I love this piece David. I am a lover of mythology and have created much art with mythological themes, particularly those centering women and goddesses. I love it all though and passed that love on to my children, believing that fairy stories and myths are so enriching to human lives. Mythology has accompanied me through my life and sometimes helped me through difficult times. I appreciate your explanation about Tolkien and his ideas about imagination, fairy stories and the Secondary World, and about Phillip Pullman's approach. I have my copy of The Rose Field waiting to be read. Thank you.
As for "The Rose Field" may I suggest a sustained reading period is the most rewarding. Not a book to be consumed in small morsels or a couple of pages before switching the light off.
Having loved the first five of Pullman's books I struggled with "The Rose Field", probably because I read it at a gallop because I wanted to know how it all ended. I felt flat when I finished it, so will be trying again over the summer.
Thanks for the recommendation and link which I'll follow up. I like your suggestion about The Rose Field. I probably would have started with it as a bedtime read, so your warning is timely. Being well into retirement I'm mostly over the feeling that settling down for a good read during the day is rather sinful!
Like many of my contemporaries my introduction to fantasy was the Narnia books and as a child I had no idea that they were an extended Christian allegory. I had an illustrated copy of "The Last Battle" and the illustration of them all standing at the door while a huge hand reached out and crushed the sun was spine-chilling and made a huge impression on me. "The Hobbit" was a tenth birthday present in 1957 but for some reason I don't remember I didn't read it until a couple of years later by which time the local library had "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy and I powered through them all in one large gulp. Without the reassuring immersion in these secondary worlds I think there have been times when reality could have become overwhelming for me.
I came to Narnia after Tolkien. I read the Hobbit when I was 9 and one other friend at school had also enjoyed it. He told me of LOTR in 1957 and I went to the Library for Vol 1. That read and the Fellowship had broken up and I went after Vol 2 which was out. But Vol 3 was in so I went for that. So my abiding early memories of LOTR was the breaking of the Fellowship followed by Pippin riding off to Minas Tirith with Gandald after the Palantir incidenw (Which was in Vol 2) It took a while to get the sequences right but I managed to do so. When I was 13 I made a point of reading LOTR once a year and became rather familiar with it. I read Lewis's "Space Trilogy" before I came to Narnia.
Cool! Thanks for describing that lecture by Tolkein. I read it in it's printed form about 8 years ago, but I didn't take research notes and have struggled for years to track it down again!
I love this piece David. I am a lover of mythology and have created much art with mythological themes, particularly those centering women and goddesses. I love it all though and passed that love on to my children, believing that fairy stories and myths are so enriching to human lives. Mythology has accompanied me through my life and sometimes helped me through difficult times. I appreciate your explanation about Tolkien and his ideas about imagination, fairy stories and the Secondary World, and about Phillip Pullman's approach. I have my copy of The Rose Field waiting to be read. Thank you.
Thanks for the comment Sheryl. Maybe I should recommend my "The Song of Middle-earth: J R R Tolkien Themes, Symbols and Myths" - see https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-song-of-middle-earth-j-r-r-tolkiens-themes-symbols-and-myths-david-harvey?variant=32229039341602 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Song_of_Middle_Earth
As for "The Rose Field" may I suggest a sustained reading period is the most rewarding. Not a book to be consumed in small morsels or a couple of pages before switching the light off.
Having loved the first five of Pullman's books I struggled with "The Rose Field", probably because I read it at a gallop because I wanted to know how it all ended. I felt flat when I finished it, so will be trying again over the summer.
A sustained read as I suggested to Sheryl. I must say I was anticipating how it would work out and it seemed to take an age getting there.
Indeed it did!
Thanks for the recommendation and link which I'll follow up. I like your suggestion about The Rose Field. I probably would have started with it as a bedtime read, so your warning is timely. Being well into retirement I'm mostly over the feeling that settling down for a good read during the day is rather sinful!
Like many of my contemporaries my introduction to fantasy was the Narnia books and as a child I had no idea that they were an extended Christian allegory. I had an illustrated copy of "The Last Battle" and the illustration of them all standing at the door while a huge hand reached out and crushed the sun was spine-chilling and made a huge impression on me. "The Hobbit" was a tenth birthday present in 1957 but for some reason I don't remember I didn't read it until a couple of years later by which time the local library had "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy and I powered through them all in one large gulp. Without the reassuring immersion in these secondary worlds I think there have been times when reality could have become overwhelming for me.
Thanks for that comment Aroha.
I came to Narnia after Tolkien. I read the Hobbit when I was 9 and one other friend at school had also enjoyed it. He told me of LOTR in 1957 and I went to the Library for Vol 1. That read and the Fellowship had broken up and I went after Vol 2 which was out. But Vol 3 was in so I went for that. So my abiding early memories of LOTR was the breaking of the Fellowship followed by Pippin riding off to Minas Tirith with Gandald after the Palantir incidenw (Which was in Vol 2) It took a while to get the sequences right but I managed to do so. When I was 13 I made a point of reading LOTR once a year and became rather familiar with it. I read Lewis's "Space Trilogy" before I came to Narnia.
Cool! Thanks for describing that lecture by Tolkein. I read it in it's printed form about 8 years ago, but I didn't take research notes and have struggled for years to track it down again!