skygiants | (no subject)

So I just read Here There Be Dragons, which is the one where a young J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams become the guardians of a fantasy universe, place a descendent of King Arthur on the throne, fight an evil overlord, and save the day!!!

...technically all that is a spoiler, especially the parts about how the protagonists are the young Inklings, which is a BIG LAST CHAPTER REVEAL, but, like, why would you read this book if you didn't want to know if C.S. Lewis turns temporarily evil in the middle? There is no reason.

C.S. Lewis does turn temporarily evil in the middle, for the record, although 'evil' in this case seems to translate to 'he was briefly impetuous and made a ill-thought-out but well-meant decision that one time.' EVIL!!! I actually got confused and thought C.S. Lewis was instead the pompous and sarcastic one who made friends with a talking badger with a quaint accent and food obsession a la Redwall, which seemed to make more thematic sense in terms of the context of his later writings, but no, that was Charles Williams, which confuses me because as far as I know he never wrote about talking badgers at all. (But I've actually never read anything by Charles Williams, which may be why I had trouble identifying him accurately. Should I?)

I mean, I'm pretty sure the reason that the Inklings are the protagonists of this book at all is because James A. Owen was like "I want to write the kind of fantasy that basically puts Middle Earth and Narnia in a blender, but ... how can I do it without people calling me derivative ...? OH OK OK I GOT IT, I'll set it up so that Tolkien and Lewis were both being derivative of me!" Brilliant! Now no one could possibly object to the talking badger, or the virtuous dwarves and elves and the evil goblins and trolls, or the ominous shadow-people, or chain of magical islands at the end of the world or the Rings of Power OR ANYTHING. My complaints have neatly been circumvented. His plan is sheer elegance in its simplicity.

Things I can (and will) complain about:
- a big chunk of the plot focuses on Tolkien not having adequately studied all the languages he was supposed to when he was a student, which, HAHAHAHAHAHA
- Magwitch is an evil Dickens character! MAGWITCH. As in, the hidden benefactor in Great Expectations, where half the point is to recognize his inner virtue despite his misfortunes ...?
- H.G. Wells is also a magical guardian, working to help put the rightful king on the throne! I'm not sure James A. Owen knows that H.G. Wells was an ardent Socialist, but if he does know, he SUPER doesn't care
- OK I admit I did laugh though when they're like "J.M. Barrie was a magical guardian but he basically just fucked off to hang around with the Llewelyn Davies family twenty years ago and never came back. DAMMIT BARRIE!"
- there is one female character in the book! She is of course the center of a love triangle between the long-lost king and Briefly Evil C.S. Lewis.
- there is (I think?) one character who is not white in the book! Guess who's also the one character who's killed off for real during the final battle?
- ...though I guess also a whole bunch of fauns who have worked closely with the main cast get literally eaten by wendigos in the middle of the book and no one really seems to care
- also, why wendigos, when literally everything else is taken straight out of Tolkien or Lewis or Arthuriana or Welsh mythology and there is basically no reference to the Americas at all? WHY NOT I GUESS
- at the end we get a list of other famous authors who have also taken on the role of Guardian Of This Fantasy Land. "Much of the cultural and scientific history of the entire human race!" says the narration, meaning of course LITERALLY NOBODY outside of Europe and North America. Mary Shelley is the only woman listed.

I don't think I'll be reading any of the sequels, but I did read a summary of the next one on Wikipedia! In summary form, it's HILARIOUS. "There, they are attacked by the descendants of the failed Roanoke exploration, led by Richard Burton. Escaping him, the protagonists reach Neverland, where Daedalus reveals to them that the Underneath is divided into nine districts (as in Dante's Inferno), and asks them to become children themselves to better understand Hugh the Iron and William the Pig, the sons of Jason and the original Lost Boys." Okay! Sure! I'm not sure how Hugh the Iron and William the Pig can be the sons of Jason (I'm assuming the Argonaut) and ALL the Lost Boys, it seems biologically improbable to say the least, but I can roll with it.

Crossposts: http://bookelfe.livejournal.com/410260.html

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

luzula

...er. This book sounds pretty weird and not all that good, but I can see how you felt compelled to read it. It's like I felt compelled to read the SF book where Peter Kropotkin travels in time.

From:

the_rck

I tried to read this book once and couldn't get beyond the first few chapters. It's a pity because I thought it could be fun. It just really wasn't.

From:

cofax7

Sounds like a white literary version of Sleepy Hollow, kind of...

From:

aella_irene

Oh, wow.

I'm not sure if I want to read it just to scream "WTF?" or if my "WTF"-ometer would give up in despair.

From:

gramarye1971

I have to say, for all that the book sounds like a multi-car pile up, your review of it combined with the Cha Song Joo icon has had me giggling for the past few minutes. ^_^

From:

sanguinity

In summary form, this first book is also hilarious. AS IT SO HAPPENS. And I can confidently say that it is one of those books that I will best enjoy via other people's reviews of it. So thank you for supplying such a review!

And I am so fed up with the cultural appropriation of w------s. There are rules about when you talk about them, how you talk about them -- my NAS prof calls back home for a weather report before she'll even mention them in class -- and mainstream appropriation of them never ever respects those rules. :-(

From:

genarti

I'm sad this sounds like such a mess, because the one-sentence summary version is great! All I knew about it was "The Inklings -- but we're not gonna tell you they're the Inklings for a while -- MEET REAL MAGIC which presumably inspires them somehow in later life," which is a great premise.

