Category: Fiction philosophy

10 Cookbooks Inspired by Children’s Fantasy Classics

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On a recent work-related web search, I stumbled across one of Roald Dahl’s cookbooks.

Guys. Roald Dahl’s got cookbooks.

Sure, you occasionally hear about a recipe collection inspired by the latest fantasy franchise. But I think there’s something extra special in the idea of recipes from the books we grew up reading. The ones that made our little child-mouths water.

So at the risk of looking like Buzzfeed, I took it upon myself to search high and low for a whole list of cookbooks inspired by classic children’s fantasy! Take a step into the literary kitchen…lit kitchen…litchen?…and see if you find a cookbook your inner child can’t resist.

 

cover of Roald Dahl's Revolting Recipes

 

Roald Dahl’s Revolting Recipes

The one that started it all. You’ll find recipes from Dahl’s most loved books, including, of course Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (lickable wallpaper!). There’s also a sequel or two.

 

 

 

cover of The Redwall Cookbook

 

The Redwall Cookbook

Admittedly, I’ve only read one Redwall book (though I now own two). But you don’t get through very many pages before being inundated with homey, comfort-food-filled feasts. Deeper-than-ever pie? Of course. Authored by Brian Jacques, so you know it’s legit.

 

 

cover of The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook

 

The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook

While I never got in to Harry Potter, and it’s maybe a tad “new” to be on the list, I think it’s safe to say it has earned its place among the classics. This cookbook may be unofficial, but it’s earned enough attention to make the list.

 

 

cover of Winnie-the-Pooh's Picnic Cookbook

 

Winnie-the-Pooh’s Picnic Cookbook

There seem to be about a million Winnie the Pooh cookbooks, but two actually by A.A. Milne (it says “inspired by” on the cover, but he is listed as the author). This one’s on picnics and there’s another for teatime! Plenty of recipes you’ll inhale like a heffalump.

 

cover of The Official Narnia Cookbook

 

The Official Narnia Cookbook

Though in a pinch, you can probably find some Turkish Delight at your local Indian market (it tastes like Christmas!), I imagine you’ll enjoy cooking up your own with this official Narnia cookbook, co-authored by C.S. Lewis’s stepson, Douglas Gresham.

 

 

cover of The Wind in the Willows Country Cookbook

 

The Wind in the Willows Country Cookbook

Another book that made a big deal of food, so it ought to have a cookbook – and it does! One would hope that a flip though it is just like a rummage through Rat’s picnic basket. Kenneth Grahame co-authored it (or is at least credited). Just look at those illustrations!

 

 

cover of Everything Alice

 

Everything Alice: The Wonderland Book of Makes and Bakes

I found several Alice-related cookbooks, but this one had the nicest cover and sounded the coolest – plus, it’s got crafts as well as recipes.

 

 

 

cover of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz Cookbook

 

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Cookbook

Again, there were a few choices. This was the only one that looked to be inspired by the books (not just the movie). And look at that gorgeous cover!

 

 

cover of Serve It Forth

 

Serve It Forth

I was slightly disappointed to find no Pern cookbook (klah, anyone?), but Anne McCaffrey has compiled two books full of recipes from celebrated sci-fi authors. Larry Niven and Mercedes Lackey contributed to this one. You should also check out Cooking out of This World.

 

 

cover of Medium Rare and Back Again

 

Medium Rare and Back Again: A Tolkien Cookbook

I found a handful of Middle Earth cookbooks, but they looked suspiciously unofficial and not exactly faithful. However, there’s one as yet unpublished that looks very promising. Keep an eye out for it!

 

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Know of any good ones I’m missing? Speak up!

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87 Authors of the Sci-Fi/Fantasy Golden Age

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How well do you know your genre?

I’m on a mission to become better acquainted with mine.

If you’ve ever read Battlefield Earth, you’ve seen the mega list of names to which Hubbard dedicated the book – the Golden Age authors of the magazines from the ’30s and ’40s, such as Amazing Stories and John W. Campbell Jr.’s Astounding Science Fiction.

Though hardly the beginning of the genre, the Golden Age was that sweet spot, when it was just beginning to bud, to find its voice – before the genre grew too big for one person to read in a lifetime.

