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issenllo*looks at Fifthmus and Yuletide challenges* Well... at least today I don't have to work late.
Title: Heriot
Author: Margaret Mahy
Title: The Complete Cosmicomics
Author: Italo Calvino
I began by reading Calvino and switched to Mahy halfway, and went back to Calvino later. The juxtaposition of two fantastical pieces of writing makes it tempting for me to proclaim Mahy magical (for I do love Mahy) and Calvino unoriginal (for Calvino plays with a bunch of physical concepts), but I suspect I’m wholly prejudiced and other people would probably confer the opposite judgement.
Not that anyone should be dissing Margaret Mahy, okay?
CC is a collection of short narratives--stories?--in the life of a character named Qfwfq, a name which I infer is meant to be unpronounceable, likely to symbolise some ineffable or extraterrestrial quality but whom I mentally dubbed “Koofy”. Qfwfy has had all kinds of quasi-cosmic adventures, especially striking in the first story when he talks about climbing a ladder to the moon with this family to collect moon-milk. (Wtf?) But the image of the moon floating gently near the surface of the earth while defying all laws of physics is certainly charming, and Qfwfq’s exciting description of what happened the night when the moon finally floats away into its current orbit is the first in a slightly mind-bending series of stories that go on to narrate how, at the beginning of the universe, Qfwfq plays with atoms in games of marbles, and later, how Qfwfy evolves to become a land creature. Then come some stories that about cell division, and go on to narratives (I hesitate to say ‘stories’) based on mathematics and deductive logical.
(So says the introduction. It took me a while to get what was going on, so I read the introduction.. When a book starts to go, in the guise of fiction, this way:
In a second I’ll know if the arrow’s trajectory and the lion’s will or will not coincide at a point X crossed both by L and by A at the same second tx , that is, if the lion will slump in the air with a roar stifled by the spurt of blood … or whether he will fall unhurt upon me knocking me to the ground …
I really do want to go and find something with pictures instead. Maybe a pop science book.)
Yeah. Calvino’s got a fascinating mind and seems to be fond of highly conceptualised fiction, I guess that's one of the attractions; the cosmic stories are a lot of fun, though Qfwfy’s air of having been there and done that can get a bit wearing.
What I found to be similar about the two books here is the way your perception opens up, and this is where Mahy struck a fuller note than Calvino. I mean, Calvino’s takes are excellent in their own way, but they work on the reader thinking through the same physical concepts, say, about what one knows of cosmology, the age of the universe, etc., while Mahy is writing a wholly fictitious, fantasy story about a boy named Heriot who has magical powers and grows up to be Magician of the kingdom of Hoad. Because of this, Mahy gets to develop the characters and immerse the reader in the thoughts and motivations of her characters, letting the plot work itself out and releasing the secrets of the characters as they grow.
Whereas with CC one is always conscious of trying to make the math fit, as it were.
The book (Heriot) starts out a bit slowly, and frustratingly so because of that, because there’re shrouded references and mysteries about Heriot’s fits from childhood, his changing perception of the world, how he realises that he has this power, and what that means for him. And unearthly mental images and mysterious forebodings somehow seem too big for Heriot, who is just a boy at first. But boy that he is, he goes from his humble home to court, where he makes friends with the so-called Mad Prince of the kingdom, Dysart, and becomes the king’s Magician, able to detect liars in court and to awe the kingdom’s visitors/enemies, entertains with visions of growing trees and sprouting fountains.
I love the way Mahy describes magic in her books. It’s not just that it’s often beautifully organic, presenting itself without ingredient or magic wands--it’s also that it’s so often a power of being… Not that most types of magic in other fantasies aren’t but that it’s a power that changes the magic wielder into someone who can tap into that ineffable part of the world, use it, play with it, be transformed by it, while not commanding it. Well, not in a save-the-world fashion.
And it’s often fantastic. There are a lot of authors who try to make magic easily understandable, with rules and that’s where you get schools of sorcery and theories about transubstantiation and concepts about the four elements, or alchemy, or ley lines and what not, etc.
But one aspect Mahy doesn't shy away from is showing that people who have magic understand the world in a different way. Sometimes they are superior, but that is another difficulty they have to deal with, such as the envy of others. But Mahy’s magic (forgive the pun) is she can let that her magical wielders be sympathetic despite that.
What I found myself liking are the politics in the book, though they are actually quite flat… the king’s successor wanting to be more powerful, war and peace in the kingdom, and violence and the nature of kings. And so on. Prince Dysart turns out to be not so mad, though his eldest brother isn’t, and his second brother foolishly seeks power. The subplot involving Dysart and his lady love Linnet is lovely (yay alliteration!), and the one with Heriot and his romance…I suspect I’m just pouting because it turned out not to be slashy, but in fact it’s excellent, and I do love a female character who kills the baddie all by herself without needing help from her powerful magician boyfriend.
This is the first time I've read one of Mahy's books that takes place wholly in a fantastical world, rather than a variant of urban fantasy, and I'm fascinated at how she anchors it--the worldbuilding, I mean--without throwing in a lot of made-up history (which can get tedious unless you're invested in the characters)--but still giving her universe some heft, so that you can appreciate the characters in their settings. The writing style strikes the right pace: descriptive, with lovely images when the action needs to slow, and straightforward--plain, even--but clear when things happen fast.
