Rupert Copping's Blog - Posts Tagged "archeoloogy"

For me what is important in literature are stories that transcend their setting and by this means can appeal to readers everywhere, regardless of their nationality or culture. I tried to do this with my novel Before the Dawn by giving the characters I created ways of thinking and behaving that people can identify with. It seems like a simple task but actually it's very difficult to make characters from a different culture than your own fully human and therefore believable. This is a problem with a lot of fantasy and science fiction and novels like Lord of the Rings; the characters don't live in the real world and therefore lack real human depth. Stories that not only entertain but also tell us something about our condition as human beings, those are the stories I like best and am most drawn to.