Epics?

[Falthor]

Have any of the authors here tried, or even attempted to try, writing a story in epic form? If you don't know what an epic is, it's a story told entirely in poetic form. The most notable include: The Epic of Gilgamesh, Paradise Lost, and the most famous, The Iliad and The Odyssey. I may take up that opportunity after I finish Tarnished Scars and work on an epic of my own.

What do you think of epics? Do you think they are worth reading, particularly for a Pokemon fan fic? No? Why?

 

[Bay]

I remember one thread where someone posted an epic based off of FR/LG. I read it and I thought it was good.

I think epics could be a good read, but then again not everyone can interpret nor write poetry well like me (remembers bombing my 11th grade English final) ^^; . I think what's hardest of epics is the language where you have to make the style powerful but at the same time don't make it all cheesy nor too hard to understand. XD

 

[Burnt Flower]

Oh wow, I could never write an epic because I simply suck at writing poems. And actually, I'd read a Pokemon epic - it piques my interest.

 

[Falthor]

When it comes to writing an epic, it makes a lot of sense to make it rhyme, since the epic needs to be written in dactyllic hexameter (stressed, two unstressed syllables or one more stressed syllable in succession), but most epics we read now are translations of ancient Greek or Latin. The premise I've been thinking of if I were to write an epic is a story of a lost civilization and a war that has occurred, echoing some concepts from The Iliad, of course, and maybe a bit from The Aeneid, once I actually get to reading it.

Epic-writing is difficult and very different from normal poetry and prose, but I think it could be done. I mean, look at John Milton, the writer of Paradise Lost. He managed to do it well, and he has been famed for the work he has written, being claimed the English Homer of the era he wrote in (the late 1800s, I think?).

 

[Flaming Lip]

Fanfics told as epics? Dude, that sounds so friggen pompous and hilarious! I'd totally read it, provided that it goes completely over the top and remains aware of how completely redicolous the idea is throughout.

I better see some magikarp related extended metaphores. Also, epic epiphets. Ardent Ash indeed...

 

[Skysthelimit]

Elevated Speech pokemon style? I'd love to read it, but I would never attempt to write a poetic story.


I encourage people to try it

 

[LinksOcarina]

I have been wrestling with this idea, but it would take a lot of time and skill I don't have. Mainly, when I do poems its feeling and not about the mechanics of it.

However, doing one could be done if it is a group of people maybe, each contributing a piece of the Epic. But then it turns into a collection of poems, albeit connected in some way poems.

 

[Da14u.C]

woudnt that make it an anthology not an epic?
but its not the worst idea... its just that everyone has unique ideas and writing styles and so may be difficult to agree on one interpretation of something and so on so forth...

 

[Falthor]

Fanfics told as epics? Dude, that sounds so friggen pompous and hilarious! I'd totally read it, provided that it goes completely over the top and remains aware of how completely redicolous the idea is throughout.

I better see some magikarp related extended metaphores. Also, epic epiphets. Ardent Ash indeed...

Oh indeed.

Though the fic will be its own, i.e. non-canon, I will have my own characters, so it will indeed start out a la the format of The Iliad: "Sing, goddess, the anger of Peleus' son Achilleus." And extended similes will definitely be there, as well as the almighty epithets.

Also, Flaming Lip, keep in mind that epics don't need to be completely Homeric in style. Callimachus and Apollonius of Rhodes have copied the style, but also incorporated elements of their own, e.g. more complex themes rather than a direct focus on characterization and plot.

Elevated Speech pokemon style? I'd love to read it, but I would never attempt to write a poetic story.


I encourage people to try it

I shall try it, and the sky is not the limit, rather the heavens are!

I have been wrestling with this idea, but it would take a lot of time and skill I don't have. Mainly, when I do poems its feeling and not about the mechanics of it.

However, doing one could be done if it is a group of people maybe, each contributing a piece of the Epic. But then it turns into a collection of poems, albeit connected in some way poems.

As Da14y.C said, it would make it an anthology rather than an epic.

 

[NinjaScyther4]

Ok, so epic are entirely poetic form but as you know there are lots of types of poetry. If someone where to write a fic completely in free verse and without any dialogue, Would it be considered an epic or something else?

 

[Falthor]

It'd be called a poem. Epics are forms of poetry that tell a story in the style that prose does, but there are certain underlying factors of epic that are existent solely in the epic style, e.g. cultural elements, the guest-host relationship (xenia), an overshadowing element (time and kleos in The Iliad, nostos in The Odyssey), human-deity relationships, focus on one primary character (Achilles and Odysseus, respectively).

Therefore, epics differ from normal poetry in many regards.

 

[LinksOcarina]

Your right, but I think an anthology is easier to do than an epic. Plus there is also connecting, epic poetry, such as Chaucer's Cantobury Tales. Although they were written by him only, it is a collection of poems and stories that pertain similar themes. Perhaps we can do something in that format more easily than an epic.