In Memoriam: Brian Jacques

Brian Jacques, author.  June 15, 1939 - February 5, 2011

When I was eight, I discovered the Redwall series.*  I think my dad started reading it to me.  Every night, another chapter - or more, if I was able to beg it out of him - until I realized that I actually read faster on my own.  Then I burned through the entire series, and read them over and over again while impatiently waiting for the rest to be written.

My Redwall obsession lasted two or three years, peaked at fifth grade and was gradually replaced by other interests.  But for a while, I hardly read anything else.  I always had one of the books on me.  Always.  And I swear not one single other person in my school had ever heard of it.  Is it any wonder I had no friends, if I was surrounded by people who didn't even read?

But what is so special about these mice?  Yes, there is a little mouse who just wants to be special and finally gets his chance - isn't that a fairly common motif in normal fiction as well?  But the rest of the books feature a variety of heroes from all different backgrounds - what is the common factor here?

I can narrow it down to two:

1)  All of the stories feature a hero facing real danger and impossible odds, but they simply have to accomplish their quest or the world will be left in ruins.  It was my first exposure to something truly EPIC.  It's just so much more interesting to read about a story that matters. 

2)  They were mice in a forest, not children in a school.  I had enough of children in school in my life - I didn't want to read about it too!  I didn't want to be reminded of how unlike everyone else I was.  Furthermore, I was never a very girly girl -  in the Redwall books, there are very few instances of actual gender roles.  Really the only difference is arbitrary pronouns.

Perhaps I could even narrow it down to one factor:  Books about mice with swords asked questions I actually cared about.  When is it okay to kill your enemy?  vs. say, How do apologize to your best friend for talking about her behind her back?  How to stand up to a bully, make a best friend, improve your home life, and succeed at your artistic goals, which is nowhere near as difficult/interesting as following a cryptic song to a mysterious place along a path fraught with danger in order to get allies to help you defeat the impossibly large evil horde.

I realize that I cannot claim that Redwall as the best series ever.  It has absurdly formulaic plots and a bad case of Slytherin Syndrome, which was what eventually caused me to lose interest - the villains obviously only existed to drive the plot forward.   Jacques did manage to do something truly creative at least once per book.  You know - an gigantic army that wears blue war paint, a hare with multiple personality disorder, etc. 

Still, it was a good introduction to the hard questions in life (simplified) and the dark side of the world (softened).  Moreover, it was just plain cool.

Brian Jacques, you will be missed.

Redwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllll!

*If somehow you don't know, it is a set of books about talking anthropomorphic mice/other woodland creatures, who battle against evil rats/other woodland creatures, with swords/other medieval weaponry. 

Märchenmond - Fablemoon - Magic Moon

I am now reading a book entitled Märchenmond, by Wolfgang and Heike Hohlbein.  There is an English translation available entitled Magic Moon, though "Märchen" is actually the German word for a fairy tale.

I suppose something needed to knock German children's fantasy off the pedestal I had put it on.  Kai Meyer = Amazing.  Cornelia Funke, same.  Michael Ende (of The Neverending Story) as well.  The Hohlbeins...

It isn't bad.  Just so-so.  The story tells of a boy who is ten(?), whose four(?) year old sister is in a coma.  A mysterious old man appears and tells him that his sister's spirit is trapped in the magical world Märchenmond by an evil sorcerer, and so the boy, Kim, has to travel there to get her back.

My critique as follows:
1)  Kim, the hero, is established immediately as a sci-fi reader.  However, as soon as he enters Märchenmond, this fact is forgotten (though he did have to get there by flying a spaceship).  Regardless, unless the authors are trying to pull a Neverending story where the magical world is causing him to lose his memory, they are wasting a great opportunity for some wrong genre savvy conflicts.

2)  Even though Kim knows nothing about fantasy worlds, he should know better not to let the army of Black Knights take him anywhere without asking them a few questions.  Or drinking an unidentified substance given to him by them, though it seems not to have done any lasting harm.  In fact, he adapts almost too well to be believed. 