But all the details -- wow. WOW. That Tolkien plot point alone would have me bouncing off the thing, let alone all the racefail and lack of ladies and love triangling and did I mention racefail. And it sounds as if the fantasy world is somewhat lacking in nuance and numinousness also. Sigh.

From:

sovay

Edited Date: 2015-04-15 06:42 pm (UTC)

From:

rymenhild

Tolkien not having adequately studied all the languages he was supposed to when he was a student

*FACEPALM*

From:

graycardinal

I am reminded of a sig-file quotation a friend has been known to use:

[pause, rummage, cut-and-paste]

"It is so far off the Weirdometer that it needs its own zip code."
-- Esther Friesner

From:

skygiants

Sometimes, you just have to know! It's like how I had to read that 'Jane Eyre fights crime' book, which ALSO tragically failed to live up to its fanfic potential.

From:

skygiants

It was a perfect storm of flat and inexplicable!

From:

skygiants

But SO MUCH LESS FUN. >:( Not even any good fish-out-of-water jokes! Mostly just smug commentary about how Oxford is better than Cambridge.

From:

skygiants

I mean, while the WTF-ometer was certainlyd high, I'm not sure that's two hours of my life I really needed to spend. Wikipedia was made for times like this!

From:

skygiants

There are VERY FEW situations in which Cha Song Joo's 'u mad?' face is inappropriate. *serene*

From:

skygiants

I seriously don't understand why they were there! The choice to use them is both horrifically appropriative and narratively inexplicable! He's taking directly from the western fantasy canon for literally everything else, THERE'S LITERALLY NO REASON HE COULDN'T HAVE JUST USED WEREWOLVES.

From:

skygiants

It's such a hilarious Tolkien-blender of a fantasyworld -- and, like, I kept comparing to Fionavar, which is also certainly a hilarious Tolkien-blender of a fantasyworld, but whatever else you can say about GGK, Fionavar does have depth and emotional nuance and makes internal sense. This, really not so much.

I think my favorite part is when it's revealed that the entire king-choosing Parliament have been replaced by clockwork card people FOR YEARS and nobody noticed, because it's just so ... emblematic ... of the way the world is put together ...

From:

skygiants

I think I might've first heard of the books when someone requested them for Yuletide; I'd be willing to bet money this is one of the cases where the fanfic is FAR better than the canon.

Hmmm, thanks for the link, this is relevant data on Charles Williams! I feel like I probably ought to read at least one of his, but maybe I should actually read some of Lewis' non-Narnia stuff first.

From:

skygiants

IT DIDN'T SEEM IMPORTANT TO HIM AT THE TIME. The text would have us know.

But it's OK, now he knows and will NEVER fail to study his languages ... again .......?

From:

sovay

I think I might've first heard of the books when someone requested them for Yuletide; I'd be willing to bet money this is one of the cases where the fanfic is FAR better than the canon.

Please rec what you find! I want to read the fantastic adventures of the Inklings in another world, but not the ones you describe!

but maybe I should actually read some of Lewis' non-Narnia stuff first.

Do not read That Hideous Strength (1945)! Out of the Silent Planet (1938) is fantastic strange science fantasy. I do not remember Perelandra (1943) as luminously as

rushthatspeaks, but I have very positive memories of it. I cannot better sum up my reactions to That Hideous Strength than a previous DW-comment to

phi: what the fuck severed possessed head evil scientists with stupid acronym Merlin misogyny what. I've never even been able to make myself re-read it, just to analyze what the fuck. The prospect hurts too much. It's dreadful.

Edited (aaaagh, italics) Date: 2015-04-15 10:04 pm (UTC)

From:

marginaliana

Wow, this sounds amazing. Amazingly what, I'm not sure. But amazing.

From:

kd7sov

I think I read that once. Or possibly something else with the same basic premise, as I remember literally nothing about it except that it involved Young Lewis and Young Tolkien, whose identities as such were supposed to be vaguely non-obvious, and who had something to do with magic and/or prophecy.

Clearly not a book that made a huge impression on me.

From:

skygiants

That was probably this book! The magic prophecy dictating that the destined one will do the something or other, elves, DRAGONS. Yep.

From:

skygiants

It's certainly a thing! A thing it certainly is.

From:

skygiants

Oh, man, don't say things like that, you'll trigger the part of my brain that insists on finding literary bombs of WTFery and throwing myself on them and then I will have to read it. @___@

From:

sovay

Oh, man, don't say things like that, you'll trigger the part of my brain that insists on finding literary bombs of WTFery and throwing myself on them and then I will have to read it.

. . . MOVE ALONG NOTHING TO SEE HERE BUSINESS AS USUAL DOO DE DOO DE DOO.

From:

pedanther

Your first two paragraphs sum up everything I previously knew about this book. I had thought that I wanted to read it. Now I know better, for which I thank you.

Charles Williams is on my list to try out at some point, if only because several authors I like a great deal have cited him as an influence, but having read sovay's link I might be wise to reconsider that, too. He might turn out to be one of those cases where the writers he inspired reached greater heights than he did himself.

From:

aella_irene

I seem to recall friends whispering in hushed tones of That Hideous Strength as the one which contains a Fat Evil Prostitute. I think they were wishing they had never picked it up. I can't remember whether it was also the one with an obvious penis metaphor, that Lewis's brother tried to burn after his death, before someone snatched it off the bonfire.

From:

skygiants

It's possible! It's often interesting to read that stuff, I think, though, even if it's lost something with the transition of time -- I think I probably will end up reading at least something of his. (It will at the very least probably be better than the Imaginarium Geographica.)