Lloyd Alexander
Sep. 22nd, 2014 09:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
foxinthestarsClose to two weeks since I posted, oops.
Posting of Evening Tide continues; Friday or Saturday I'll post the last bit of it. (Finally got some comments and am all high on praise, although I think I'm back in that place where I've lost perspective on just how fragging dark this story is...)
But anyway, last week I was to the public library and got me a stack of Lloyd Alexander novels. I had a fond childhood memory of reading "The Cat Who Wished To Be A Man," and in a used bookstore a year or so ago I had happened across "The Rope Trick" (one of the last novels in his oeuvre) and enjoyed it. I'd had a Prydain omnibus in my possession years ago but lost it without ever getting around to reading it, so when I found a used copy of "The Book of Three" I picked it up and read that.
The Prydain books of course are what Disney infamously butchered when they made The Black Cauldron, which I saw in its first run when I was little, and well, it seemed pretty awe-inspiring when I was five years old (literally, I looked up the release date; I would have been five or just possibly six when I saw it, and it was like edgy and controversial because it was rated PG for scary zombies and evil and shit and I'm surprised and thankful the folks even let me see it). When it eventually came out on video it turned out to be pretty meh, but maybe the childhood awe made me want to finally go to the source. Having started the series, the first book at least has kind of an odd, cursory quality to it, like the things that happen just happen without the kind of preparation and care that I'm used to seeing, but I still love Lloyd Alexander's stuff.
So, library trip. I got the next three Prydain books. I got "The Cat Who Wished..." and re-read it; it's still quite fun. I also randomly picked up "The Arkadians" and "The Iron Ring" but they're less of a priority.
I haven't yet touched the Westmark or Vesper Holly series. Anyone have any experience with those?
I am getting a bit self-conscious that none of my favorite fiction lately seems to have been written for adults...
ETA: Googling a little about the Black Cauldron Movie brought me this fun link, arguing that it was the Darkest Disney Movie Ever; I LOL'ed and became convinced that it might even be darker than Pinocchio (seriously, have you seen that lately? ::shivers::). BTW, Gurgi doesn't stay dead; even in this movie there was only so dark they would go.
Here's another link at Slate with a more serious and historical take on the film (although toward the end of the article it's important to remember that it was written before Frozen).
Posting of Evening Tide continues; Friday or Saturday I'll post the last bit of it. (Finally got some comments and am all high on praise, although I think I'm back in that place where I've lost perspective on just how fragging dark this story is...)
But anyway, last week I was to the public library and got me a stack of Lloyd Alexander novels. I had a fond childhood memory of reading "The Cat Who Wished To Be A Man," and in a used bookstore a year or so ago I had happened across "The Rope Trick" (one of the last novels in his oeuvre) and enjoyed it. I'd had a Prydain omnibus in my possession years ago but lost it without ever getting around to reading it, so when I found a used copy of "The Book of Three" I picked it up and read that.
The Prydain books of course are what Disney infamously butchered when they made The Black Cauldron, which I saw in its first run when I was little, and well, it seemed pretty awe-inspiring when I was five years old (literally, I looked up the release date; I would have been five or just possibly six when I saw it, and it was like edgy and controversial because it was rated PG for scary zombies and evil and shit and I'm surprised and thankful the folks even let me see it). When it eventually came out on video it turned out to be pretty meh, but maybe the childhood awe made me want to finally go to the source. Having started the series, the first book at least has kind of an odd, cursory quality to it, like the things that happen just happen without the kind of preparation and care that I'm used to seeing, but I still love Lloyd Alexander's stuff.
So, library trip. I got the next three Prydain books. I got "The Cat Who Wished..." and re-read it; it's still quite fun. I also randomly picked up "The Arkadians" and "The Iron Ring" but they're less of a priority.
I haven't yet touched the Westmark or Vesper Holly series. Anyone have any experience with those?
I am getting a bit self-conscious that none of my favorite fiction lately seems to have been written for adults...
ETA: Googling a little about the Black Cauldron Movie brought me this fun link, arguing that it was the Darkest Disney Movie Ever; I LOL'ed and became convinced that it might even be darker than Pinocchio (seriously, have you seen that lately? ::shivers::). BTW, Gurgi doesn't stay dead; even in this movie there was only so dark they would go.
Here's another link at Slate with a more serious and historical take on the film (although toward the end of the article it's important to remember that it was written before Frozen).
no subject
Date: 2014-09-22 05:47 pm (UTC)Funnily enough, Alexander did /way/ better at the big national/mythological issues with the Westmark trilogy, which is pretty much the French Revolution filtered through his own late-war deployment in WWII and view of what killing for a cause does to people. Possibly this is because that's his wife's own history, and she wasn't about to let him screw with it or gloss it over the way he did the (very very loosely interpreted) material from the Mabinogion in the Prydain series.
no subject
Date: 2014-09-22 06:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-23 10:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-23 10:34 pm (UTC)