3)  Yes, it is a fantasy story, which requires a bit of suspension of disbelief.  Perhaps it is reasonable that he managed to knock out a Knight and steal his armor and horse and travel undetected with the Black Army for, what, over a week?  I mean, evil minions aren't expected to be bright.  And okay, maybe he wouldn't quite die of starvation from not eating because he was too afraid to take off his visor even for an instant.  But that begs the question - if he does not take off his armor for a week, how does he take care of certain functions?  There is a line between no one really wants to read about it, and you kind of have to wonder...

4)  I'm really not sure what kind of person Kim is.  Probably he is supposed to be an Everyman with a Hero Complex.  It's entirely possible that I am merely missing subtlety by reading a book in a foreign language, but Kim seems to be a very generic protagonist.  Sister in danger?  Go rescue her, without a care for the danger.  Magical world in danger?  Go rescue it.  Plus, the only characters that seemed to give him any development were one-shots (or possibly Chekhov's Gunmen). 

Example:  As Kim flees the evil citadel, he is conveniently rescued by a swamp-prince, Ado.  Ado asks to join Kim on his quest, but Kim tells him to stay in the swamp where he is needed.  First off, where did that bit of insight come from?  Personally, I find that Ado would have given Kim a lot more character development than the WTF companions he ended up with - a gentle giant and a grouchy bear, neither of which are very bright or have much personality.  So we don't get to see Kim's (presumeably) rational and caring demeanor contrasted with a rash and heedless best friend, but rather a hero surrounded by bumbling mistfit companions.

In short, this is the sort of story that blindly binds itself to genre constraints and does not even have any interesting side characters, cool scenery, or beautiful prose to make up for it.  Granted it was written in the eighties and seems to be a nostalgia piece for many, but I am nearly halfway through and as yet have not seen anything remarkable about it.  Besides the above remarks.

"Frostfire" Translation - Chapter 1, Part 3/3

            “What do you intend to do now?” he asked.

            “I will  arrange for her to find me.”

            “And then?”

            “Well – I will finish my assignment.  That is what my family should have done many generations ago.”

            “And take revenge for the death of your father?”  He sounded disappointed.

            Tamsin took umbrella and suitcase, but stayed standing before him.  “She wants the ice-heart back.  And she knows that only I can give it to her.  Therefore, she will come to me.”

            “You want to set a trap for her?”

            Tamsin gave no answer.
            “What a stupid, stupid idea,” he said.

            “Take care of yourself,” she told him as a farewell.

            “Wait!”

            She turned her face to the ground, then looked at him.

            “You should know something else.”  He let out a deep sigh, like that of a grown-up speaking to an unreasonable child.    “This sudden onset of winter, all the snow, this cold…it has to do with her.”

            “And?”

            “You believe that she brings all this with her, like a trail of winter weather, don’t you?  But it is not so simple.  What is here is a different kind of cold.  And only a taste of what is to come.”

            Tamsin looked at him questioningly.

            “Ever since you stole the ice-heart, her power has been fading,” he continued.  “The cold of the Beginning that was there before the world is flowing out of the Queen and reclaiming the place that once belonged to it.”

            “Then it will get worse?”

            “Much worse,” he said grimly.  “Only if the Queen gets the icicle back and regains her old power can she put the cold back in its place.  Otherwise, a winter like no other threatens us.  Not even I would stand against that for long.”

            “How much time do I have?”

            “To return the icicle and stop the cold?  Or to destroy the Queen?”

            “How much time?”

            “A few days.  At most.”

            Tamsin’s hand closed tighter around the rainbow umbrella. In her battered suitcase, something moved, rumbling quite softly.

            “I thank you,” she said, and left.

            Father Frost sadly opened up the pouch and carried on feeding the snowflakes with forgotten magic.

Magical Narnialand Venice

Just spent two days in Venice, which was AWESOME.

