It is not intuitive to
seek beauty in art deemed grotesque/weird, but most authors who produce
horror/fantasy actually are usually (a) serious about their craft, and (b)
driven my strange muses. These
interviews engage contemporary authors & artists on the theme
of "Art &Beauty in Weird/Fantasy Fiction".
Today we host author Richard Lee
Byers, known for his Forgotten Realm contributions. He holds a Master's degree
in Psychology and worked in an emergency psychiatric facility for over a
decade, then left the mental health field to write. He is the author of more
than fifteen books, including the lead book Dissolution
(first book in the War of the Spider
Queen series). Follow him
on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/rleebyers) and on Twitter (https://twitter.com/rleebyers).
RICHARD LEE BYERS
1) SEL: Geographical Muses: One
of my favorite Clark Ashton Smith tales is Genius Loci (1933) in which an artist, Amberville, turns mad when he paints a landscape
that happens to embody the effigy of the land's deceased owner. Ghosts, and
muses, can be geographic in nature. Noting that you were born in Columbus OH,
which many Sword & Sorcery authors have roots (i.e., Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild ofAmerica members Andre Norton, John jakes, Roger Zelazny…),
is there any evidence you have to support the crazy
notion that Ohio localizes S&S muses? [sidebar: SEL has lived in OH since the 1980's and wishes for such a genius loci]. Perhaps you have memories of Ohio has
haunted or inspired you? If not Ohio,
another geography?
RLB: Alas, no. To the
best of my recollection, there was nothing notably swashbuckling, barbaric, or
eldritch about Ohio when I was growing up there. But I was fortunate enough to
find a circle of friends who shared my enthusiasm for fantasy, SF, and horror.
I imagine that played a role in my ending up as a genre writer.
2) SEL: Early weird
fiction masters like Edgar Allen Poe, Clark Ashton Smith, and Howard Phillips
Lovecraft wrote letters and essays on “Beauty,” and they all generally espouse
that beauty is not necessarily within art (i.e., a book or poem), but it is the
conveyance of a feeling. Is there beauty
in horror/weird fiction? Is there beauty in the repulsive?
RLB: Sometimes the repulsive is simply that.
Realistic images of slaughter, torture, etc. sicken me as is, I imagine, the creator’s
intention. But I think that when a horror story is based in the supernatural or
some SF premise, there can be beauty even when something monstrous in being
depicted. That’s because our curiosity, fascination, and sense of wonder are
being engaged at the same time as our sense of dread.
3) SEL: Do you have any “dark muses,” i.e., things that terrify/repulse you but
you feel compelled to write about them.
RLB: I don’t know. Maybe not. I’m not fond of
heights, and some of my more popular characters frequently fly the skies on
griffon-back, but that experience isn’t portrayed in a way intended to scare. I
am quite conscious of the dark side of human nature, our capacity for cruelty,
selfishness, bigotry, fanaticism, etc., and many of my stories try to comment
on that on one level or another, but my concern there is so general that I don’t
know that it indicates I have a “dark muse.”
4) SEL: You have a degree in psychology and
worked in the mental health sector; how has this informed your writing
(psychology of characters...and or readers expectations)?
RLB: I’ve been out of the mental health racket for a
long time now, and today I seldom consciously think of personality theory and
such when writing if, indeed, I ever did. But back in the day, I did interact
with psychotic and sociopathic people on a daily basis, and I’m sure that
getting a sense of who they were and how they viewed the world provided
insights I still draw on when creating characters.
5) SEL: Rorschach Test:
What do you see? Ok, bear with me since this is question a
game/gimmick of sorts. I wanted to reinforce your mental health background in a
fun way. As a scientist who performs image analysis on data, I apply math on
photos to quantify microstructure of materials. I took the liberty of processing two images you should be
familiar with the content. Figured it would be interesting if you commented or
interpreted this abstract version, and described what you see. There is no
intention for any real psychological test, but figured this exercise may also
reinforce your feelings on different perspectives.
RLB:
Image 1: Guys hanging around the brothel parlor
waiting for their turns.
Image 2: The faces of somewhat thuggish-looking twin
brothers.
[See bottom for the image reveal! Very funny]
6) SEL: Do you practice
other arts beyond writing? If so can we share them (i.e., images of fine or graphic
art) or mp3s (of music). Guess you could mention martial arts too.
RLB: I don’t paint, play music, etc. I did put in 25
years as a fencer (epee, mainly, although I fenced foil and sabre, too) and
still think of myself as a fencer even though I haven’t been inside a salle in
a while. I miss it, but my right knee is showing the wear and tear of catching
my weight and momentum through 25 years of lunging. So, sadly, the more prudent
course may be for me to just keep going to the gym three days a week.
7a) SEL: Forgotten
Realms (a): Writing dark fantasy that is
acceptable for the young adult crowd requires balance; how does you go about
presenting scary settings/events in fun ways?
