Overmusing on Twitter: Seasons in Westeros & Kepler’s Three Laws

I danced in the city’s neon lights, forever too soon. The man in black caught my eye. He tapped his watch and smirked.

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She slid her resignation under the Dr.’s door and half-dragged R12U-8 from the lab to her SUV. The man did not stir.

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The sky was unusually bright–a stark white. That could only mean one thing: the Alliance had arrived. Time to split.

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[Recent microfic]

Shoutout to Elisa Michelle! This fellow writer decided to join in on the #microfic challenge. Yeah-yuh! *confetti and fireworks* Recent shorts are posted on her fiction blog, ElisaMichelleStories, and she posts updates on Tastes Like Spaghetti, her Tumblr account. Go check them out!

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By the way–Happy Autumnal Equinox for you Northern Hemis and a Great Vernal Equinox for you Southern Hemis! (Someone’s having fun in Stellar Astronomy class. ;))

200+ tweets in so far on my new Twitter account, rowannhai. It’s been an interesting endeavor so far, but I really hope I’m not spamming followers with my thoughts … Let’s say that for a few minutes a day, I may go into a musing-lapse. Like today.

Post-Spoiler: I completely forgot that summers and winters on Westeros vary in length (so no, summers are not “shorter” than winters), but I’ll just clarify what I had thought (since I only had 140 characters for each post to explain):

[Read from bottom to top]

(Read from bottom to top)

Johannes Kepler’s Three Laws of Planetary Motion, if you’d like to know more.

In the world of A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin, summers and winters can last for years at a time. Why is that?

I jumped ahead and assumed that Westeros is on a planet (it has day and night) and it is part of a solar system like our own so that Kep’s Laws could apply (as far as we know, Kep’s may only apply to our system and no other).

Kepler’s Third Law of Planetary Motion States that p^2 = a^3.  In simpler terms, that means that the longer the orbital period (time it takes for a planet to orbit its sun-star, the longer its distance from its sun-star. For example, Jupiter’s distance from the sun is greater than Earth’s distance, which means that it has a longer orbital period than Earth’s orbital period of one year (this law seems sorta obvious to us, today).

Seasons are caused by the planet’s tilt (such as Earth’s 23.5 degree tilt). As the tilted planet orbits its sun-star its hemispheres receive least/most amounts of sunlight, like below:

Courtesy of HowStuffWorks.Com

But alas. One thing I absolutely forgot to put into account–which shatters my ideas, anyway–is that the length of summers and winters vary in Westeros. Sorta hit me when I took a break from this post and returned. Argh. For the length of seasons to abnormally change, I guess the orbit would have to be unstable … I dunno!

Perhaps it’s fantasy, hahaha! Le gasp, Batman!

I’m only a newbie to Astronomy. *shrug* Yeah, yeah, everybody’s splurging out on A Song of Ice and Fire (aka Game of Thrones) these days, but I was tempted to add some thoughts as to why summer and winter are so friggin’ long in Westeros. How do they measure time outside of days, anyway, if winters and summers vary? I believe that I read that age is measured in winters (or summers?), if I remember correctly …

Ok, ok, it’s fantasy. But sometimes I want to wrap my head around things, you know? I guess all this astronomical analysis puts things into perspective as I work on my WIPs. Verdigar of SoM has a few “scientific” things to iron out.

Dude. Where’s the Map?

A few days ago, I continued reading a book I hadn’t touched in a few months. I remembered crucial plot points in this book, but forgot locations where these points took place. And so, I flipped to the front for a fast, memory-jogger and some insight into the Otherworld’s design (you know, since I’m a worldbuilding freak).

Oh. I see. Ok. Yeah …

No map.

I’m not melting (melting!!) from the lack of a map … but I was rather disappointed. A few authors (including a recent favorite of mine) have decided not to include maps in their fantasy novels. To be honest, I can’t figure out why (well, I think I remember some saying that it makes the plot more predictable, and some writers tend to make characters visit every location on their world’s map. Diana Wynne Jones picks at them in The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, hehe), but that’s their choice. It doesn’t really subtract much from the work.

