June 8, 2003 Note: I believe that this was posted during April 1996 on 'rec.arts.sf.written' as part of a thread that mentioned LeGuin's "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie" and the criticism of Kurtz's Deryni Rising of having anachronistic language. I have taken the occassion to corrrect a few typos and add some text (shown in red).

I checked my copy of LeGuin's The Languages of the Night and discovered that "Elfland to Poughkeepsie" was shorter than I remembered. Either there is another version or my memory had conflated two or more articles. In "Elfland...", LeGuin takes a brief quote from Deryni Rising (Alaric Morgan and Prince Nigel are discussing Alaric's problems with the Regency Council) and then, by changing a few nouns, turns it into something she says would belong to a contempory political thriller set in Washington, DC. She then quotes brief passages from Worm Ouroboros and Lord of the Rings as contrast, saying that these couldn't be distorted so easily. However, none of theses passages involved political intrigue - this weakens her whole argument. Furthermore, I have reservations over her assertion. Personal charisma can be important in a medieval environment and I read Kurtz's passage as a reference to this. In a contempory political thriller, who owes favors to whom is important, and this DOES not appear in the quote. A board of directors meeting of a privately held company would be a more appropriate example (Kelson would have inherited a controlling block of stock).

Also, LeGuin (by implication) is attacking Alaric Morgan for being a poor example of a resident of Elfland and I think he isn't a resident at all. He shows up wearing black and an attitude (and is consistent with that attitude over several books). This is the unfair part of the criticism - being criticized for not being what he wasn't supposed to be. If she had criticized him for being a refugee delinquent from the mean streets of L.A., I would not be objecting as much (I would still disagree, I view Richard I of England as a refugee delinquent from Somewhere).