I didn't like her last book very much, so this was particularly lovely to read.
Reading Darwinia now.
Title: Heriot
Author: Margaret Mahy
Title: The Complete Cosmicomics
Author: Italo Calvino
I began by reading Calvino and switched to Mahy halfway, and went back to Calvino later. The juxtaposition of two fantastical pieces of writing makes it tempting for me to proclaim Mahy magical (for I do love Mahy) and Calvino unoriginal (for Calvino plays with a bunch of physical concepts), but I suspect I’m wholly prejudiced and other people would probably confer the opposite judgement.
Not that anyone should be dissing Margaret Mahy, okay?
CC is a collection of short narratives--stories?--in the life of a character named Qfwfq, a name which I infer is meant to be unpronounceable, likely to symbolise some ineffable or extraterrestrial quality but whom I mentally dubbed “Koofy”. Qfwfy has had all kinds of quasi-cosmic adventures, especially striking in the first story when he talks about climbing a ladder to the moon with this family to collect moon-milk. (Wtf?) But the image of the moon floating gently near the surface of the earth while defying all laws of physics is certainly charming, and Qfwfq’s exciting description of what happened the night when the moon finally floats away into its current orbit is the first in a slightly mind-bending series of stories that go on to narrate how, at the beginning of the universe, Qfwfq plays with atoms in games of marbles, and later, how Qfwfy evolves to become a land creature. Then come some stories that about cell division, and go on to narratives (I hesitate to say ‘stories’) based on mathematics and deductive logical.
(So says the introduction. It took me a while to get what was going on, so I read the introduction.. When a book starts to go, in the guise of fiction, this way:
In a second I’ll know if the arrow’s trajectory and the lion’s will or will not coincide at a point X crossed both by L and by A at the same second t
I really do want to go and find something with pictures instead. Maybe a pop science book.)
Yeah. Calvino’s got a fascinating mind and seems to be fond of highly conceptualised fiction, I guess that's one of the attractions; the cosmic stories are a lot of fun, though Qfwfy’s air of having been there and done that can get a bit wearing.
What I found to be similar about the two books here is the way your perception opens up, and this is where Mahy struck a fuller note than Calvino. I mean, Calvino’s takes are excellent in their own way, but they work on the reader thinking through the same physical concepts, say, about what one knows of cosmology, the age of the universe, etc., while Mahy is writing a wholly fictitious, fantasy story about a boy named Heriot who has magical powers and grows up to be Magician of the kingdom of Hoad. Because of this, Mahy gets to develop the characters and immerse the reader in the thoughts and motivations of her characters, letting the plot work itself out and releasing the secrets of the characters as they grow.
Whereas with CC one is always conscious of trying to make the math fit, as it were.
The book (Heriot) starts out a bit slowly, and frustratingly so because of that, because there’re shrouded references and mysteries about Heriot’s fits from childhood, his changing perception of the world, how he realises that he has this power, and what that means for him. And unearthly mental images and mysterious forebodings somehow seem too big for Heriot, who is just a boy at first. But boy that he is, he goes from his humble home to court, where he makes friends with the so-called Mad Prince of the kingdom, Dysart, and becomes the king’s Magician, able to detect liars in court and to awe the kingdom’s visitors/enemies, entertains with visions of growing trees and sprouting fountains.
I love the way Mahy describes magic in her books. It’s not just that it’s often beautifully organic, presenting itself without ingredient or magic wands--it’s also that it’s so often a power of being… Not that most types of magic in other fantasies aren’t but that it’s a power that changes the magic wielder into someone who can tap into that ineffable part of the world, use it, play with it, be transformed by it, while not commanding it. Well, not in a save-the-world fashion.
And it’s often fantastic. There are a lot of authors who try to make magic easily understandable, with rules and that’s where you get schools of sorcery and theories about transubstantiation and concepts about the four elements, or alchemy, or ley lines and what not, etc.
But one aspect Mahy doesn't shy away from is showing that people who have magic understand the world in a different way. Sometimes they are superior, but that is another difficulty they have to deal with, such as the envy of others. But Mahy’s magic (forgive the pun) is she can let that her magical wielders be sympathetic despite that.
What I found myself liking are the politics in the book, though they are actually quite flat… the king’s successor wanting to be more powerful, war and peace in the kingdom, and violence and the nature of kings. And so on. Prince Dysart turns out to be not so mad, though his eldest brother isn’t, and his second brother foolishly seeks power. The subplot involving Dysart and his lady love Linnet is lovely (yay alliteration!), and the one with Heriot and his romance…I suspect I’m just pouting because it turned out not to be slashy, but in fact it’s excellent, and I do love a female character who kills the baddie all by herself without needing help from her powerful magician boyfriend.
This is the first time I've read one of Mahy's books that takes place wholly in a fantastical world, rather than a variant of urban fantasy, and I'm fascinated at how she anchors it--the worldbuilding, I mean--without throwing in a lot of made-up history (which can get tedious unless you're invested in the characters)--but still giving her universe some heft, so that you can appreciate the characters in their settings. The writing style strikes the right pace: descriptive, with lovely images when the action needs to slow, and straightforward--plain, even--but clear when things happen fast.
I didn't like her last book very much, so this was particularly lovely to read.
Reading Darwinia now.