Gary Gygax, Oscar Wilde, and other masters of atmosphere

[Deuce Traveler]

This post at Grognardia had me thinking: GROGNARDIA: Open Friday: Gygaxian Prose

Gary Gygax is not known as a good novelist, but he had a great talent for prose, evoking atmosphere, and having wit. I have decided that Mr. Gygax lacked the talent for long books, but was nevertheless a great and uniquely talented writer.

I've recently read Oscar Wilde's "The Portrait of Dorian Gray" and I didn't like the book, but I did very much enjoy parts of the book. It is a fantastic work if taken in sections, but those sections don't necessarily work when joined. Wilde is also great at one-liners and quips. On his grave, for instance, is this:

"And alien tears will fill for him
Pity's long broken urn
For his mourners will be outcast men
And outcasts always mourn"

I'm not sure if that is a quote from Wilde's works, but it seems like something he'd write.

Are there other such writers of the scene or of atmosphere that you consider great, despite their inability to write great novels? Are there writers that evoke scenery, atmosphere, or energy despite being able to put it all together into one long tale? If so, would you be willing to share your experiences and such quotes?

 

[olshanski]

Ya know, I love Gygax, but I'd never ever put him in the same league as Oscar Wilde. But then, Arguments are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often convincing.

So it sounds like you are asking who is able to evoke atmosphere in short little bits, even if they didn't ever put out a huge novel?

I'd nominate both TS Elliot

I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
I do not think that they will sing to me.

I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water white and black.

We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

and W.H. Auden.

As I walked out one evening,
Walking down Bristol Street,
The crowds upon the pavement
Were fields of harvest wheat.

In particular that last bit... fields of harvest wheat is supposed to evoke the image of a scythe cutting down the stalks... the grim reaper... The author is saying that he recognizes that everyone is going to die.

 

[VictorC]

Is this a serious thread?

 

[Mark CMG]

"Phnglui mglw nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah nagl fhtagn" — H.P. Lovecraft (?)


Talk about atmosphere . . .

 

[Thunderfoot]

I would probably have to go with Piers Anthony (ducks behind rock).
Yes, I think he evokes great vision in his works, the worlds and scenes he describes are very vivid. The stories (at least to me) get a little boring quick.

Arlo Guthrie might also fall into this. Alice's Restaurant is a 15 minutes song about a littering incident on Thanksgiving, the ensuing trial and culminates in an Anti-War movement that hinges on singing "You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant". The cognitive leap from point A to point B takes a few sharp turns here and there and he even has to remind the listeners a couple of times about that which he sings. Brilliant yes, cohesive, not so much.

 

[jonesy]

"Sir Isaac Newton, renowned inventor of the milled-edge coin and the catflap!"
"The what?" said Richard.
"That catflap! A device of the utmost cunning, perspicuity and invention. It is a door within a door, you see, a ..."
"Yes," said Richard, "there was also the small matter of gravity."
"Gravity," said Dirk with a slightly dismissed shrug, "yes, there was that as well, I suppose. Though that, of course, was merely a discovery. It was there to be discovered. You see? They even keep it on at weekends. Someone was bound to notice sooner or later. But the catflap, ah, there is a very different matter. Invention, pure creative invention."

Are there other such writers of the scene or of atmosphere that you consider great, despite their inability to write great novels?

Huh? Which way is that again?

 

[S'mon]

While obviously no Fritz Leiber, I did considerably enjoy most of Gygax's Gord the Rogue books, especially Saga of Old City, but Artifact of Evil and Sea of Death are also quite decent; 'Sea' actually had me teary-eyed at the ending! And they gave good insight into how he envisioned Greyhawk/Oerth.

I really didn't like his later Khemit stuff though, really bad.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Geoffrey posted this on the link I posted above, and I really love the scenery it evokes from the D3 module, Vault of the Drow.

'The true splendor of the Vault can be appreciated only by those with infravision, or by use of the roseate lenses or a gem of seeing. The Vault is a strange anomaly, a hemispherical cyst in the crust of the earth, an incredibly huge domed fault over 6 miles long and nearly as broad. The dome overhead is a hundred feet high at the walls, arching to several thousand feet height in the center. When properly viewed, the radiation from certain unique minerals give the visual effect of a starry heaven, while near the zenith of this black stone bowl is a huge mass of tumkeoite -- which in its slow decay and transformation to lacofcite sheds a lurid gleam, a ghostly plum-colored light to human eyes, but with ultravision a wholly different sight.

'The small "star" nodes glow in radiant hues of mauve, lake, violet, puce, lilac, and deep blue. The large "moon" of tumkeoite casts beams of shimmering amethyst which touch the crystalline formations with colors unknown to any other visual experience. The lichens seem to glow in rose madder and pale damson, the fungi growths in golden and red ochres, vermillions, russets, citron, and aquamarine shades. (Elsewhere the river and other water courses sheen a deep velvety purple with reflected highlights from the radiant gleams overhead vying with streaks and whorls of old silver where the liquid laps the stony banks or surges against the ebon piles of the jetties and bridge of the elfin city for the viewers' attention.) The rock walls of the Vault appear hazy and insubstantial in the wine-colored light, more like mist than solid walls. The place is indeed a dark fairyland.'

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Is this a serious thread?

Yes, it is. I'm trying to discuss different types of writing. I could read a few paragraphs written by Gary Gygax and those words will evoke a feeling of mystery that I'll ponder the rest of the day. On the other hand, I don't really want to devour a whole novel of his overnight. He is a great writer, but maybe not a great novelist.

Terry Pratchett is both a great writer and a great novelist. I never get the sense of wonder of imagery that Gygax is capable of when I read a Discworld novel, but I can and do devour a Pratchett novel in a day, unable to put it down. Once I finish the novel I might think about it a few more times, but generally I move on without that sense of wonder I receive from Gygax's work.

 

[Hussar]

Well, to be fair, Pratchett's not out to be a world builder - he's primarily a satirist. Discworld is simply the vehicle for the satire.

If you're looking for some really evocative prose, I suggest both Subterranean Press and Beneath Ceaseless Skies : : Issue #64 . Both magazines regularly feature some absolutely fantastic stuff.

As far as authors go, Elizabeth Bear, Robert Reed and China Mieville all come to mind as being able to create fantastic scenes that will stick with you.