Mort

I love Terry Pratchett. I seldom read Fantasy as a genre but Pratchett is more satire and social commentary. He is also possibly one of the funniest and wittiest novelists I have ever read (although admittedly I haven't read P.G. Wodehouse as yet). It really is difficult to sum up the genius of Pratchett and do justice to his satirical mastery of humour. Over the years I have read all of the Guards novels (one of the Discworld arcs), the younger Discworld series, and a few other random ones here and there. However this year I decided to begin reading my boyfriend's copies (above) in chronological order and in doing so I reached the first Death-related novel, Mort, the fourth novel of the series. It is now possible that Death has pipped Sam Vimes (head of the Watch) to be my favourite Discworld character although my boyfriend assures me that I will become attached to Death of Rats (also known as the Grim Squeaker) who appears in later novels, in due course.

Death is the only character to appear in each and every Discworld novel; the Orangutan librarian of Unseen University cameos in a fair amount, as does Lord Vetinari, the Patrician of Ankh-Morpok, and other characters, but Death is the only one who is guaranteed a role -as he is in everyone's life- however brief an appearance it may be. Death speaks in CAPS (outwith quotation marks as his words are inherently sensed rather than heard) and has an exceptionally dry wit; in Mort he hires an apprentice named Mort, the eponymous hero.

"THANK YOU, BOY, said the skull. WHAT IS YOUR NAME?
'Uh,' said Mort. 'Mortimer ... sir. They call me Mort.'
WHAT A COINCIDENCE, said the skull."

"It is a fact that although the Death of the Discworld is, in his own words, an ANTHROPOMORPHIC PERSONIFICATION, he long ago gave up using the traditional skeletal horses, because of the bother of having to stop all the time to wire bits back on."

Skeletal with pin-pricks of blue fire as eyes, deep in the sockets, his fully-fleshed horse is named Binky, and he has a soft spot for cats (Death, not Binky). The anthropomorphic personification of death draws upon symbolic representations within culture from the Grim Reaper and Father Time (with Azrael appearing in the joint novel by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, Good Omens) to Greek myth. Creating Death, a fate so feared, into a lovable and highly amusing character is no mean feat; I really think that Pratchett has made Death his own. Markus Zusak failed in my opinion with death as his narrator in The Book Thief; I was left feeling as if the effect was gimmicky and I haven't read The Sandman to comment upon Neil Gaiman's personification ... do you recommend any other successful literary characterisations of Death? I think that Pratchett's monopoly on the character and his extraordinary achievement is due to his Death being a parody of other representations and because, ultimately, he is FUN; although, granted, Death doesn't himself quite grasp the concept of fun.

WE ARE HAVING FUN?
'I thought I was,' said his lordship uncertainly. The voice by his ear was vaguely worrying him; it appeared to be arriving directly into his brain.
WHAT IS FUN?
'This is!'
TO KICK VIGOROUSLY IS FUN?
'Well, part of the fun. Kick!'
TO HEAR LOUD MUSIC IN HOT ROOMS IS FUN?
'Possibly.'
HOW IS THIS FUN MANIFEST?

The above quote is taken from a party scene where partaking is the Conga - how can you not see the genius in that? Death is so funny in this section that I found it difficult to stop there and could have easily quoted a few more lines of dialogue as it is a hilarious exchange.



Upon hiring Mort, Death takes a holiday; intrigued by humanity he travels to Ankh-Morpok to explore human experience and hilarity ensues. Mort, in turn, gradually loses his human traits and becomes more like Death, complete with speaking in capital letters, which he becomes conscious of and other characters comment upon.

"Mort laughed mirthlessly. THAT WON'T BE NECESSARY.
'I wish you'd stop talking like that.'"

Pratchett is insightful and highly observant of the nature of humanity anyway; his acute awareness of the foibles of people is something that makes the Discworld one of the best rendered literary universes. I immediately wanted to read Death's next novel-length outing (as opposed to a cameo), Reaper Man, but I am sticking to my project of reading them chronologically.

I should also comment upon Pratchett's lack of chapter breaks, as I have seen this mentioned often in other reviews. The majority of the Discworld novels are written in continous prose but for someone who usually prefers relatively short chapters to read for a sense of achievement, I wouldn't say that Pratchett's lack of them concerns me (on the other hand, I have read books where I have been irritated by fifty page long chapters) as I have difficulty putting them down anyway without stressing out about the lack of an obvious stopping point.