First Page Maps are warm, fuzzy privileges I do enjoy. I think the inclusion of maps is an asset to fantasy novels since they give the reader a general design (geographic details and whatnot) of the Otherworld. Personally, maps connect me to that world on a slightly deeper level. That’s probably not the same for everyone. I guess my love for physical geography is a heavy factor.

I’ve already designed a rough-sketch of Verdigar, the world (well, “mainworld”) of Sentinel of Mirrors. As old-fashioned as this is, it’s been a minor aid in plot so far, and it helps me remember geographic details (one influencing how Verdi even came to exist), and why certain peoples live and certain industries thrive in those regions (weather, agriculture, and religion are also taken into account). The map is done by island, so cities and villages aren’t outlined.

I heart maps, hehe.

And They Shall Smite Thee with Fists of Fandom

(Ok, my Wifi connection seems to be going in and out. Gotta keep this one short, today!)

Here’s a post from Tor.com I found quite interesting (the essay-esque comments are, too):

The Fandom Menace: What We’re Really Owed by Our Favorite SFF Creators

^ The answer is nothing, in my opinion. Perhaps a respectable ending that doesn’t take a crap on the whole series/season and fans, but that’s somewhat subjective, don’t ya think?

Good grief, y’all. Get a grip! Kumbaya!

Fueling Up

As obvious as this is, I constantly rediscover the magic of reading (DUH!). It soothes some paranoia with my writing style and juices up the inspiration sponge.

Right now, I’m kind of in a book jam since I’m catching up on reading (this semester, every time I geared myself up for some leisure reading, I passed out from exhaustion. Revenge of the Late-Nighters).

Here’s what’s on the list so-far. I think I have to restrain myself from getting more books:

• Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson (Got this for Christmas. Didn’t get past Chapter 4, since I kept passing out from academic exhaustion. The concepts and magical system are quite interesting so far. Allomancy!)
• Racing the Dark by Alaya Dawn Johnson (From the library. As mentioned before, I was hooked to the sample she provided on her website. Love the worldbuilding so far–on some summaries, it seems like there’s a whole lot more to discover. Something about bound-spirits in the center of the world coming loose. Ooh)
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Quite a few people are highly recommending the trilogy. Judging by the wait–I was Hold No. 5 of 15 in the library system–the content must be on fire.)

I was also going to order Clash of Kings, second book of the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin (that, too, I tried to read this semester with the same result), but I need to clear my list first. I read Game of Thrones last summer and gaped at the worldbuilding. (I’m also watching the show on HBO, hehe! Cheering for Arya Stark! She and Tyrion seem to be the only people keeping it real in that hellhole. But more on that later.)

My Love/Hate Relationship with Lord of the Rings

This was going to be titled “My Love/Hate Relationship with Tolkien”, but that kind of didn’t sound right. Plus, I’ve only read the LotR trilogy and a bit of The Lost Tales (?), so it would be kind of one-sided, I guess. I dunno, specificity is good.

Yeah, so, I’m a huge Lord of the Rings fan. I love the books, I love the movies (to tell you the truth, The Two Towers movie introduced me to the books. I started with the prequel, The Hobbit). I couldn’t call myself a fanatic, since it seems as if that is associated with buying/owning hoards of merchandise and spilling rivers of quotes and facts like breathing air. Plus, my peak of fangirlness was years ago in freshman year of high school, anyways (along with my Orlando Bloom fangirl meltdown … YES, I hearted Legolas! No shame in that!)

The peak and decline was (and is) attributed to my life being consumed in college, the complexities of life, I guess (hehe, haven’t read the books for a while, just saw a bit of The Two Towers yesterday on TNT–boy, was I overly excited), and my recent education of my miseducation of race. Uh-huh.