It was the weekend before Carnivale, so there were mask shops everywhere selling everything from cheap glitter-and-glue to elaborate artpieces of gold and feathers.  Not to mention the weather, which was warm and sunny, something that isn't going to happen in good old Deutschland for a while, and the gelato.  Need I say anything besides Italian gelato?

Bridges are to Venice what bakeries are to Marburg - you can't go a block without finding one.  Yet even with so much water, it is hard to remember that the city is sinking.  It looks so old, one can only imagine it will be there forever.  Narrow alleys are everywhere, so that not even the most cautious person can avoid them.  Luckily it is a big tourist town, so they try to keep the crime rate low. 

How bizarre must it be to live in a place where you have more tourists than neighbors? 

In any case, what struck me as most wondrous about being in Venice is that when you think of it, it is almost a mythical land.  Like Narnia, or Atlantis.  People write books about the place (see Cornelia Funke's The Thief Lord, auf Deutsch, Herr der Diebe; also Mary Hoffman's City of Masks) and the magic that takes place within.  Of course, people write stories about magic in London and New York as well (neither of which I have been too), but those cities star so often only because that is what most writers are familiar with.  Still, it brings up an interesting point:  Nearly every single book that takes place in London - or any city - takes place in a different universe. 

I am not just talking about fantasy, for once.  I mean that the universe a book takes place in is necessarily different from the one we live in - we cannot meet the characters in ours.  Often, too, the characters do not meet each other.  Here, fantasy is a good medium to demonstrate this - the London from which the Pevensie children go to Narnia simply cannot possibly be the same London that housed Clive Barker's mystif (Imajica - like Abarat, but for grownups). 

Yet going to a place in the flesh makes it real.  To think that the Venice I went to is the same Venice that my relatives have gone to, that my friends have visited, where Cornelia Funke drew her inspiration for The Thief Lord.  No streets had been rearranged or buildings added to suit the plot or the author's memory.  It is the Venice that exists on its own, independent from the imagination of a writer or reader.

It is also worth saying that Venice is a magical city in its own right, without authorial additions.  Even when it is overrun by tourists, you can tell that it truly deserves to be a tourist destination, and that it is appreciated.  No one goes to Venice to drink and party - they go to Venice for the magic, to be able to say "I have been to Venice" the same way one would want to say "I have been to Narnia."

What is the magic of Venice, then?  Is it the architecture, the history, the age?  The canals and gondoliers and bridges?  Palaces and churches - but can those not be found all over Europe?  The glassmakers and mask-shops?  Is it something in the air, the water, the light, a mystical aura?  Is it simply the fact that I have read too many fantasy books about the place - though the same could be said for London?  Though it occurs to me that most fantasy stories that start in London end up going somewhere else, but the magic in Venice is actually in Venice.  Why was it that when I was aimlessly browsing Ryanair for cheap tickets, that as soon as I saw the name Venice I knew I had to go there?

In this life, Venice is the closest any of us can get to Narnia. 

Kai Meyer's "Frostfire" - Chapter 1, Part 2/3

“Do you have it with you?” he asked abruptly.  “The icicle of the Snow-Queen’s heart?”

            She nodded, but made no move to pull it out from under her coat.  She felt its cold on her breast. The longer she carried it on her, they more painful it became to think that she would once again have to part with it.

            “I don’t want it,” the old man said.  “I know that this is the reason you have come here.”

            She closed her eyes for a moment, disappointed, despairing.  “Who else could I give it to?”

            “Who then did you steal it for?”

            “My father and I were chartered a few months ago by a group of revolutionaries, up in the realm of the Queen.  They have been planning a coup for years.  They knew that only someone like my father had the…talent to break the power of the Snow-Queen.”

            “Or someone like you.  People with quite special abilities.”

            She smiled for the first time since she had taken the place next to him.  “Compared to him, I am only a child.”

            “Yes.  His child.”

            Her smile brightened for an instant.  Then her features darkened once again.  “I had so hoped that you would take the icicle from me.  I could not think of anyone else that I could trust it with.”

