review of Black Thorn, White Rose

[ellen_datlow]

Tehani Wessely of Australia reviews the new edition of Black Thorn, White Rose. She mostly likes the stories and overall gives the book a very good review, but this paragraph struck me:

"Fourteen years is a long time, and these stories first saw print in 1994. So much has changed in the world since then: the ways we perceive good and evil not the least, but also the things that have the power to shock us, to scare us, and to permit us to suspend our disbelief. Hence, there were stories in this anthology that felt old, dated, tired. It is possible to envisage them as fresh and groundbreaking when first published, but the intervening years, and many similar collections (including a number produced by the same editors, some of which I will review soon), have left this anthology feeling a little stale."

Dragonkat@LJ

Once I edit an anthology I rarely reread the stories in print. I've already read them a number of times during the editing process. So I'm not a good judge of this.

Is it true that an anthology series such as the adult fairy tale anthologies, all published in the mid-to late 90s can become dated? I'd think it would completely depend on each individual story. (this is for any fiction written after traumatic current events such as post Vietnam war, post 9/11, et al).

If the story is tied to a particular sensibility or for example, air travel is depicted more innocently than now in our time of terrorism fear does this necessarily date the story or merely make it a snapshot of time?

Because my head is a complete muddle of stuffiness and I'm feeling kind of wretched, I'm not sure if this makes sense, but I'd love some opinions.

Comments

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I guess I'm just worried that the "dated" feeling takes away some of the enjoyment. For what it's worth, Terri and I weren't aiming to shock or scare the reader in any of the six anthologies.

To shock and scare" are what I might aim for with a horror anthology. However, if the reader can't suspend disbelief while reading any kind of fantasy because of a jarring intrusion of a current reality, that's a problem.

[elenuial.livejournal.com]

That's definitely a risk with reprint anthologies, I think, or reissues of older anthologies like this one. Just as the zeitgeist colors the tone of stories that writers write (how many dystopic stories have come out in the past few years?), it just as much colors how readers look at them. But while I don't think you can get away from that sense entirely, neither do I think you should really fret about it. Like I said, the best stories can tell themselves while having the cultural intrusions enhance rather than take away from that.

For me (and I'm showing precisely how young I am here :), Harlan Ellison's work is a really good example of that principle at work.

I think you hit the nail on the head when you said, "after traumatic current events." Artists in all fields are still dealing with the cultural aftershock of 9/11. Frankly, I think they'd still be dealing with Vietnam if 9/11 hadn't replaced it.

I don't know if that's particularly detrimental to this particular one. I have to admit that I've only read certain stories from the series while in the bookstore, since I'm young and indigent, but what I did read didn't strike me as such. But, well, like I said, I didn't get the whole picture.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Yeah. The one thing I DID hope for was to at least update the bios. Initially I would have been able to but instead the publisher just shot from the original books and didn't re-set.

I love reading a lot of Harlan Ellison's work. "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" still packs a wallop.