This is my fantasy book chosen for Carl's Once Upon a Time challenge.

This and That...

This is a blog post about this and that, bits and bobs; more of an update really.

Firstly, The Little Stranger is on its way in the post to me and I am unbelievably excited (I don't think I've anticipated a book this much since the last three Harry Potter books). I pre-ordered it over a month ago online but had to cancel that order since it hadn't been dispatched yet and order through Waterstone's instead, who were offering it at a far cheaper price anyway and where I could also redeem my loyalty points. I am hoping it will arrive my Saturday's post...

Secondly, I managed to finish my book for book group before tonight's meeting. I'll review that over the next few days. I'm looking forward to finding out what we're reading next (we take it in turns to decide).

Thirdly, my library pile is decreasing although I have five books waiting collection (and four to return). One of the books I'll collect over the next few days is The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey, which I am hoping to read before the Orange Prize is announced on June 3rd. The other books I'm picking up are The Group by Mary McCarthy (this one has been on my radar for a while but I watched a Hay Festival interview with Sarah Waters and she said that she's currently re-reading it so I took the recommendation and requested it); The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa; People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks; and The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver (this one I am most excited about). I also renewed The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb so that I have more time to tackle it as its sheer size is somewhat daunting.

Also, my friend and I are tackling some classics that we have always meant to read but never have and next up is Brideshead Revisted by Evelyn Waugh for July 1st (even though, ahem, my friend still hasn't finished the previous book, Brighton Rock).

I still have three books (and another still to review) to read for Carl's Once Upon a Time Challenge : one fairy tale book, which is currently in progress, and two non-fiction books before Midsummer's Night (June 23rd).

I have also began to participate in the Shelfari discussion group Booktivity's monthly challenge to read a book with a specific category -and its derivatives- in the title. This coming month's category is "weather" and I was thinking of reading Nancy Mitford's Love in a Cold Climate or Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Leaf Storm.

So that will be one new book, ten library books, one book group book (decided tonight); one unread classic; three challenge books; one weather book ... to be read within the next 4-6 weeks, not to mention the books I already have waiting (and wanting) to be read. Seventeen books is manageable in that time limit, isn't it? Deviating from the list and not adding new books, however, is less achievable...

(Image courtesy of Amazon.co.uk)

The Blue Fox

I read about The Blue Fox by Sjon last week here and as it is based on Icelandic folklore I thought it would make an interesting read for the folklore section of Carl's Once Upon a Time Challenge so I hunted down a copy.

A surreal novella set in Iceland in the late 19th Century (translated from Icelandic) following two apparently separate stories that intersect in an unexpected way. There is Reverend Baldur who is hunting the elusive blue fox, a rich symbol in Icelandic folklore myth, and the herbalist, Fridrik, and his charge Abba, who has Down's Syndrome, and their fates are bound together. This is an unusual and thought-provoking read, especially upon the subject of Down's Syndrome and technology (how does destroying Down's Syndrome babies at birth in 19th Century Iceland differ from aborting them now?)

The sparseness of the first section, sometimes a page with no more than one line, is symbolic of the Icelandic landscape and the snow upon which the blue fox is hunted (the hunted and the hunter both camouflaged at times). An effective technique, this economy of words upon the page underscores the brevity yet poignancy of the tale. I was also interested in the effect editorially; Kamila Shamsie (or likely her Bloomsbury editors) does something similar in the Hiroshima section of Burnt Shadows, representing the flashing white light, and it is highly effective.

Without a prior knowledge of Icelandic/Norse folklore it was difficult to determine how this tale used it, embodied it, and adapted it, and the little research I attempted didn't get me very far; it is certainly a subject that I would like to read about more, given the chance. From what I did find out, the title holds a double-meaning: on one hand the blue fox is the subject of folk-tales, the offspring of a cat and a fox, but it also means an evil spirit or a sinister person, and both are represented within the novella. The Blue Fox is on the surface a simple, magical, tale but it is curious and has hidden depths, that with further knowledge would be further of re-examination. Furthermore, it is a favourite of Bjork's, which to me is an amusing blurb.

