Have a question about something fantasy-related? Ask the Oracle! (Be sure to include your first name and the city, state, and/or country you are writing from.)

Q: Why do you think some fantasy and sci-fi authors collect such rabid and aggressive fans? I’ve been involved in internet-based communities centered around various fantasy authors (who shall remain nameless) for a long time now. Some of these authors attract really rabid fans who are hostile to newbies posting on the boards, are incredibly nit-picky about minor details, and who are dare we say it, obsessive, about the minutiae of the world the author writes about. Is it just that people are freer to be nasty when there is no face-to-face contact and therefore no social awkwardness? Or is there something else? I have to stress not *all* fantasy writers have those kinds of fans. — Ralph, Christchurch, NZ

A: Ralph, I think every fantasy or sci-fi author does have some fans like this — at least once he or she reaches a certain level of fame. And the reason why, as you suggest, has to do, in part, with the anonymous nature of the internet, but also just the nature of geekdom. As much as the Oracle (a geek to my core) hates to admit it, there might be some truth to the stereotype that a small sub-set of geeks has, well, social problems. We’re all best off ignoring them, because all they really want is attention — since, obviously, they have no friends.

As James Cameron says of his Avatar critics, in the latest issue of EW: “Look, most of these people are the kind of person that will say [in a nerdy, nasal voice] ‘The 14th time I saw this movie, I saw something I didn’t like, and so I hate this film.’ That’s the kind of hate I can live with.”

Then again, does this have anything to do with fantasy (or sci-fi)? The Oracle wonders. I suspect every genre has its share of infuriating jerks. Maybe it’s just the fact that fantasy and sci-fi aficionados are more likely to turn to the internet — a place that, unfortunately, allows jerks to have freer reign.

For a longer perspective, the Oracle asked Piers Anthony — a true fantasy-writing legend for many decades now — for his take.

“I have seen the kind of behavior you describe in organized science fiction and fantasy fandom,” he tells the Oracle. “Being dedicated, I can appreciate; being in-group clubby strikes me as something else, and I have never supported it. My contempt for it has been open and perhaps as a result I have been tacitly blacklisted in some areas, with false stories spread about me, and no positive reviews allowed.

“But the old fandom is passing, being replaced by Internet Fandom, which is a new game,” Piers says. “It does not seem hostile to me, and I seldom receive negative emails. It may be that I don’t frequent the right sites to pick up on the negatives. I do get specific questions, and appreciate them, I mark corrections on my file copies of novels so that they can be corrected when there are new editions. Writers do make mistakes; I hate getting fouled up, but how can I correct errors if no one points them out to me? So I see it as a service, not as nastiness.”

This is such a fascinating topic the Oracle suspects he may have more to say on it next week!

Q: Exactly how much time passed between The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian? It doesn’t seem like enough time for Cair Paravel to have become an island! — MAGPIE, Toronto, Canada

A: Interestingly, while most of the events in The Chronicles of Narnia do not have exact years and dates, author C.S. Lewis did create a “time-line” of Narnian history before he died in 1963; it was published in 1979.

From this time-line, we know that exactly 1289 years pass between the time the Pevensies (as adult kings and queens chasing the White Stag) leave Narnia for the first time and their return in Prince Caspian (as children again — how weird must it have been for them to go through puberty twice!).

Is that enough time for the peninsula on which Cair Paravel sits to turn into an island? Maybe not, but keep in mind that the castle sits on the mouth of the Great River of Narnia, and if any piece of land was going to change that dramatically that quickly, it would be the delta of a great river.

In all, again according to Lewis’ time-line, Narnia existed a mere 2555 years.

Q: Your article that mentioned the mynock in The Empire Strikes Back got me thinking about how ridiculous that scene is where they put on those flimsy breathing masks and basically go out into deep space (albeit in the belly of a space slug). Or am I missing something? Would the fact that the space-slug is reportedly a silicon-based life form make a difference?  — Tom, Seattle, WA

A: None whatsoever. They’re basically stepping into the vacuum of deep space, so they’d be overcome by painful hemorrhaging and they would not be able to maintain enough pressure in their lungs to get oxygen into their blood. Depending on how close they are to a star, they probably wouldn’t have been able to survive the temperature either. And I’m not even getting into the issue of the asteroid’s much lower gravity.

That said, the worm itself somehow survives in deep space — eating what, I don’t know — so I suppose you could build some kind of rationale for their survival around that.

And I guess it’s possible that those “flimsy” face-masks could have created some kind of instant, invisible whole-body force-field that surrounded them (perhaps it “surrounded them and penetrated them, binding Han and Leia together”).

Since we’re talking about the asteroid scene in The Empire Strikes Back, it’s worth nothing that several of the asteroids are supposedly not “asteroids” at all. One is supposed to be a shoe — a payback at George Lucas, who the effects department considered to be too demanding.

Hey, we’ve already established that scientific accuracy was not a big part of the Star Wars films!

Here’s the “shoe,” but I’m not sure I see it:

Other “asteroids” are said to be both potatoes (which the effects department thought looked like asteroids — remember, the original effects were all pre-CGI) and popcorn, as when the first Empire fighter is destroyed while pursuing the Millenium Falcon:

Maybe. But the Oracle suspects they might be putting us all on.

Q: Just putting in a plug for Edwards Scissorshands as a great Christmas-themed fantasy film! – Ed, Newport News, VI

A: Duly noted — and the Oracle agrees!

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Have a question about something fantasy-related? Ask the Oracle! (Be sure to include your first name and the city, state, and/or country you are writing from.)

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