The illustration, Twilight Dreams, is by Arthur Rackham.
The Power of Story
"One constant theme in my whole life is a fascination, somewhat compulsive fascination, with the power of stories. Anyone who works on the kinds of things I do must, I imagine, have something of the same compulsion. For me, as for most everyone else, the sense that stories are powerful and important has its origin at home, that is, locally and intimately". . .
Stephen Geenblatt -- Excerpted from an interview in the Harvard Gazette. Greenblatt won both a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award for “The Swerve: How the World Became Modern.” He teaches in Harvard’s Department of English. I found The Swerve to be an extraordinary book.
Here is a brief except from The Swerve: "Books give delight to the very marrow of one’s bones. They speak to us, consult with us, and join with us in a living and intense intimacy."
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Irish Fairy Tales. . .
The Irish literary revival was born and gained momentum in the nineteenth century -- an era of famine, starvation and exodus. It was an awakening for writers as well as political activists. This awareness of the Irish Celtic heritage, after centuries of oppression by British rule, would continue to grow and continues to this day.
Irish writers and scholars began collecting and publishing fairy stories and myths. Their intentions were quite similar to the Grimm's. Among them were Douglas Hyde, James Stevens, Lady Gregory and W.B.Yeats. It was during this period that the Gaelic language was revived, the Gaelic League was founded, and the Abbey theatre was born.
The photo is of the Famine Memorial in Dublin.
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Fairies -- Who Are They?
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), best known for his poetry, was a driving force in the Irish Literary Revival, with a passion and deep appreciation of Irish fairy tales and folklore. He published his first collection, Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry, in 1888. The book was comprised of some 60 items, drawn from a wide range of oral and written sources. Yeats divided the fairies into two basic groups: "The Trooping Fairies" -- by and large benevolent; and "The Solitary Faries" -- often inclined toward mischief and, sometimes, malevolence. Here is an excerpt from the book wherein Yeats is writing to answer the question: Who Are They?:
"Who are they? 'Fallen angels who were not good enough to be saved, nor bad enough to be lost,' say the peasantry. 'The gods of the earth,' says the Book of Armagh. 'The gods of pagan Ireland,' say the Irish antiquarians, 'the Tuatha De Danān,' who, when no longer worshipped and fed with offerings, dwindled away in the popular imagination, and now are only a few spans high. . .
On the other hand, there is much evidence to prove them fallen angels. Witness the nature of the creatures, their caprice, their way of being good to the good and evil to the evil, having every charm but conscience—consistency. Beings so quickly offended that you must not speak much about them at all, and never call them anything but the "gentry," or else daoine maithe, which in English means good people, yet so easily pleased, they will do their best to keep misfortune away from you, if you leave a little milk for them on the window-sill over night. On the whole, the popular belief tells us most about them, telling us how they fell, and yet were not lost, because their evil was wholly without malice."
The top illustration of fairies dancing is by Arthur Rackham.
The bottom illustration is by Caitlin Hackett for the Folio edition of the Lilac Fairy Book.
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The Celtic Twilight
Four years later, Yeats added 14 more stories from the countryside in a new book, Irish Fairy Tales (1892). One year later, he published The Celtic Twilight (1893), a book which intermingled Fairy Tales, with stories of their collection, and anecdotes of the people who were his primary sources. He makes it clear that these people had a deep belief in the fairy world; Here is an excerpt from his introduction:
"I have desired, like every artist, to create a little world out of the beautiful, pleasant, and significant things of this marred and clumsy world, and to show in a vision something of the face of Ireland to any of my own people who would look where I bid them. I have therefore written down accurately and candidly much that I have heard and seen, and, except by way of commentary, nothing that I have merely imagined."
The illustration is by an unknown artist.
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The Stolen Child
The Stolen Child is an early poem by Yeats that, in his own words, is "the cry of the heart against necessity". The poem was first published in The Wanderings of Oisin and other Poems (1889). Here is an excerpt:
"Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand."
Here is a link to The Stolen Child (1889).
Loreena McKennit is a wonderful singer of Celtic music. Her rendition of The Stolen Child will touch your heart. The Waterboys, an outstanding Celtic band, recorded a lovely, very different, version of The Stolen Child poem .
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Connecting Us To Dreams and Fears
"Fairy Tales, like myths, are a part of our cultural heritage passed from generation to generation, connecting us to the dreams and fears of men and women who have gone before us."