New Wine in Old Bottles

"I am all for putting new wine in old bottles, especially if the new wine makes the old bottles explode," wrote Angela Carter, which Ali Smith quotes in her introduction to Carter's Wise Children. This innovation of -and passion for- giving new readings to old texts is something Ali Smith does herself in Girl Meets Boy, a modern take on Ovid's telling of the Iphis tale -and joyful transformation- in his Metamorphoses. Ali Smith turns the myth, literary convention, gender and sexuality -myths or societal constructs?- on their head.

She frames her subversion in four chapters, alternately narrated by sisters Anthea and Imogen (Midge). For a short novella the character development in the sisters is startling and the subject matter expounds the concept of gender and sexuality as myths. Before the novella opens, Smith quotes from Judith Butler's groundbreaking text on gender theory, "Gender ought not to be construed as a stable identity ... rather, gender is an identity tenuously constituted in time."

Girl Meets Boy is part of the Canongate Myths Series, from which I have previously read The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood, another fine and fresh telling of a classic myth (that of Odysseus) but from the untold female persepective of his wife, Penelope. I had been meaning to read it for some time but reading Nymeth's enthusiastic review prompted me to do so now. The book was immensely readable, enjoyable and fits wonderfully well into my Once Upon a Time challenge and is one I am filing under mythology.

"[D]o myths spring fully formed from the imagination and the needs of a society ... as if they emerged from the imagination and the needs of a society, I said, as if they emerged from society's subconscious? Or are myths conscious creations by the various money-making forces? For istance, is advertising a new kind of myth-making? Do companies sell their water etc by telling us the right kind of persuasive myth? Is that why people who really don't need to buy something that's practically free still go out and buy bottles of it? Will they soon be thinking up a myth to sell us air? And do people, for instance, want to be thin because of a prevailing myth that thinness is more beautiful?"

By focusing upon corporate social responsibility -the Pure Highland Creative company Imogen and Anthea work for and their manufacture and marketing of Eau Caledonia- is an effective means of embodying the above quote within the narrative. It reminded me that Evian water is the word naive backwards. By the novella's end -and the events that lead up to it, which I won't disclose- Anthea and Imogen have their own brand of political activism, of feminism, and the fight for equal rights and gay rights.

Ali Smith has an interesting style, that isn't for everyone, but having read The Accidental and now this, I am definitely a fan; I am also pleased to be reading some Scottish Literature again as it has been a while. I love her interweaving of popular culture (Buffy features in Girl Meets Boy amidst other cultural references) and historical fact in a way that is casual, almost throwaway. Smith reminded me of Suffragism history lessons at school, where I learned about the Cat and Mouse Act (discussed but not named in the opening pages) where women protested in prison by starving themselves, were released and then watched until they ate again and were re-arrested... of Section 28 in the UK that disallowed "promotion of homosexuality" within schools and its repeal in Scotland in 2000 (and the resultant propaganda posters on buses) and the remainder of the UK in 2001 ... of knowing that Queen Victoria didn't illegalise lesbian sex because she said it didn't exist but not remembering how I came to know that in the first place ... These were all welcome recollections as they were things that should be at the forefront of my mind and not at the dusty back. It's a good writer who can draw out memories and repressed/suppressed emotion and ideology within their readers, as if they are sharing these memories with us; conversely, it a great achievement to be teaching these facts to a reader for the first time.

Short Story Weekends

The novels and children's fiction of Neil Gaiman I have read and would re-read and re-read again in an instant; his short stories, however, I have dipped into and back out again at random. Fragile Things has sat, a beautiful hardback that Gareth gave me for Christmas in 2006, (oh why oh why did I not have Neil sign it too when we went to The Graveyard Book reading and signing on Hallowe'en?) on the bedside table and the bookshelves in Glasgow and then in London and now lies beside me. I also have the book on audio with Neil Gaiman's own dulcet (and even sultry) tones reading; he makes a great reader and his voice has the rhythm and cadences to read his own eerie words, obviously he knows where to emphasise and where to pause and where to create suspense. For the Once Upon a Time Short Story Weekends challenge I thought that Fragile Things would be a perfect choice as Gaiman often mixes and blends elements of fairy tale, folklore, mythology and fantasy into his work. Besides, I am going home to Glasgow later this week for a long weekend and Gaiman as a travelling companion on my ipod nano will be better than the weight of the hardback in the hand luggage (along with the other book or two that I'll be packing). So, that was settled and I myself settled down to some reading along with his reading aloud.

