I'll just sit here in the dark

[marycatelli]

But then, I'm a person, not a fictional character.

It is interesting to remember -- always -- what sort of light source your characters have.  Or don't have.  You reach automatically for what is natural, and naturally you're just wandering around in the light --aren't you?  Except of course, you aren't.

It got skewered in The Tough Guide to Fantasyland so I'm not alone, and indeed, I don't think I've ever put anyone underground without providing for lights or noting that it's dark down there -- but sneaking around on a moonless light at a location where all the torches are far away. . . .

To be sure, this is especially a problem for fantasy writers who do not endow their characters with magical light sources.  It's a lot harder to light a fire (lantern, candle, etc.) than you may have been led to believe.  But if you're sneaking about, you can't have your own light source; you might as well have it spell out:  "Sneaks here!  Come stop them!"  (Tolkien wisely never had his characters light a fire at night without pondering whether it would be seen and what that would bring about.)

On the other hand, your eyes can adjust to a lot less light than you might think.  Walk by starlight, perhaps.  Then, where would you go nowadays to verify that fact with all the light pollution about?  I remember how hard it was to find something lit only by moonlight to verify that you can't see color by moonlight.  (You can't!  It's so very, very weird.  Though if you know the color of what you are looking at the memory can blur with what you actually see and make it hard to be sure.)

(Don't, however, use Joyce's excuse for Finnagans Wake:  "They say it's obscure. They compare it, of course, with Ulysses. But the action of Ulysses was chiefly during the daytime, and the action of my new work takes place chiefly at night. It's natural things should not be so clear at night, isn't it now?")

Comments

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

At one point I had the painful task of reminding a fellow workshop writer that it is dark in caves, and beyond a few bends from the entrance, they really can't see their hand in front of their face. Not even a little bit.
I like lava tube caves for this, but only because it's closer for me.
I'm sure limestone caves are just as good for this.

VIsiting caves or remote places is good for understanding the stygian dark means falling rump over teakettle quite a lot. Noisily. Where nocturnal animals can snicker at you. OR take achomp. Or you can blunder into unpleasant things that will bite and sting.

I was also forced to remind them that swimming in narrow little underwater grotto tunnels in the dark with a longsword hung off your belt might be impractical.

[marycatelli]

There is no substitute for experience -- except, perhaps, common sense.

Experience is easier to acquire. 0:)

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

I can't see reds by moonlight, I can see blues and greens on a bright night.

The joys of horseownership where you have to go to dark fields in the middle of the countryside long after dark.

21st century living: 90& of the time, I'm fine without a torch, my mobile phone gives enough light to examine things by it.

20th century living: my village does not have street lights.

[marycatelli]

I have not had much chance to compare the colors by different brightness of moon -- but your technologies make an interesting juxtaposition.

Weren't there street lights in some places in the 19th century? Gas, of course, but still lights.

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

I believe they had gas in places like New York and London and Boston in the early 20th (gas lighter guys in Sherlock Holmes-era?) but not sure how much earlier they were. Oh woot, another wiki search!!

[marycatelli]

As long as you have light enough to see for the search. . . .

[superversive.livejournal.com]

It happens that my recent reading has included a great fat history of the post-Napoleonic period, and it definitely mentions gas lights being installed in London in the 1820s. By the time electric lighting came along, gaslight was common in most major cities.

Even before that, there were old-fashioned street lanterns. Lamps were hung in the London streets by order of the Lord Mayor, every evening of winter, beginning in 1417.

Of course, once you get out of town, you and your eyes are on your own.

[marycatelli]

Only on a dark and stormy night, really, since you've got the moon and the stars. . . or are natural light sources included in "on your own"?

[ilion7.livejournal.com]

Even in the 18th century, some cities had street lights.

[marycatelli]

All you need is some kinda lighting - and wealth enough to keep it going.

a slight tangent

[ilion7.livejournal.com]

Have you ever noticed consistently TV shows and movies make a trope of candles (whether in a "medieval" or modern setting) or even open flame? And, in the "medieval" settings, candles are everywhere -- sheesh! candles were expensive.

Re: a slight tangent

[marycatelli]

Some of it is that on the screen, you can't show people blundering about in the dark.

But some of it is just cluelessness.