Garner Johnson
PUP Issues 1 and 14
Original is
Roger Zelazny is a well established author who has been
writing since the early sixties. He has won numerous awards,
including the Hugo and the Nebula. His important works include
"Lord of Light," "Creatures of Light and Darkness," the Amber
series (old and new), "Roadmarks," and most recently "A Night
in Lonesome October." He also has three short story
collections. In addition to his writing, he also does readings
of his books for cassette. So far he has done seven of the
Amber books, and the eighth is in the works.
Both Zelazny's reading and education had an important
influence on his writing. He began reading SF when he was 11,
tried writing early on, but had little time to truly pursue it
seriously. Several early authors influenced him. Henry
Kuttner's works showed him that it was possible to be
versatile. Zelazny also read everything from fantasy to
hard-boiled detective stories as well as Heinlein's juveniles
and Bradbury's work; all this gave him a broad view of
different styles and genres. Stanley Weinbaum's stories showed
him that it was possible to be innovative and experimental in
writing, and this is something Zelazny believes is very
important. He also thinks that once you set your style, you are
less likely to be influenced by other authors. Despite that, he
still reads galleys to keep up and be current with the field.
He also reads a bewildering variety of non-fiction, usually
about 16 books at once. At least one is history because he
feels that to write about the future of society you must know
what happened to it in the past. Others include science, life
sciences, biographies, poetry collections, and mainstream
books. Since he reads a bit of each at once he gets a better
synthesis, a view of things that adds depth to his writing.
Although Zelazny worked for the federal government writing
claims manuals and technical bureaucratic stuff for the social
security services for seven years, it did not diminish his
ability to write lyrically. His time spent getting a Master's
in English and Comparative Literature with a focus on
Elizabethan Theater had a greater influence on his writing and
ability to use different styles. He also wrote poetry before he
began to write SF seriously, which added to the smoothness of
his writing.
His early works were influenced by two things. The first was a
fascination with revenge stories and the revenge motif. This
can be seen in "Isle of the Dead," "Creatures of Light and
Darkness" and "Lord of Light." He also grew up with an interest
in myths, legends and folklore. He continued reading such
writers as Joseph Campbell and William Frazier, mixing
mythology with anthropology and psychology. The synthesis of
these three fields allows him to easily create systems of
mythology. It also helps give his stories resonance, scope and
an epic feel. All this can also be seen in his early works. He
deliberately exploited his strength with East Indian and
Egyptian mythology after he graduated in order to gain time to
fill in areas on which he was weaker. Mythic stories were
easier then and allowed him to gather expertise with other
material that could be used later.
Characters are the starting point of all of Zelazny's stories.
He creates them and they then drive the plot and background.
Some critics have said that Zelazny has one type or very common
character. The laid-back, easy-going, wise-cracking, homicidal
protagonist. Although many of these elements are present in his
characters there is no one set type. His early work with poetry
has led to a number of poet characters, or at least those
interested in poetry. He does like to deal with independent,
physically-superior and well-read characters that have an
unnaturally-long lifespan. The first two allow him to look at
power and its influence on people, a common theme to many of
his books. Usually he believes that power is neutral, and it is
what people do with it that is important. The longer lifespan
he allows his characters to be widely read. It also gives rise
to greater development and room to explore. He believes that if
a person did live long and was constantly reading and learning
then they would naturally become superior.
Zelazny likes to experiment with viewpoints, styles and
narration. He feels it is too easy to play it safe and get
smug, which results in all of an author's books sounding the
same. To this end, he is now doing female characters more
often, while before he had stuck with male roles. Non-human
characters figure prominently; he enjoys doing them, but tries
to use them differently in each work. He also doesn't like
genre definitions, so he writes both fantasy and science
fiction. To throw a twist on things, he uses science to define
fantasy more rigorously and fantasy in science fiction to
loosen things up. He writes a series of sequels only if he has
a specific idea for the characters. They are not just a
continuations but add something to the characters. All this
experimenting means his writing can still be fresh, even after
being in the business twenty-plus years.
Zelazny likes to develop different systems of magic, but his
emphasis is on systems. He feels the magic should be worked out
and contain no contradictions. It should run more like science
and not be too supernatural in which anything goes. That route
leads to magic being a crutch to move the plot along. He also
likes to use the mystery plot. He feels that there is an
elegance to having a puzzle overlaid on a fantasy or SF novel.
The mystery helps build the mythic elements in fantasy, but is
also akin to the process of discovery in science. One thing he
does not make much use of is his aikido training. He feels it
makes you choreograph fights too much. He also fenced for three
years and does use that for his fencing scenes, especially in
the Amber series.
Comparing his early work to his more recent material, Zelazny
says that his characters are more fully realized, his prose
cleaner and his experiments work out more often. He has
collaborated with 5 different authors (Saberhagen, Dick,
Thomas, Hausman & Sherrod) and feels that these create a third
voice, a work that neither author could have done alone.
Currently he prefers shorter works, with the novelette or
novella being the ideal length. He reasons that this format
leaves enough room for character development, but is not full
of padding. Too often now there is an emphasis on pushing
stories into a full novel when they shouldn't be. The two works
that he likes best, or best reflect his writing, are "Lord of
Light" and "For a Breath I Tarry."
Last-modified: Mon, 24 Jun 1996 07:01:05 GMT