Though I’ve read a lot of science fiction, I’ve only read seven of these authors. Seven!

I want a better grasp on the classics than that. I’m starting with Before the Golden Age: A Science Fiction Anthology of the 1930s, compiled by Isaac Asimov. These are his favorite stories from when he was growing up – ones that influenced his own journey to writerdom. Some of these authors aren’t on Hubbard’s list, but of course I’m going to read them anyway.

How have you studied your genre? What authors most influenced your writing style? Tell me in the comments!

And if sci-fi and fantasy are your game, take a gander at this infographic. Hubbard’s full list is in text below, so you can copy and paste anywhere (I made myself a little Evernote checklist).

infographic listing 87 authors of the Golden Age of Science Fiction and Fantasy

Click and it can be yours.

And the text version:

Science Fiction & Fantasy Golden Age Authors

He mentions these first:
Robert A. Heinlein

A.E. van Vogt

John W. Campbell, Jr.

And then all these:

Forrest J. Ackerman

Poul Anderson

Isaac Asimov

Harry Bates

Eando Bender

Alfred Bester

James Blish

Robert Bloch

Nelson Bond

Anthony Boucher

Leigh Brackett

Ray Bradbury

Fredric Brown

Arthur J. Burks

Edgar Rice Burroughs

Karel Capek

E.J. Carnell

Cleve Cartmill

Arthur C. Clarke

Hal Clement

Groff Conklin

Ray Cummings

L. Sprague de Camp

Lester del Rey

August Derleth

Ralph Milne Farley

Hugo Gernspack

Mary Gnaedinger

H.L. Gold

Edmond Hamilton

Robert E. Howard

E. Mayne Hull

Aldous Huxley

Malcolm Jameson

David H. Keller

Otis Adelbert Kline

C.M. Kornbluth

Henry Kuttner

Fritz Leiber

Murray Leinster

Willy Ley

Frank Belknap Long

H.P. Lovecraft

R.W. Lowndes

J. Francis McComas

Laurence Manning

Leo Margulies

Judith Merril

Sam Merwin, Jr.

P. Shuyler Miller

C.L. “Northwest Smith” Moore

Alden H. Norton

George Orwell

Raymond A. Palmer

Frederik Pohl

Fletcher Pratt

E. Hoffman Price

Ed Earl Repp

Ross Rocklynne

Eric Frank Russell

Nathan Schachner

Idris Seabright (Margaret St. Clair)

Clifford D. Simak

C.A. Smith

E.E. “Doc” Smith

Olaf Stapeldon

Theodore Sturgeon

John Taine

William F. Temple

F. Orlin Tremain

Wilson Tucker

Jack Vance

Donald Wandrei

Stanley G. Weinbaum

Manly Wade Wellman

H.G. Wells

Jack Williamson

Russell Winderbotham

Donald A. Wollheim

Farnsworth Wright

S. Fowler Wright

Philip Wylie

John Wyndham

Arthur Leo Zagat

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How to Write Formula Fiction

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Image by J. Finn-Irwin

Image by J. Finn-Irwin

You’re probably thinking this entire post should consist of one word:

“Don’t.”

But it’s not going to. Because as it turns out, there is a right way to write formula fiction.

Let’s start with the preliminaries.

What is formula fiction?

Wikipedia defines formula fiction as “literature in which the storylines and plots have been reused to the extent that the narratives are predictable.”

Why does formula fiction usually suck?

“Predictable” is the operative word. If you’re in the first few scenes of a book or movie and are already able to predict who’s going to die, who is the murderer, or who’s going to fall in love with whom, that’s because it’s formulaic. Mac ‘n’ cheese. The same ingredients every time. The writer isn’t pushing anymore. The story is boring and unoriginal.

Why do we still like reading bad formula fiction sometimes?

For the same reason we like Easy Mac—those little plastic bowls of instant mac-and-powdered-cheese you’re horrified to admit you’ve eaten. Though it’s probably made of packing peanuts and crushed up beetles, and though a $10 plate of gourmet macaroni with gruyere and applewood smoked bacon tastes infinitely better, sometimes you just want some Easy Mac. Cheap. Fast. Cheese-ish.