You may be saying to yourself, “What does LotR have to do with race? I mean, it’s fantasy, you numb-skull! Not everything has to be about race!” But my little grasshopper, you may be surprised: a lot of things in this world are influenced by race/race-relations–but that’s a discussion for Someday.

Anywhoo, it is hard for me to face the facts, since a part of me loves my LotR very so. The other part, however, cringes. I mean, c’mon, the fair, pure, wise, magnificent Elves (all are pale-white and most are blond) are the pinnacle of the Middle-Earth races. The darker Southron people are oh so evil and chilling with the villain, Dark Lord Sauron (in the movie, they look stereotypically Middle Eastern–that didn’t sit right with me). And according to the claims of some, Middle-Earth’s continent may be based on Europe and Asia.

Um, so …. the orcs. My friends and I used to joke around that the orcs were black, and we’d be orcs in Middle-Earth or something like that.  Some say that the orcs are analogous to Mongols.

So, all of this information would suggest that my dear-friend Tolkien was a … xenophobe racist. My I Heart LotR Side says, “That’s ridiculous!” but my LotR Eye-Rolling Side says, “The facts, my dear! Judging from the Eurocentric time period and location in which he lived, that would be most likely. Need a hug, hun?”

And it makes me wonder if all the carbon-copying that fantasy writers have done over the years correlates with the level of “race-failure” in their work? NAH, I do think that’s a fart of ignorance on their terms.

Don’t get me wrong–I still think that Legolas is full of awesome-sauce and squeal when LoTR is on the tube. I will also be seeing The Hobbit movie when it comes out.

LotR was, and still is, one of the catalysts that inspired me to write fantasy. For that, I am grateful.

~ All that aside, I’m working on an incomplete flash-fiction piece that I rediscovered in last summer’s notes, newly-titled Winds in their Hands, Fire beneath their Feet (yes, I did get to board Inspiration-Express last night. I really wanted to work on Sentinel of Mirrors , but I fear my over-enthusiasm for worldbuilding has gotten the best of me. I will prevail!)

EDIT 5/18/11: Upon further research, I discovered that the Haradrim are the “oh so evil, chilling with the villain” stereotypical Middle Eastern characters. It’s been a while since I’ve read the trilogy (2005), so I’m not exactly sure if they are classified as Southron, or if Southron people are entirely different. This, too, may be a future post.

A Tough Guide to Fantasyland

Popular recommendation and Shweta Narayan’s post, Tough Guide to Fantasyland’s Locales (which is a great Mmhmm read, by the way–especially if you’re  fed-up with the RaceFail in Fantasy) brought my attention to The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, a sarcastically humorous Mmhmm! exposé on fantasy clichés, written by the late Diana Wynne Jones (I’ve never read her work, but I’ve heard of her novel, Howl’s Moving Castle, that was made into an animated film by Hayao Miyazaki) .

Half-way through the Guide, I’ve laughed out loud at familiar, eye-rolling fantasy clichés and bit my lip sheepishly at called-out characters that I’ve made.

I agree with popular recommendations–if you’re reading this blog, you write fantasy, and you’ve never read Tough Guide, well … do read it!

~Right now, I’m kind of stuck in a block. I’ve tried reading some short stories on online publications for a tad of inspiration (that’s not working), and have been skimming through my favorite websites (that’s not working, either). I’ve stared at my Word screen, read through my plot and worldbuilding notes for a kick-start (to no avail). I guess I’m still burnt out from school, hehe.

But anywhoo, I’m about to read Racing the Dark by Alaya Dawn Johnson. I read the sample on her website and enjoyed it (was so caught up in what was happening that my stomach fell out when the sample ended, hehe). I may do a section by section spoilery review as I read along  (or wait till I’ve finished it whole, instead).

Anyways, I hope I get to board Inspiration-Express tonight … Argh.