From the Introduction to Black Thorn, White Rose, wonder tales edited by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow.
The illustration of Hansel and Gretel is by Lorenzoo Mattoti.
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The illustration from Earthsea of the Dragon of Pendor is by Sissneth.
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Ursula Le Guin -- Always An Entrance to New Worlds
Ursula Le Guin passed on in January. She was a renaissance woman of today who brought multi-dimensional journeys into other worlds to both children and adult readers . Her writing and thinking opened minds and hearts. She will be missed. An excellent memorial tribute was written by Allison Flood and Benjamin Lee that summarized the scope, originality and impact of Ursula Le Guin's literary career. Here is an excerpt:
"In 2014, she was awarded the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, cited for how over 'more than 40 years, [she] has defied conventions of narrative, language, character, and genre, as well as transcended the boundaries between fantasy and realism, to forge new paths for literary fiction'. On receiving the medal, she said she would share it with her fellow science fiction and fantasy authors, “the writers who were excluded from literature for so long … who for the last 50 years watched the beautiful rewards go to the so-called realists”.
Here is a link to the full article: Guardian Memorial
The illustration from Earthsea of Dragon Cliff is by Sithness.
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Videos
There are a great many fascinating videos of Ursula Le Guin on You Tube. Here, for instance, is an interview with Bill Moyers regarding The Lathe of Heaven. Here is the link: Bill Moyers interview.
Here is an intimate interview (1985) with Ursula that deals with a panoply of subjects including life as a woman and mother, creativity, and the feminist movement: The Video Access Project.
Here is a link to a delightful video of Ursula Le Guin at the 65th National Book Foundation Award receiving the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters on November 19, 2014. She is introduced by Neil Gaiman, after which, Le Guin gives a wonderful and feisty acceptance speech: Medal Speech.
The photo is by Marion Wood of Kolisch.
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Two Major Parallel Universes
Margaret Atwood, the highly regarded author, perhaps best known currently for The Handmaid's Tale, on the occaision of the publication of Ursula Le Guin's book, The Birthday of the World and Other Stories, in September, 2002, wrote a comprehensive appreciation of Le Guin's life and work. Here is an excerpt:
"No question about her literary quality: her graceful prose, carefully thought-through premises, psychological insight, and intelligent perception have earned her the National Book Award, the Kafka Award, five Hugos, five Nebulas, a Newberry, a Jupiter, a Gandalf, and an armful of other awards, great and small. Her first two books, Planet of Exile and Rocanno’s World, were published in 1966, and since then she has published sixteen novels, as well as ten collections of stories. . . Collectively, these books have created two major parallel universes: the universe of the Ekumen, which is sci-fi proper—space ships, travel among worlds, and so forth—and the world of Earthsea. The latter must be called “fantasy,” I suppose, since it contains dragons and witches and even a school for wizards, though this is a long way from the Hogwarts of Harry Potter. The Ekumen series may be said—very broadly—to concern itself with
the nature of human nature: How far can we stretch and still remain human? What is essential to our being, what is contingent? The Earthsea series is occupied—again, very broadly speaking—with the nature of reality and the necessity of mortality, and also with language in relation to its matrix. (That’s heavy weather to make of a series that has been promoted as suitable for age twelve, but perhaps the fault lies in the marketing directors. Like Alice in Wonderland, these tales speak to readers on many levels.)
Here is a link to the complete Margaret Atwood review in the New York Review of Books
The top illustration is from The Left Hand of Darkness. The bottom illustration of Earthsea is by an unknown artist.
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The headlines in the Guardian read: David Mitchell on Earthsea – a rival to Tolkien and George RR Martin...
"In A Wizard of Earthsea, published in 1968, Ursula K Le Guin created one of literature’s most fully formed fantasy worlds." In the Guardian, "David Mitchell the author of Cloud Atlas and The Bone Clocks recalls how he fell under its spell." Here is an excerpt:
Earthsea is a fantasy world, and proud of it, mapped by its creator in 1966–7 on a large sheet of butcher’s paper with crayons in a house full of young children. Earthsea has magic, dragons, its own myths and prehistory; but its magic is weighted with metaphysics, its dragons are psychodragons of air and mind, more akin to dangerous Chinese sages than Tolkien’s Smaug; and Earthsea is so human a world – with trade-routes, local politics, class hierarchies, infant mortality, abuse, addiction and slavery – that its fantastical elements feel almost quotidian.