Before you even reach Neil Gaiman's short stories in the collections, there is his introduction. No writer writes an introduction like Gaiman does: his introductions -mini introuductions to each and every short story- are as good as the stories themselves. It is joyful to read about the origins and inspirations of each story and the anecdotes provided about them. Gaiman's introductions are full of surprises: in Smoke and Mirrors Gaiman includes a story not included in the volume in the intoduction instead! He cheekily writes, "So for all of you who do read intoductions, here is the story I did not write [as a gift for friends who were marrying]" and then follows "The Wedding Present", which is a wonderfully creepy foreshadowing.

One of the things about Neil Gaiman that stands out, for me, is his love for writing and his dedication to his fans (what other writer spends hours at signings, until every last fan has been seen?) His introductions, his audio narrative of his work, his blog ... all are proof of this.

The first story in the volume is "A Study in Emerald" a pastiche of Arthur Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet where the rational world of Sherlock Holmes meets the irrational world of H.P. Lovecraft. Not having read Lovecraft I cannot say how faithful a depiction of his fictional universe, Cthulhu Mythos, Gaiman provides but his loyalty to -and cleaver tweaking of- 1880s Baker Street, London is concrete. I read A Study in Scarlet last month and it was fresh in my mind so I could easily determine Gaiman's influence and where he deviated from the original story into the myhthological universe set in London, England (as opposed to New England in Lovecraft), now known as Albion, ruled by the acient deities, The Great Old Ones, headed by the alien Queen Victoria. Having not, as yet, read all of the Sherlock Holmes volumes I did not fully grasp the twist ending but merely guessed at it ... having had my guess confirmed I can only marvel at the cleverness of Gaiman. I greatly admire literary borrowings and pastiches when they are done well and Gaiman excels at his attempt; "A Study in Emerald" rightly won the Hugo Award in 2004 for best short story.

Once Upon a Time...

... there was a girl who read books, blogged about them and completed challenges. With one thing and another (ahem, moving flat unexpectedly) I wasn't able to uphold my end of the R.I.P, challenge last year, despite fulfilling the reading part, so I am excited to approach Carl's Once Upon a Time (III) challenge this year.

I plan to embark on the Quest the Second challenge: read at least one book from each of the four categories (fantasy, fairy tale, folklore and mythology). In this quest you will be reading 4 books total: one fantasy, one folklore, one fairy tale, and one mythology. This proves to be one of the more difficult quests each year merely because of the need to classify each read and determine which books fit into which category. I ALSO plan to complete Quest the Fourth: read two non-fiction books, essay collections, etc. that treat any one or more of the four genres covered in this challenge, as well as participating in the Short Story Weekends! A heavy undertaking but one I look forward to with anticipation.

The challenge takes place between March 21st (yesterday) and June 20th so that is three months to immerse myself in some heavy fairy tale/fantasy/mythology/folklore reading. I have always had a strong interest in this genre, especially fairy tales and feminist reworkings. I studied Angela Carter for my Master's thesis and took an elective course in the Brothers Grimm and the History of the European Fairy Tale so I relish revisiting some of this work and building upon what I have already learned; I hope above all to learn more about Jungian analysis and its roots in the fairy tale tradition.

This challenge has come around on the first weekend of Spring, albeit not by mere serendipity, it IS apt: this umbrella genre of everything wispy, beautiful, enchanting with wings is very Spring-like... I see myself reading magical stories under a tree in one of London's many parks on several occasions this Spring. I am happy the sun is out and my reading is likely to reflect that anyway.

I am reluctant to tie myself down to any lists as I am inclined to revolt against any strict guidelines I set myself and change my mind over and over so I am going to choose books at random and see where they fit in the categories of the challenge. I imagine that Angela Carter, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman will feature, although they would mostly be re-reads, and perhaps a grown-up fairy tale from Persephone Books (I think I am correct in thinking that one of their Springtime books to be published, Making Conversation by Christine Longford is described as a modern-day fairy tale in the vein of Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day). Other than that, my inspiration for primary texts is non-existent just now ... my mind is blank so any suggestions based on my likes would be appreciated! As for the secondary material: I have numerous books on the genres in question, all of which look incredibly interesting so it will be difficult to restrain myself to two so I probably won't! I would like to read a lot of secondary material for this challenge as I already have a basis for study although I can never keep myself away from fiction, especially that containing fairy tale elements for long...