How can I make formula fiction awesome?

Perhaps I should have titled this post “Wodehouse fills my heart with joy,” because I’m going to turn right around and tell you that one of my favorite authors is, technically speaking, a writer of formula fiction.

Since Anne informed me back in April that I had to read P.G. Wodehouse (or, presumably, no longer be allowed among the ranks of People Who Know About Good Books), I have devoured four Wodehouse volumes (20+ separate stories) and have started on a fifth.

P.G. Wodehouse is best known for his series about Bertram Wooster and his valet, Jeeves. These stories usually go something like this:

  1. Bertie or one of his friends either needs to escape from an engagement, or to convince a rich relative to let him marry a girl of questionable status.
  2. Bertie seeks advice from his brilliant valet, Jeeves.
  3. Jeeves coldly fails to offer help. Bertie surmises it is because he has recently bought some article of clothing of which Jeeves disapproves.
  4. Determined not to be ruled by his valet, Bertie elects to keep said article of clothing, and comes up with his own plan to get out of the bind.
  5. Bertie’s plan fails miserably.
  6. Suddenly, everything works out – and we discover it was all Jeeves’ doing after all.
  7. Bertie, overcome with gratitude, offers to let Jeeves dispose of the aforementioned offensive article of clothing.
  8. Jeeves informs Bertie that he has already taken the liberty of doing so.

Occasionally a plot involves betting on the fatness of uncles or on community sack races. But you get the picture.

Yet, with such predictability, I am never bored. Here’s why.

Wodehouse’s Points of Awesome

Hilarious Voice.

Although Wodehouse gives us plenty of situational comedy, very little (besides your serotonin levels) has changed by the end; the story serves more as a vehicle for wit than as an end to itself – wit which continually surprises when the plot does not.

Iconic Characters.

Wodehouse’s heroes are more iconic than cliché, and the contrast between Bertie’s bumbling lovability and Jeeves’ sophisticated stoicism is inherently funny, in much the same way the contrasts between Kirk and Spock, Holmes and Watson, and Gimli and Legolas are inherently funny.

Running Gags.

This is a case of Manuel explaining to Mycroft the difference between “funny once” jokes and “funny all the time” jokes. Some things are funny because they’re unexpected; some things are funny because “oh, that is so like him!” such as Garfield kicking Odie off the table, or the Earth getting blown up in the Hitchhiker’s trilogy.

Surprises.

While Wodehouse’s work usually follows a pattern, occasionally he still surprises you – like when Jeeves narrates instead of Bertie, or when a friend forces Bertie to masquerade as a mass market romance novelist. The patterns then serve to make the surprises all the more delightful.

Someone in an Amazon review called Wodehouse the Mozart of formula fiction; I’m inclined to agree. Wodehouse may always use the same ingredients, but they are quality ingredients.

So if formula is your forte, don’t use the stereotype as an excuse to be sub-par. Strive instead for the above four Points of Awesome. Strive to make the best macaroni and cheese ever.

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5 Reasons Censorship Isn’t Black and White

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censorship-isaacmao

Image by Isaac Mao

Next week is Banned Books Week, when we stand up for the right to read whatever we darn well please! It’s when organizations like the National Coalition Against Censorship lead us in “promoting freedom of thought, inquiry and expression and opposing censorship in all its forms.”

In all its forms? Is censorship always that black and white?

I don’t think so. Here’s why.

1. There’s a difference between school censorship and country-wide censorship.

Country-wide censorship, in which a government controls what its adult citizens read, is tyranny. It is always wrong. If you’re 18 or older, you should be allowed to read whatever you want.

But censorship for children, as in banning books from a school curriculum, is different. Children of certain ages shouldn’t be exposed to certain content; most of us would balk at the idea of a ten-year-old reading Fifty Shades of Gray. It’s the parents’ prerogative to decide which content is appropriate for their children, at which ages.

2. There’s a difference between censoring ideas and censoring inappropriate content.

As we all learned in the movie Inception, there’s nothing more powerful than an idea. And literature (or media as a whole) is the channel through which ideas are transported. Control which ideas your people hear and you control your people.

