Excuse the long quotation:
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It was then that an ill-advised curios young Greek philosopher suggested to [Fafhrd] that the soul or inward form of the thing loved is alone of importance, the outward form having no ultimate significance.
‘You belong to the Socratic school?’ Fafhrd questioned gently.
The Greek nodded.
‘Socrates was the philosopher who was able to drink unlimited quantities of wine without blinking?’
Again the quick nod.
‘This was because his rational soul dominated his animal soul?’
‘You are learned,’ replied the Greek, with a more respectful but equally quick nod.
‘I am not through. Do you consider yourself in all ways a true follower of your master?’
This time the Greek’s quickness undid him. He nodded, and two days later he was carried out of the wine shop by friends, who found him cradled in a broken wine barrel, as a new-born in no common manner. For days he remained drunk, time enough for a small sect to spring up who believed him a reincarnation of Dionysus and as such worshiped him. The sect was dissolved when he became half-sober and delivered his first oracular address, which had as its subject the evils of drunkenness. (Leiber, Adepts Gambit; New York: Ace, 1968, pg. 111).
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So, there is a thread of “frat-boy” humor to this. I fully admit it; however, there is nuance here that truly makes Fritz Leiber great. First off, you have an exhilarating juxtaposition here. Here we have married both a high philosophical register with a low, base register. You have philosophy over quaffed wine, a discussion of metaphysics shaded by liquored up blood. You have humor with a serious theme: outward appearances and inward beauty. And even more interesting, on an explicit level, this embedded story has nothing to do with the overarching narrative of the plot. It’s kind of an aside, a pleasurable little jaunt, a quick flash of humor.
I love how Leiber follows these little anecdotes out. It’s almost as if he identifies a thread and then follows it to its source to illuminate this or that unique element of his imagined world. This is how, in spite of the fact that so many of his stories are about Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, much of the focus is the city of Lankhmar and Newhon itself. The setting, usually subordinate to the characters and their actions, is set on an equal plane in Leiber’s work. These kinds of fun, “embedded narratives” work to achieve that effect.
Exercise: Write a brief story, no more than 300 words, where a character talks to another character. Have one of the characters relate an embedded story to that character that is somehow connected to their relationship. In other words, write a story within a story using dialog. Save this. It might serve as the beginning of a new story.
Feel free to post your work on the workplace. I'd love to read it!
‘You belong to the Socratic school?’ Fafhrd questioned gently.
The Greek nodded.
‘Socrates was the philosopher who was able to drink unlimited quantities of wine without blinking?’
Again the quick nod.
‘This was because his rational soul dominated his animal soul?’
‘You are learned,’ replied the Greek, with a more respectful but equally quick nod.
‘I am not through. Do you consider yourself in all ways a true follower of your master?’
This time the Greek’s quickness undid him. He nodded, and two days later he was carried out of the wine shop by friends, who found him cradled in a broken wine barrel, as a new-born in no common manner. For days he remained drunk, time enough for a small sect to spring up who believed him a reincarnation of Dionysus and as such worshiped him. The sect was dissolved when he became half-sober and delivered his first oracular address, which had as its subject the evils of drunkenness. (Leiber, Adepts Gambit; New York: Ace, 1968, pg. 111).
***
So, there is a thread of “frat-boy” humor to this. I fully admit it; however, there is nuance here that truly makes Fritz Leiber great. First off, you have an exhilarating juxtaposition here. Here we have married both a high philosophical register with a low, base register. You have philosophy over quaffed wine, a discussion of metaphysics shaded by liquored up blood. You have humor with a serious theme: outward appearances and inward beauty. And even more interesting, on an explicit level, this embedded story has nothing to do with the overarching narrative of the plot. It’s kind of an aside, a pleasurable little jaunt, a quick flash of humor.
I love how Leiber follows these little anecdotes out. It’s almost as if he identifies a thread and then follows it to its source to illuminate this or that unique element of his imagined world. This is how, in spite of the fact that so many of his stories are about Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, much of the focus is the city of Lankhmar and Newhon itself. The setting, usually subordinate to the characters and their actions, is set on an equal plane in Leiber’s work. These kinds of fun, “embedded narratives” work to achieve that effect.
Exercise: Write a brief story, no more than 300 words, where a character talks to another character. Have one of the characters relate an embedded story to that character that is somehow connected to their relationship. In other words, write a story within a story using dialog. Save this. It might serve as the beginning of a new story.
Feel free to post your work on the workplace. I'd love to read it!
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