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Mar. 29th, 2018 06:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsI think I just got my last read out of my childhood copy of Carol Kendall's The Gammage Cup -- the front cover has already fallen off, and the next page is soon to follow -- which I've had about as long as I can remember, though I haven't reread it in about ten years.
The Gammage Cup is a highly Tolkien-inspired middle-grade fantasy about about a community of small, plucky Definitely Not Hobbits, who live in a tragically conformist village inside a secluded valley. (Definitely resonance here with whatevewithanapple mentioned the other day about kid's books written in a certain era and The Dangers Of Conformity Means Communism.)
The main plot concerns a band of misfits and artists who uncover evidence that the ANCESTRAL MUSHROOM ENEMIES of the Definitely Not Hobbits are planning to come through the mountains and attack. Alas, instead of heeding their warnings, the conformist villagers throw a hissy fit about the fact that the misfits and artists like to write in non-approved poetic forms and paint their doors non-approved colors, and kick them out of the village, where they must a.) build their own artist's colony and b.) also save the village from the invaders, using their magical swords that glow whengoblins Ancestral Mushroom Enemies approach!
...on a reread, I have some Qualms about the fact that the triumphant conclusion revolves around a pacifist people rediscovering the art of warfare and slaughtering every single last one of their ancestral enemies, without any attempt at communication, and taking extra care to ensure that they can't escape the way they came.
HOWEVER, I still love Our Heroine Muggles, who is neither an artist nor a poet, but just a simple Definitely Not Hobbit who enjoys the color orange and is bummed that her neighbors won't allow her to wear an eye-searing sash in peace if she so chooses!
As a result, she accompanies the exiles on their journey, which is great because it turns out they would all literally die without her.
THE ARTISTS: Ah, freedom, away from the confinement of the village! Now we can spend all day doodling and writing blank verse -
MUGGLES: Right, sure, yes, after we have a house? We should have a house.
THE ARTISTS: Right! OK! Yes! We'll build a house! ... for a house we should find rocks I guess? ... huh, what an interestingly-shaped rock, maybe I'll write a poem about it .....? What were we doing again?
MUGGLES: ...look, I'm just going to make a chore roster.
Doing all the emotional labor for a Colony of Free-Spirited Artists honestly doesn't sound like a good time, but I appreciate that this is the heroism that The Gammage Cup chooses to celebrate! The best parts of the book are all the moments when Muggles just thinks through artist's colony survival logistics and DESPAIRS, like, 'ok, we've got to do laundry - and eventually our clothes are going to run out - and then we'll have to make more - for which we'll need cloth - for which we need thread - SHIT WE DON'T HAVE A SPINNING WHEEL, WHY ARE WE SO UNSUSTAINABLE.'
I am also very fond of Muggles' love interest Mingy, the town's angry, petty socialist accountant.
LOCAL POLITICIANS: Mingy! why are you so stingy! You complain every time we want to use the town's funds for public works projects, like painting people's houses!
MINGY: Because if we use all the money on painting houses there will be no money left for the SOCIAL SAFETY NET, assholes! UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE FOR ALL!
Then he runs off with the others and is immediately like "let's never have gold in our artist's colony, money is the root of all evil."
Eventually the time comes that the artists have to send someone to do the extremely dangerous task of sneaking into Mushroom Person territory to spy on them; everyone volunteers, and they ask Muggles to pick who will go. Muggles, no hesitation: "Definitely I am sending Mingy into this extremely dangerous task! because, unlike the rest of you, he WILL NOT GET DISTRACTED, and therefore will PROBABLY BE FINE." Romance!
The Gammage Cup is a highly Tolkien-inspired middle-grade fantasy about about a community of small, plucky Definitely Not Hobbits, who live in a tragically conformist village inside a secluded valley. (Definitely resonance here with what
evewithanapple mentioned the other day about kid's books written in a certain era and The Dangers Of Conformity Means Communism.) The main plot concerns a band of misfits and artists who uncover evidence that the ANCESTRAL MUSHROOM ENEMIES of the Definitely Not Hobbits are planning to come through the mountains and attack. Alas, instead of heeding their warnings, the conformist villagers throw a hissy fit about the fact that the misfits and artists like to write in non-approved poetic forms and paint their doors non-approved colors, and kick them out of the village, where they must a.) build their own artist's colony and b.) also save the village from the invaders, using their magical swords that glow when
...on a reread, I have some Qualms about the fact that the triumphant conclusion revolves around a pacifist people rediscovering the art of warfare and slaughtering every single last one of their ancestral enemies, without any attempt at communication, and taking extra care to ensure that they can't escape the way they came.
HOWEVER, I still love Our Heroine Muggles, who is neither an artist nor a poet, but just a simple Definitely Not Hobbit who enjoys the color orange and is bummed that her neighbors won't allow her to wear an eye-searing sash in peace if she so chooses!
As a result, she accompanies the exiles on their journey, which is great because it turns out they would all literally die without her.
THE ARTISTS: Ah, freedom, away from the confinement of the village! Now we can spend all day doodling and writing blank verse -
MUGGLES: Right, sure, yes, after we have a house? We should have a house.
THE ARTISTS: Right! OK! Yes! We'll build a house! ... for a house we should find rocks I guess? ... huh, what an interestingly-shaped rock, maybe I'll write a poem about it .....? What were we doing again?
MUGGLES: ...look, I'm just going to make a chore roster.
Doing all the emotional labor for a Colony of Free-Spirited Artists honestly doesn't sound like a good time, but I appreciate that this is the heroism that The Gammage Cup chooses to celebrate! The best parts of the book are all the moments when Muggles just thinks through artist's colony survival logistics and DESPAIRS, like, 'ok, we've got to do laundry - and eventually our clothes are going to run out - and then we'll have to make more - for which we'll need cloth - for which we need thread - SHIT WE DON'T HAVE A SPINNING WHEEL, WHY ARE WE SO UNSUSTAINABLE.'
I am also very fond of Muggles' love interest Mingy, the town's angry, petty socialist accountant.
LOCAL POLITICIANS: Mingy! why are you so stingy! You complain every time we want to use the town's funds for public works projects, like painting people's houses!
MINGY: Because if we use all the money on painting houses there will be no money left for the SOCIAL SAFETY NET, assholes! UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE FOR ALL!
Then he runs off with the others and is immediately like "let's never have gold in our artist's colony, money is the root of all evil."
Eventually the time comes that the artists have to send someone to do the extremely dangerous task of sneaking into Mushroom Person territory to spy on them; everyone volunteers, and they ask Muggles to pick who will go. Muggles, no hesitation: "Definitely I am sending Mingy into this extremely dangerous task! because, unlike the rest of you, he WILL NOT GET DISTRACTED, and therefore will PROBABLY BE FINE." Romance!
