Quote:
Originally Posted by starrigger
The technical term that my friends and I use for it is AWAKing: "As we all know..." Except it's not really expository blobs; it's dialogue serving the function of exposition.
I listened to a radio play of the Foundation trilogy, and there's a conversation that actually starts with those words. <wince>
It's the mark of a good writer to be able to accomplish the purpose of an AWAK without actually doing it. Or, as Dennis says, by doing it so deftly the reader doesn't notice, or mind. In most cases, smart exposition is a better choice. Weaving it into the thread is the best choice.
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The worst example I can think of was an early John Norman Gor novel (before female slavery and BDSM took over the series). He's describing an impending sea battle between two fleets, nicely building the mood, and then stops for a multi-page exposition on Gorean warship design and naval tactics (largely adapted from Roman galleys,) before getting down to the actual battle. Talk about a mood breaker. I decided his editor had to be asleep at the switch.
The best example was brought to mind by the recent report of the death of British SF writer E. C. Tubb at 91. Tubb is best known here for the Dumarest of Terra series. Earl Dumarest stows away as a boy in an interstellar tramp freighter, whose captain takes a liking to him. He travels further and further into the galaxy, learning along the way to be a deadly fighter. He decides as an adult that he'd like to see Earth again, but he's traveled so far people have either never heard of Earth or think it's a myth. The series is about his efforts to find Earth again, traveling from world to world looking for clues. In the process, he finds himself repeatedly running up against the Cyclan, a quasi-religious order with hidden motives. Members of the order voluntarily undergo an operation that removes their ability to feel emotion, and their goal is to succeed well enough at their appointed tasks to be selected to have their brains removed and connected in parallel in a great organic computer that is answering all the questions of the universe.
Tubb wrote 33 Dumarest books all told. He couldn't assume readers had read any other books in the series aside from the one they were reading at the moment, so he had to recapitulate the back story enough for them to understand who Dumarest was and what he was doing. He did it in a paragraph or so in each book, and did it differently every time.
I just saw a note that he got word he had sold his most recent novel just before he died, which pleased me no end.
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Dennis