A Wizard of Earthsea reads like the retelling of a tale first told centuries ago, and whose twists and turns have been handed down through generations of storytellers. It is timeless . . . If Earthsea is one of literature’s best-written fantasy worlds, it is also one of the most cerebral. Chief among its concerns are morality, identity and power."
The illustration from the Wizard of Earthsea of the Frozen Pass is by Alexander Sparks.
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Q: Ursula,which fantasy novels do you consider the best of the genre?
A: Oh gee, “best” again. And “genre.” Ow. I’ll pretend you asked for a few of my favorite fantasies, O.K.? And I am applying the Dirri (Do I Reread It?) Test. So, for starters: “Alice in Wonderland,” “Gormenghast,” “The Sword in the Stone,” “The Jungle Books,” “The Lord of the Rings.”
Here is a link to the entire interview in the NY Times: Fantasy Books
The illustration of Earthsea is a Vis Dev Project
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" The magic of Earthsea is primal; the lessons of Earthsea remain as potent, as wise, and as necessary as anyone could dream." Neil Gaimon
The Earthsea Pottery is by an unknown artist.
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Fairy Tales
"We all know that fairy tales are tied to real life experiences more than we pretend they aren’t. We ward off fairy tales and pretend that they are intended mainly for children because they tell more truth than we want to know, and we absorb fairy tales because they tell us more truth than we want to know. . . . They stamp our minds and perhaps our soul . . ."
Jack Zipes, The Oxford University Press Blog
The illustration of the Little Match Girl is by Liiga Klavina
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Movies
Fantasy Invests our Waking Lives
From The Last of the Jedi to The Shape of Water, science fiction and fantasy have become a signifigant part of western popular culture -- and beyond. In this era, crossover books and movies take us to new worlds.The influence of stories from wonder tales is pervasive.
Guillermo del Toro makes films for adults and young adults alike. They are doorways to an alternate reality dealing with profound aspects of the life experience. Here are excerpts from Anthony Lane's extensive review in the New Yorker of The Shape of Water:
"What matters is not that del Toro is a fanatical scholar of his medium but that, as we sensed in the grave reveries of “Pan’s Labyrinth” (2006), he understands how fantasy invades and invests our waking lives. . . . What del Toro sees is that lore and legend, though often dramatized for children, are rich in adult desires. The lust that is, of necessity, thwarted and dammed in Disney productions of “Beauty and the Beast” is released, and allowed to flow at will, through the fable of Eliza and the Creature. So grimly accustomed are we to sexual violence onscreen that to see sex flourish as a rebuke to violence and a remedy for loneliness, which is what “The Shape of Water” provides, is a heady and uplifting surprise."
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Three On My List
I have added three films to my want-to-see list based on their reviews, trailers, or past performances.
After 18 years, Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is completed and ready for release -- except for a lawsuit regarding rights. I hope the lawyers can clear the way for the man who made made Monty Python films, Brasil, and many others.The trailer looks intriguing. All the words used to describe fantasy look like they apply to this reinterpretation of Cervantes classic book. Here is a link: The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.
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Magic Realism in Zama
The trailer for Zama and Manhola Dargis' review (excerpt follows) have enticed me. I am reminded of Borges, and the term magic realism used to describe his work. For me, this is a term that describes a combination of realism and fantasy, especially in Latin American literature and film (Like Water for Chocolate). Below is an excerpt of the Manhola Dargis review:
Zama, directed by Lucrecia Martel(Argentina), is "Beautiful, hypnotic, mysterious and elliptical, 'Zama' is a story about a man at odds with a world that he struggles to dominate, which becomes a lacerating, often surprisingly comic evisceration of colonialism and patriarchy."
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A New Animated Dog Film -- Sgt. Stubby
According to Rotten Tomatoes, Sgt. Stubby is a big hit with critics and audiences alike. Here is their description of the film:
"The incredible true story of a stray dog directed by Richard Lanni. Stubby became a decorated hero of the First World War. Reviewers and audiences are enthusiastic. For his keen instincts and fierce loyalty, Stubby is still recognized today as the most decorated canine in American history and the first promoted to the rank of Sergeant in the U.S. Army."
Here is a link to the trailer: Sgt. Stubby
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Three Escaped Yazidi Teenage Girls
I watched a compassionate, understated, and quietly moving Danish documentary wherein three Yazidi girls, tell of their nightmare existence after capture by Isis and, after many months as prisoners, of their harrowing escapes. The girls range in age from 14 to 17. They speak of seeing other girls, 7-10, undergoing the same slavery and abuse.