            The old man shook his head. “It would corrupt me.  Just as it ices over the soul of anyone who carries it with them too long.”  A spark was suddenly in his eyes, perhaps suspicion, perhaps something entirely different.  “You would like to be right about needing to get rid of it.  But the there is only one single possibility.”

            She frowned.  “Well?”

            “Bring it back.”

            Tamsin pressed her lips together.  They were dry and chapped from the bitter cold.  “Never,” she said instantly.

            “But you have already thought of it yourself, haven’t you?”

            “No,” she lied.  “My father died trying to steal it.  The Snow-Queen…she killed him.”  Master Spellwell’s body had stayed behind in the Palace of the tyrant; there he stood as a frozen statue in one of the countless Ice Domes, with only the silence for company.

            Tamsin’s lower lip trembled.  “I would rather go the same way as he than give her the icicle of my own free will.”

            Father Frost smiled indulgently and put his trembling right hand over both of hers.  “Those are brave words, Tamsin Spellwell.  We have only met once, and you were still a little girl.  But even then your father said that you had great courage.”

            “Please,” she said beseechingly.  “Take the icicle.”

            “Never.”  He pulled his hand back and stroked it over his white beard. “This is now your battle alone.  And your decision.  Tell me, how old are you now?”
            “Twenty-five.”

            “You look younger.”

            “Can one trust the judgement of someone who is older than mountains and forests?”

            His laugh sounded like rasping ice.  “Maybe not.  But still take a word of advice from an old fool.  Give her the icicle back, before she destroys you.  What concern is her realm to you – or the people who live there in her thrall?”

            Tamsin still shook her head.  Her decision stood fast.  At once there was a new energy in her, flaring up like flames from the ashes of a cold fireplace.  “You know that it is not about her realm.  Not anymore.”  She was silent a moment.  “Is she here already?  In St. Petersburg?”

            He nodded.  “This snow was brought by her.  The snowflakes are talkative, when one feeds them.”

            “Where is she staying?”

            He told her.

            Tamsin pulled her crumpled top hat straight and stood up from the bench.

Writer's Block (Part 2)

I did promise you the rest of the story.  There isn't as much of it as I had thought.

I left off in sixth grade when I was starting to realize that I had a problem.  Middle school did nothing to help any of my social phobias.  In fact, the less time spent dwelling on it, the better.

Seventh grade English class was a joke.  The only good thing about it was that the teacher actually explained what he wanted from a book report - or a "book review," since we were big kids now.  I believe I was the only person in the class who ever got a 100% on one of those.  A rather unremarkable event over the course of a day in middle school, but it was a turning point in my life.  For the first time, I realized that I might actually be decent at writing if I ever gave myself a chance.

That is to say, writing became easier, but having my stuff read still made/makes me feel a bit queasy.  I'm getting better though.  I can physically bring myself to read the teacher's comments when I get papers back.  Most of the time. 

Just don't ask to see my novels.

Big Secret #1:  I write.

It started in middle school.  As though all of the words and stories I had been taking in almost constantly suddenly overflowed.  It started with some typical "normal person discovers magical powers, plot ensues."  Then, as my tastes in literature began to mature, it moved on to deconstructions of fantasy cliches.  I am on something like my twentieth draft, with no end in sight.  Every time I think I'm getting close, a new complication appears. 

There ought to be a better way to connect me child who hated to create a single sentence to me attempting to write a novel, but there is not.  One day I started writing.  And I haven't stopped.

Writer's Block

My parents read my blog - that's what I get for posting the link on facebook, I suppose.  Luckily I had not yet posted any embarrassing information.  Come to think of it, I don't think I have any embarrassing information.  I don't drink.  I've never been romantically involved with anyone.  They more or less already know my secrets.  It's just a little embarrassing.  Awkward.  Something I was not expecting and did not expect to come up during a skype conversation the other day.