That’s why country-wide censorship is wrong: without freedom of thought, there is no freedom, period.

The idea is the thing that must not be censored. And there are many ways to express an idea – ways to do it without being crass. For instance:

“The government is f—-d up” vs. “The government is useless/messed up/wrong.”

They express the same idea – an idea that threatens authority. The expletive might be more fun to say, but it’s unnecessary.

Now, per #1 above and #4 below, no government has the right to outlaw crass content. But if an author is angry his book was banned from a school curriculum for including a few F-bombs, my advice to him would be to stop using F-bombs.

Of course, it’s more complicated than that:

3. It’s difficult to determine how inappropriate something is.

The F-word has made its way into PG-13 movies, yet The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been banned for the N-word. Why is the N-word so much worse? It’s a racial slur, an insult to a particular group of people. But then why isn’t the B-word just as bad, when it insults an entire gender?

4. Sometimes it might be necessary to use inappropriate content to express an important idea.

I suppose the idea is to ban the N-word from our language altogether so that children won’t learn to use it. On the other hand, isn’t it an important part of human history that should never be forgotten, lest it be repeated?

5. It’s difficult to determine what is actually inappropriate and what simply conflicts with the beliefs of one group of people.

The Atheist parent might not want their child saying “under God” in the American pledge of allegiance at school.

The Christian parent may not want their child reading Heather Has Two Mommies.

Yet the Atheist parent would likely fight to keep Heather Has Two Mommies, and the Christian would likely fight to keep “under God.”

So where does censorship draw the line?

Does it ban anything that might offend? The kids won’t get to read anything at all. Does it allow everything? That infringes on the rights of parents who can’t afford to send their kids to a different school if they disagree with the curriculum.

There has to be some middle ground.

In the video below, John Green describes a decent solution – parents sign permission slips for their kids to be taught books that might contain objectionable content. But he also mentions some parents who weren’t satisfied with the solution:

(Here’s the link in case the embed doesn’t work.)

Censorship of the content your child consumes is your right. But censoring the content other parents’ children consume, against those parents’ wishes, is wading into tyrannous waters. If we allow that to happen in our schools, it will soon make its way into our homes.

So is censorship simple? No. Is it always wrong? No. But is a dangerous form of censorship still a threat to the free world?

Absolutely.

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Why Your Title Should Be Bigger than Your Name

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Books with big bylines.

Images from Amazon.

One of my pet peeves is book covers whose bylines are bigger than their titles.

I’m in advertising: I can see the practical reasons for a big byline. People are more likely to buy and read a book by an author they’ve read before, or at least heard of. They may not know the name of the new book, but they’ve come to trust the author. It makes sense to give more real estate to an established name.

But there’s just something about it that feels wrong in the gut.

First, fans are going to look for your name anyway. They’ll bookmark your website or follow you on Facebook or Goodreads to find out when your next book hits stores.

But more than that, it feels wrong that the publisher is counting on fame, instead of artistic merit, to sell books. Bigger bylines make the author a celebrity and the story an afterthought.

Other books earn attention with clever titles, unique cover art, intriguing hooks, and fantastic first pages, but these books are simply saying “You’ve read this author before. This book will be pretty much the same.”

It’s a mark of formula fiction.

Perhaps I shouldn’t complain. Perhaps big bylines are hazard signs to warn us away from junk food fiction back toward the books that actually take a few years, instead of a few months, to write.

And it’s not like these authors are pretending to be something else. They’re not tricking their readers into buying something they don’t want. They didn’t lie to earn their millions.

I just think it’s sad. They have the knowledge and the talent to tell stories; they’ve built a platform and an audience. They could do so much more than the Same Old Thing. But instead of looking for new and better ways to surprise and delight their readers, they’re settling for “whatever they liked the last time.”

I’m curious: if a new writer broke onto the scene and made her unknown name giant on the cover, would readers buy the book assuming  she was a big time author? Maybe use a pseudonym that’ll be vaguely familiar?

Fake book cover

Thanks to George Bannister for the photo.

 

Do you agree? Disagree? Or am I making something out of nothing?