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DF Reference Collection / Re: The YLC (Why Little Chicago) thread
« on: September 20, 2012, 02:12:30 AM »
To get back to the beginning, I think Little Chicago was useful for a couple of stories, and might have been great had Harry's story arc remained in Chicago. But I think Jim thought it binding, that he was thinking beyond Harry the Private Eye/Wizard, so it went up along with his, car, apartment and duster. And his 'old' life.
While it might have proven useful in past stories, simply knowing it was there would have led people like us to ask "Why didn't Harry try Little Chicago When . . . .?" I think it became a noose around his literary neck, as was the Beetle and some of the other tropes. Harry's story began as a writing exercise, built around classic PI fiction with a magical twist. But as Jim wrote the world evolved and changed, and he began to see more interesting possibilities in it. The Codex Alera shows his interest in the epic, and he began to see that Harry could be an Epic hero, with more humor and reluctance then most, but it's a line that might be carried through the story. Little Chicago, the Beetle, his apartment, and duster were the sort of things that belonged to struggling PI Harry. Epic Hero Harry doesn't really need those quirks, and in fact they hold him back a bit.
This doesn't mean Harry stops eating at Burger King, or gives up his friends, but symbolizes that the stakes are rising, and the scale of his problems have left Chicago behind.
While it might have proven useful in past stories, simply knowing it was there would have led people like us to ask "Why didn't Harry try Little Chicago When . . . .?" I think it became a noose around his literary neck, as was the Beetle and some of the other tropes. Harry's story began as a writing exercise, built around classic PI fiction with a magical twist. But as Jim wrote the world evolved and changed, and he began to see more interesting possibilities in it. The Codex Alera shows his interest in the epic, and he began to see that Harry could be an Epic hero, with more humor and reluctance then most, but it's a line that might be carried through the story. Little Chicago, the Beetle, his apartment, and duster were the sort of things that belonged to struggling PI Harry. Epic Hero Harry doesn't really need those quirks, and in fact they hold him back a bit.
This doesn't mean Harry stops eating at Burger King, or gives up his friends, but symbolizes that the stakes are rising, and the scale of his problems have left Chicago behind.