Posted by Ron Keeley on February 18, 1998 at 02:47:12:
In Reply to: Re: Lyonesse Trilogy posted by Peter R Booth on February 09, 1998 at 05:58:31:
: Richard...some people are not going to take this well, and I'm a huge fan of Vance's work, but for evocative wordplay and descriptive prose, Mervyn Peake surpasses Vance in this regard...Vance is a superior author to Peake as far as pure imagination and cultural creation goes but Peake is the yardstick for stylistic writing...his small overall output of work pales against the panoply of Vance.
: Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy remain the most stylistic thing I've ever read...comparing Vance to Peake is not simple...Peake's characterisations are far superior but he dwells to far on the extreme points of those characters, whereas Vance's characters can be a touch simplistic, as if the forces occuring to them have no effect on them. Can you tell the difference between Kirth Girsen and Adam Reith? Apart from the motivation behind each man's drive, they could've been twins...
Peter, you’re right in saying 'Peake's characterisations are far
superior but he dwells too far on the extreme points of those
characters...'. Which is probably why I never finished Gormenghast.
For me, Vance is primarily a story-teller: you just _have_ to turn the page to find out what happens next. On top of that, he has an unrivalled ability to sketch a character or a scene or set a mood in one or two sentences. If he was an artist he'd be like the old Chinese or Japanese masters who could suggest an entire mountain kingdom with a few brush strokes.
Okay, so his characters don' t have much depth ... that's because they're so highly motivated. Adam Reith, Kirth Girsen, Sklar Hast, Paddy Blackthorn, Gastel Etzwane and Jubal Droad are all single-minded, focused individuals driven by fate or circumstances. The same goes for Cugel, who wants only to get back to Almery and take revenge on Iuconnu -- although he’s also totally self-obsessed, with an ego the size of a house. Glawen Clattuc is another determined character, as is Wayness Tamm. And even the delightful Alice Wroke has just got to do what a girl’s got to do.
Vance’s characters generally don’t entertain doubts -- and if they do it’s only to emphasise that they don’t really have any choices. Anyway, Dickens' characters have been called 'cardboard cut-outs', and he's still in print 100+ years later.
Having said all that, it's a long time since I gave up on Gormenghast, so maybe it's time for another look.