Subject: (urth) Some recommendations [was Re: Witches, Daemons, Bears, Democrats]

From: Adam Stephanides <adamsteph at earthlink.net>
Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 11:44:25 +0000

on 4/27/01 8:21 AM, David Lebling at dlebling at ucentric.com wrote:

> Yes, but the bears were my absolute favorite. I think I've read only one
> other story where bears have a civilization (as opposed to stories where
> bears are intelligent -- even Tolkien did that, and I don't count "When
> Bears Discover Fire"). I _think_ it was a Poul Anderson story, but I can't
> recall the title. I just remember the bears were very bearish, rather than
> just big humans in fur coats.

Ha!  A chance to plug one of my favorite, and totally obscure, books: _The
Crimson Bears_ and _A Hundred Doors: The Crimson Bears, Part II_, by Tom
LaFarge, published by Sun & Moon Press.  Fascinating, inventive and very
well-written: the second book includes a chapter in the form of a scholarly
discussion of a play based upon the events of the chapter.  One of the
books' covers compares them to Tolkien, but they're nothing like Tolkien.  I
have to admit that the bears aren't particularly bearish, but there are also
intelligent cats, who are fairly cat-like (and two other intelligent
species, all with cultures of their own).  Alas, I recently saw a copy of
the first book on a remainder table.

I'll also recommend another wonderful, completely unknown book from the same
publisher: _The Secret Service_ by Wendy Walker.  This is a fantasy, but not
a genre fantasy.  It takes place in our world, or something very close to
it, and all the characters are human; there are only a couple of fantastic
elements (something like _Lady into Fox_, if you're familiar with that).
It's superbly written; its prose is a pleasure to read for the rhythm alone.
There is a long, self-contained dream section which, standing alone, would
be one of the finest fantasy novellas I've ever read.

While I'm on a roll, I'll also recommend _The Venetian Glass Nephew_ by
Elinor Wylie, better known as a poet.  It was first published in the first
half of the 20th century (I don't have my copy to hand), though it's been
reprinted.  It's this-worldly fantasy, like _The Secret Service_; the title
is self-explanatory.  It's a jeu d'esprit, but with a somber undercurrent.

--Adam

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

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From: eli+ <eli+ at gs211.sp.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 19:25:00 +0000

Adam Stephanides wrote:
> a genre fantasy.

It was recommended to me that I read her stories in _The Sea-Rabbit_
first.  Do you have an opinion on this?

> is self-explanatory.  It's a jeu d'esprit, but with a somber undercurrent.

I read this recently, but Didn't Get It.  It felt fairy-talish --
distanced, and people fell in love without provocation -- which maybe
I wasn't in the mood for.  There were some nice ideas and writing, but
the I couldn't get excited about the package.  Aesthetic mismatch, or
maybe if I were better informed?  The cover blurb was all that let me
know that the magician fellow was Casanova, for example.

Around that publication date, how about Hope Mirrlees' _Lud-in-the-mist_?

First you notice the writing, charming coiling discursive writing,
sharply observed.  It outlines and colors the characters, sets them to
life, and draws back, but it is always present.

The people of Lud live not far from the Debatable Hills on the border of
Faerie, but they determinedly do not believe in Faerie.  The corrupting,
mind-bending fairy-fruit that comes downstream?  Its trafficking is
prosecuted as the smuggling of silk.

These burghers are just the sort of people who in fantasy get their eyes
opened for the better.  But fairy fruit and fairy influence turn out to
be, though not the enemy they thought, not a friend, either.  The
Mayor's son has eaten fairy fruit, and the daughters of the town are
spirited away, and the Mayor has to rescue them -- from /what/ is not so
clear.  Some characters' history and motives become so involuted, and
the nature of Faerie so hard to untangle, that I have no idea whether
(or not?) the ending, _Little, Big_ inside out, is happy or sad.  I do
know that the book is wonderful fun to read.

Spoiler, technically -- for page 10 or so:

Which is the land you don't return from, and who are the immortal ones?
Death, and the Dead.  It's so sensible, now that she points it out.
Surely this has been used somewhere else.

-- 
     Eli Brandt  |  eli+ at cs.cmu.edu  |  http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~eli/

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From: Adam Stephanides <adamsteph at earthlink.net>
Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 19:30:10 +0000

on 4/27/01 6:25 PM, eli+ at gs211.sp.cs.cmu.edu at eli+ at gs211.sp.cs.cmu.edu

> first.  Do you have an opinion on this?

To be honest, I bought _The Sea-Rabbit_ several years before coming across
_The Secret Service_, and started to read it, but didn't get it at all
(whereas I fell in love with _The Secret Service_ almost immediately).  I
should give it a go, if I can ever dig my copy up.

> know that the magician fellow was Casanova, for example.

I suspect an aesthetic mismatch; to me the fairy-tale aspects you mention
were part of its charm.

--Adam