Though all my mom had to say was, "Actually, we went to Iowa State University, not University of Iowa."  To which I did not reply. "It's Iowa.  No one cares."
No offense to anyone who may be reading this if you are from Iowa, have friends in Iowa, eventually move to Iowa, or have some sort of fondness for the cornfield I mean state.

So for my sanity's sake I am just going to pretend my parents do not know that I am writing and carry on as normal.

Several readers have made it known to me that they enjoy reading my blog, and that they consider it well written.  First of all, thank you, it really does mean a lot to me.  It's actually a little mind-blowing to hear/read that. 

I've struggled with writing since I was about six, about the same time I was solidifying my reputation as a bookworm, and paving the way for the many ironies of my life.  Of course I could understand those wonderful things called books, and read those magical things called words, but generate my own?  Take those words that have already been laid down in perfect order by holy beings called authors and scramble them with my own clumsy efforts?  Use them to express my own weak thoughts and tiny life experiences?  Impossible.  Every sentence was a drag, and I kept to the bare minimum, ashamed of my puny efforts to control words.

It did not help that in the midst of this, I had a slightly traumatizing event.  First grade.  We had been herded to the gymnasium to watch some concert/performance thing, probably the middle school or high school choir.  Then we were herded back to the classroom and told to write a journal about it.  I stuck with my three sentence minimum, ending with "It was cinduv (kind of - this was, believe it or not, before I devolped my mad spelling skills) boring."

A reasonable statement, yes?  In fact I had enjoyed the concert or whatever it was, but due to the disorganization of the management, we had waited for the show to begin longer than a six-year-old's patience finds acceptable - that was the part I had meant was boring, though I could not think how to express it.  I showed it to the teacher to get it stamped off. 

She did not like it.  In fact, a part of my memory that I do not entirely trust but do not entirely doubt says that she tore the page from my journal.  "That is not how you talk about other people!"  she told me sharply.  The part of the memory I am sure of is that she was loud enough to cause the entire class to look at me and witness my humiliation.  And for a shy child who does not have many friends and does not like being in the spotlight, can you imagine a worse punishment?

Now that I am older (it seems there are advantages to growing up after all) I find the teacher's response to have been entirely unreasonable.  Since when was "boring" a forbidden word?  Since when was an opinion of disapproval socially unacceptable?  And what the HELL gave her the right to frickin' embarrass me in front of everyone and give me a literary handicap that still affects me today at nineteen?

For years I could not show anyone anything I had written.  The safest course, in fact, was to not write anything at all.  It's not like I intended to be a writer or anything, as so many smiling adults asked me when they heard I liked to read.  But there was still curricular writing to deal with.  Make a sentence using each of the spelling words - I couldn't even do that.  Well, I could, but it was very, very uncomfortable, especially when the teacher sat down and read them right in front of me.  Don't even think about writing a story.  Or book reports.  I sucked at book reports.  Summarize the book:  It's about a kid who finds out he's a hero and has to save the world.  Now tell why you liked the book:  ...I don't know, I just did?  Because it was fun to read and a heck of a lot more interesting than my own life?

That fell a bit short of the 1-2 page requirement.

Oh, and in sixth grade, I found out at the end of the DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education, for those who don't know or forgot) Program that we were supposed to have written an "essay" about how DARE changed our life, which I had not realized was mandatory.  Nor had I realized that we were supposed to read it out loud in front of the whole frakking class. So I and the underachievers were sent to the computer lab to type something up - I think that was probably my first experience BS-ing a paper - and called back into the classroom to read our pieces.  And I couldn't do it.  A kind girl offered to do it for me, and I let her, sitting for the next two minutes in abject misery, each word a slap in the face from my incompetence.  This part might have more to do with stage fright than write-fright, actually, but the two were closely tied.

It did get better, oddly enough, in middle school.  However, as this post has run rather long (and is not what I was intending to write about at all), I will save the story of how I triumphantly overcame my difficulties (And you can too!  Isn't it inspiring???) for the next post.