RLB: Honestly, no editor ever said to me
that Realms fiction was targeted at the YA market, and I didn’t think of it
that way. I did have an understanding that the publisher didn’t want writers to
go all XXX-rated or splatterpunk, so I didn’t. When it came to generating a
sense of dread, I don’t think it cramped my style all that much.
If you look at
the masters of classic horror, they depicted terrifying and even grisly events,
but they rarely if ever went on for pages with detailed descriptions of
torture, dismemberment, and what have you. Appeals to the reader’s sense of the
uncanny and the depiction of the viewpoint character’s emotional response to
the strange and threatening saw them through. I guess I tried to achieve
similar results via similar methods.
7b) SEL: Forgotten
Realms (b): If you were a Zulkir (master magician) what discipline would you practice
(Evocation, Transmutation,
Abjuration, Enchantment Illusion, Conjuration Necromacy, Divination)? Perhaps
you have an RPG character for this.
Now that I’m not
doing Forgotten Realms fiction anymore, I haven’t looked at my reference
material in a while. Is Evocation the one where you throw fireballs and
lightning bolts? Whichever one that is, that’s my pick. I don’t see how you can
go wrong throwing fireballs and lightning bolts.
I’ve run some magic
users in RPGs over the years. I don’t think I ever had one who specialized in
one particular school of magic. But you can bet they all threw fireballs and
lightning bolts.
7c) SEL: Forgotten
Realms (c): Can you comment on Szass Tam's artistic flare (the necromancer character in the Haunted Lands
Trilogy) and/or comment on the muses you drew upon for him?
RLB: I don’t recall
thinking of Szass Tam as an artist per se, but in the trilogy, his goal is to
destroy the universe and replace it with something better. I guess that would
be the ultimate act of artistic creation if you want to look at it that way.
As far as how I
portrayed him, well, he was a preexisting character in Forgotten Realms lore,
which indicated he was a wily skull-faced undead master of the dark arts. To
that, I added the idea that his ultimate goal was the destroying and rebuilding
the universe thing.
If you look at all
that, a skeletal undead villain out to kill everybody, you realize the
potential for cliché, one-dimensional characterization, and portraying a guy
who comes across as a virtual parody of the evil mastermind archetype. I tried
to avoid that by resolving that Szass would never feel what a standard
arch-villain would feel or do what a standard arch-villian would do unless the
plot required it. So in the story, he doesn’t gloat or fly into rages and isn’t
needlessly cruel. Rather, he forms friendships and shows mercy. He’s someone
you might enjoy hanging out with if you didn’t know he was planning to
obliterate you and everyone and everything you cared about.
7d) SEL:
Forgotten Realms (d): Please comment on
the creative process when writing for shared
worlds (Forgotten Realms) vs your individual work (i.e., featuring your character Selden in This Sword For Hire or
Billy Fox in Blind God's Bluff).
RLB: To my mind, there are two main
differences:
The first is expressed in the adage (if
I knew who originally said it, I’d give credit, but I don’t) “Don’t blow up the moon.” That means people
other than you are working in the shared world and the owner of the IP intends
it to generate product and revenue for a long time to come, so you can’t tell a
story that would mess things up for everybody else.
Such a story doesn’t have to involve
blowing up the moon, sinking a continent, etc. The issue can be subtler than
that. Many shared worlds are built around fundamental conflicts and mysteries.
If you’re already a fan of the shared world, resolving one of those conflicts
or solving one of those mysteries may be the first story that occurs to you and
one you’d be thrilled to tell. But it’s one you probably can’t tell because
doing so would close out a part of the franchise that people like and would
otherwise generate future products.
Now, occasionally, you can tell a story
like that if the IP owner has decided it’s time for the franchise to move on to
a new phase in its history. I’ve done those world-changing epics a couple times
in the Forgotten Realms. In my experience, if the publisher wants a story like
that, they’ll ask a trusted writer with experience in the shared world to write
it. You won’t get such a gig if you’re a newcomer.
Now if you’re writing in your own
universe, you can do anything you want anytime you want. Although if you’re
writing a series, you too may want to be careful about writing something that’s
apt to make future stories less interesting or maybe even superfluous
altogether.
The second difference is that to do
shared-world work, you need to be flexible. You could go to your editor with a
great idea and be told, “Sorry, we already have an elf-centric book for this
year” or “So-and-so is already going something set in the Red Kingdom.” If that
turns out to be true, it won’t do you any good to argue or sulk. You just have
to come up with a different idea.
Obviously, if you created the universe
of the story and are the only one working there, you won’t have such a problem.
I think, though, that it still behooves you to be open to feedback. You don’t
want your editor to decide you’re a pain in the ass to work with.
Rorschach Image Sources:
Image (2) RLB’s “thuggish brothers” is just an abstracted mirror-image of himself
