with someone else?" etc., etc...

I have often pondered why I never waste any time wondering about the jeep and credit cards and newspapers in Saiyuki when I will obsessively pick at other things for far, far smaller things. Ithink it's because she doesn't really bother with any worldbuilding. I'm just about finished with the first Black Company book, and noticing the same thing.

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OTOH, someone who's blind would be able to get in somewhere and not be suspected, because she's blind. And if you look at Japanese history, blind women were traditionally given jobs as masseurs and (koto, was it? or biwa?) players/singers/storytellers. Both of which could be invited into someone's home without excessive suspicion. They'd be able to lurk around areas in the home and out of it where people talk, they'd have access to both areas of a household - servants' areas because they're of lower status than the inhabitants and would be fed and housed in those areas and higher areas because they'd be taken there to perform their services. Especially if it's a society like Heian Japan where the women were sequestered, and so entertainment and other services would have to be brought into the house for them.

If she spends the night or several nights there as part of her cover duties, it's fairly easy to sneak about. Someone finds her lurking in the wrong place in the middle of the night, she just starts looking worried and apologizes profusely because she got up to visit the privy and got turned around and lost. Handwave her own navigation - scents from various rooms (Japanese nobles had personal incense scents blended for them and would perfume their robes with it) identifying people and places, air currents and variations in temperature telling her whether there's walls or corridors, the sounds of people moving coming through thin paper walls. And look up a few of the news articles that came around before about the blind kid who uses echolocation to get around like everyone else - he makes clicks and listens to the tones of the echoes.

Then a few days or weeks later, after the memory of the masseur/entertainer has faded, sneak back in during the night and assassinate. Or instead lure the target into a situation where she has the advantage - deep fog, total darkness, extremely bright light - or force her advantage - something that affects the eyes, like a version of pepper spray or smoke.

And then you make those parts nonstop action, so that the scene changes before the reader has a chance to slow down and think "wait..." about anything you forgot.

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Minekura and Cook both have worldbuilding, but it's subsumed to the characters, and it's inferred from the dialogue and action. Tom-Tom and One-Eye stand out because they're dark-skinned and come from the south, so the world is set up similar to ours in which the light-skinned people tend to occur farther north. There's high-energy magic, but it requires lots of training and is really beyond the reach of an ordinary person. Etc.

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The thing that keeps throwing me with Cook is that he'll have full scenes, and then all sorts of major events and entire characters will be Croaker saying "this happened and this happened and this person went off to..."

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I think that's part of why I like it - it reminds you of the conceit that Croaker's writing this all down in the Chronicles, and that it's all filtered through his point of view.

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Yeah, that's why it works because it does come across as he just randomly decides to write some things out in more detail, but I also keep thinking "wow, he actually thought of a way to justify telling instead of showing!"

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Exactly. :) Telling is a perfectly fine way of telling a story if you do it the right way, and one of the right ways is to make the narrator a distinct, compelling character. It works for Cook in the Black Company novels, and it works for Steven Brust in the Phoenix Guard series, because Paarfi, the historian ostensibly writing everything down, is just hilarious. XD

I've got a book on self-editing for fiction writers but I haven't been able to get too far in it, because it starts with a chapter on Show Don't Tell which immediately makes me ornery and contrary and want to do stories in tell mode. Especially because one of their telling samples in the writing exercises at the end is perfectly fine and just needs a bit more polishing to make it a funny-narrator type of thing.

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chomiji

>> Minekura is spot-on with the emotional worldbuilding <<

I was thinking of something like that with Wild Adapter today - that not really much has happened to move the supposed storyline along in the last two volumes, and yet they were much more satisfying to me than the first 3.

Also, the sheer wackiness of the techno levels in Saiyuki becomes its own reward. smillaraaq and I had a great, ridiculous discussion over what was the level of media available, for example (she noticed what seemed to be a VCR in Gojyo's little house).

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There's a big book of manga reviews put out a year or so ago. I looked up Saiyuki, and they hated it because the plot never seems to go anywhere and they never reach their location. Which left me sputtering "But...but...but... you're missing the whole point of the story! It's about the characters' personal journeys and the quest to stop the resurrection of Lord Whozit is just the MacGuffin!"

So I guess to each his own.

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chomiji

I think I read the same book - it was sitting on the end cap at Borders. Humph!

The Mr. will read Saiyuki but he only really enjoys it when they're being snarky to each other and the villains. (But he likes xxxHolic, which fascinates me - I wouldn't have expected that.)

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Maybe for the mythology and imagery? I also know a couple guys who don't really "read" it, but do check it out sometimes because they like Yuuko. ~~Granted, the fact that her chest is impressive by any possible definition could factor in...~~

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magicnoire.livejournal.com

I'd like to see that too. I loved Sara in Samurai Champloo.

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Yeah, I'm not as in love with Samurai Champloo as most, but she's probably what first made me fixate on the idea.

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Everyone believes Toph. You just need an excuse.

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I think that, being a kids show, we're automatically accepting of these things in Avatar.

telophase's steampunk post, though, has got me thinking that in a steampunk setting, there are all these sounds everywhere...

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I don't know, I think if there's the right elements introduced, it makes it more plausible-- not the kids' show aspect. Toph's 'seeing' things through vibrations in her feet work because she's a very powerful Earthbender and is connected to the Earth in that way. Daredevil's a mutant, so he has the radar. The challenge, IMO, is to introduce something that makes her ability plausible.

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*inner comic book geek rears head*

Actually, Daredevil was splashed by chemicals that blinded him and affected the rest of his senses. Tragically, the last thing he ever saw with normal sight was his father carrying out a mob hit. Not that this alters your point.

I think that, by the time Toph showed up, we were accumstomed to the idea that bending makes you capable of virtually everything.

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I thought the chemicals caused a mutation, though that may be from my confusion between the DD and TMNT origin stories. (Oh, Frank Miller, is there no life trauma you can't make more traumatic?)

But see, there's a groundwork laid there. The trick is laying it properly.

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Hmm...I think my thing is that I want the character to not have any sort of superhuman ability beyond what a normal human could have.

Actually there are other, less known blind action characters in comics...

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That would be tougher. You could make a fairly effective poisoner, though.

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I may or may not have used telophase's talk earlier about people who aren't noticed being able to familiarize themselves with layouts to attempt positing something plausible.

(I think the steampunk aspect gives room for something radarlike if the person has trained themselves, too.)

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