The Kurdish Peshmerga freed Sinijar province in 2016, two years after Isis conquered the area, murdered untold numbers of boys and men, and abducted 6,000 girls and women.
I also watched this excellent and poignant PBS documentary (9 plus minutes) which visits a Yazidi reunion.
I wonder what stories are being told amongst the Yazidis? What stories do the children tell? Can they read? Do they have books (Kurdish is their native language)?
The photo of the Yazidi refugee child is from the BBC.
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The Darkness and the Thunder and the Rain
When it is peace, then we may view again
With new won eyes each other's truer form
And wonder. Grown more loving kind and warm
We'll grasp firm hands and laugh at the old pain,
When it is peace. But until peace, the storm,
The darkness and the thunder and the rain.
Charles Hamilton Sorley, poet, British Captain, killed in the Battle of Loos in 1915
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The “KidLitosphere” is a community of reviewers, librarians, teachers, authors, illustrators, publishers, parents, and other book enthusiasts who blog about children’s and young adult literature. Here is a link to their website: KidLitosphere
The illustration from Through The Looking Glass is by John Tenniel.
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Smidgey Pidgey's Predicament
Smidgey Pidgey’s Predicament, a story by Tamira Ci Thayne, is the newest release from Who Chains You Publishing and is illustrated by C.A. Wulff, author of many dog books and a lifetime animal rescue advocate and activist. The book tells the story of sibling pigeons Smidgey and Ridge, who find themselves captured for a pigeon shoot. Smidgey, the hero of the story, must find a way to free her brother and the other pigeons who are in danger. Excellent for ages 8 an up, and perfect for humane education in today’s classrooms.
Some of the proceeds from sales of Smidgey Pidgey’s Predicament will be donated to SHARK ( Showing Animals Respect and Kindness ) a humane group that is working to put an end to Pigeon Shoots in Pennsylvania. Smidgey Pidgey’s Predicament is available on Amazon in both print and kindle.
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NRA Power
What Is happening ?
I am trying to understand the power and influence of the NRA on American politicians and gun owners.
I am not questioning the thinking of those who like the outdoors and like to hunt.
I am questioning what has happened to the momentum from the massacre in Parkland High School of 15 students and 2 teachers (more wounded) -The attempt to modify gun laws seems to have faded. And President Trump seems to have forgotten the massacre -- despite the ongoing carnage at Huffman High School (Alabama), Great Mills High School (Maryland), and Highlands Hospital at the University of Alabama, Birmingham and a popular Missouri Waffle House.
The photo of people running for their live was taken at the Las Vegas massacre.
Here is a link to a well done recent New York Times Video Update: NYTimesGun Report.
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Why Am I ?...A Yelodoggie Illustrated Story Book
Why Am I ? – a joyous Yelodoggie Book – celebrates self-empowerment and the benefits of inclusion. It helps children recognize and appreciate differences and to embrace that which is unique in each of us.
Yelodoggie travels far and wide, up and down, inside and outside, from outer space to the waters of the sea –gaining confidence and leaving his insecurities behind – while seeking to answer Why Am I different ?...Why Am I Yellow ?
Why Am I? opens the imagination and perspective of children to the world around them.
We have launched a new search for a publisher who will love Why Am I ?, recognize its potential, and launch it into the world. This is a book for our troubled times. Our primary motive is wide distribution.
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The Planet Of The Dogs Series
We have free reader copies of all the books in the Planet Of The Dogs series for therapy dog organizations, individual therapy dog owners, librarians, teachers and independent bookstores. . . email us at [email protected] and we will send you the books.
To read sample chapters of any book in the series, visit PlanetOfTheDogs
The Planet Of The Dogs series (including Castle In The Mist and Snow Valley Heroes, A Christmas Tale) is available from many Internet sources and through independent book stores of all sizes.
"Castle In The Mist is the second book in the Planet of the Dogs series and I must say I enjoyed it, cover to cover. This work can be read as a sequel to Planet of the Dogs, an ideal situation, but can also be read as a stand-alone with no loss to the flow of the story." -- Don Blankenship, Teacher and Reviewer, Good Books for Kids
The illustration from Castle In The Mist is by Stella Mustanoja-McCarty
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"Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea." -- Robert A. Heinlein, author
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