Priya Kumar: "Dear Max Gladstone: Everything I Know About SF, I Learned Through Narrative Kink"

Dear Max Gladstone: Everything I Know About SF, I Learned Through Narrative Kink

By Priya Kumar

Everyone has something considered a “narrative kink”: storylines, themes, tropes and motifs that really captures your interest. These are elements that separate liking the story from loving it. If the story has enough of my personal narrative kinks, I subconsciously find myself excusing a lot of weaker points in the story. Reading and watching science fiction has helped me hone in on my narrative kinks like a sniper focusing in on a target. My narrative kinks are straightforward, my preferences include:

* Alternate universes and timelines. I love it when the author breaks time or space continuity and am generally on the edge of my seat in anticipation of what happens when reality is distorted. Sometimes, simply imagining the different directions the plot can go keeps me up at nights talking, enough so that sometimes my roommate threatens to tape my mouth shut with duct tape so that she can go to sleep.  

* The malleability of death. As a child, my parents exposed me to X-Men comics, soap operas, and horror movies. And as a reader, I relish novels where the author enjoys playing with the elasticity of mortality and finding ways around things that seem permanent. The loopholes authors often find around death are always surprising. There is nothing more delighting than watching your character’s dead mother's robot replacement come to terms with the fact that she's really a brain in a jar.

*Soul mates. As much as I may attempt to act like I am unaffected by sappy things, two people who are just meant for each other always makes me either cry or smile ecstatically. I’ve reread fantastical romances just to reach the climactic moment where the lycanthrope meets his mate for the first time, and the journey by which they fall in love is something I don’t believe I will ever get tired of. 

*Complexity. A messy story with affairs, drama, and twists in the plot make for a pleasurable read. A reason Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones was so much fun for me to read was because of the unpredictability and complexity of the story. I had to read certain chapters over and over again to understand fully the development of the plot. Howl’s black portal surprised my friends and I to the point where we sat and talked about it for nearly an hour trying to come different scenarios as to how this may have occurred.  

…there are more, but you get the idea.

While narrative kinks generally make my reading experience more pleasurable, one of the negative aspects of being at used to your narrative kinks is that I can get extremely picky about how they are applied. The writer can’t just raise the dead and expect me to be happy; I want it to make sense in the rules of the universe, hang together internally, and be fair to the character who was just brought back.

Speaking of the universe, if you are going to write about an alternate universe, I expect the author to think it completely through, all the way through. One of my favorite shows, The Flash, introduced the concept of alternate universes and while they made the usual assortment of flashy surface changes, they didn’t consider all the ramifications of those changes. Half the things Barry Allen changed in the past didn’t even come back to bite him in the ass.

Many times, narrative kinks can be compared to salt: a little can go a long way. While I adore Harry Potter for witchcraft and wizardry, it just wouldn’t be as relatable if Harry didn’t have to come home every summer and live like a normal teenager. Similarly, I’ve been enjoying watching Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D for the past year, and although the crime chasing and superhero scenes are thrilling, I find myself restlessly demanding something similar to the original season, because I spent a lot of time and emotional invested myself in the characters and those relationships. This show, however, rather than focusing on the characters’ lives specifically, has been getting involved in the specifics of the villains and the criminal chase instead.

In the end, narrative kinks can break or make a story for the reader. However, at the same time, it is equally important to expose yourself to changes in perspectives, different genres, and explore different writing styles. Reading new books will allow the reader to continually find new narrative kinks that make reading a pleasurable experience.