John G
The Living Force
A friend of mine from my very first internet forum (originally pre-internet) whom I rather synchronously just found again recommended this novel to me. She was the one who made me realize Jung wasn't Oriental and was actually more famous than the guy who wrote the personality book I had (amazing how naive one can be in the old days and the current days are just tomorrow's old days).
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little,_Big
Little, Big: or, The Fairies' Parliament is a modern fantasy novel by John Crowley, published in 1981. It won the World Fantasy Award in 1982.
Little, Big (subtitled The Fairies' Parliament) is the epic story of the Drinkwater family and their relationship with the mostly obscured world of Faery. It is set in and around their eccentric country house, called Edgewood, in New England somewhere north of "the City" (clearly a version of New York City). The story is dreamlike, quiet, and meandering, spanning a hundred years of the intertwined family trees of the Drinkwaters and their relations - from the turn of the twentieth century to a sparsely-described dystopian future America ruled by a sinister despot. The magical elements are subtle rather than overt, with only occasional glimpses of the fairies themselves, although their presence is felt throughout.
One of the recurring motifs in the work is the sense of the disparity between the insides and the outsides of things; that is, how large insides somehow fit into small outsides. The Edgewood house is certainly the most obvious of these. The memory palaces of Ariel Hawksquill also point to the inside-outside, little-big motif.
Crowley has mentioned some of the main elements that came together to form this work. One of these is the image of Smoky tying up the ends of his life to go to his uncertain future at the Drinkwater house. Another is the idea of a huge multi-generational family and their intimate ties with faerie.
One other recurring theme is the idea of generation, in this case, human procreation. This theme is illustrated by both the sheer size of the Drinkwater clan and the constant emphasis on family life. A thread of incest also becomes apparent when George Mouse sleeps with his second cousin Sophie Drinkwater. Though never stated flatly, there is heavy implication that George Mouse is Sylvie's father, in addition to being her one-time lover.
Seasons affect the mood of the book throughout. Auberon tries to relive, and forget, his life with Sylvie by remembering the seasons. The whole book has the feel of going through the seasons. It starts in the Spring, then moves onto Summer where everyone is happy and has few worries. There is a story about a mouse that doesn't know what winter is, and, metaphorically, the characters are not prepared for Winter, either. Then the feel gets slowly darker as Auberon loses himself to alcohol in the story's Winter. In the end, Spring is swept back in.
The first link below is the novel recommendation, the rest are "subtle magical" clues for my approaching winter not the novel's.
http://aantares.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/3536008334/m/755101351?r=346104361#346104361
http://aantares.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/3536008334/m/4821086855?r=783102351#783102351
http://aantares.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/3536008334/m/4821086855?r=149104351#149104351
http://aantares.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/3536008334/m/33210479?r=980107541#980107541
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little,_Big
Little, Big: or, The Fairies' Parliament is a modern fantasy novel by John Crowley, published in 1981. It won the World Fantasy Award in 1982.
Little, Big (subtitled The Fairies' Parliament) is the epic story of the Drinkwater family and their relationship with the mostly obscured world of Faery. It is set in and around their eccentric country house, called Edgewood, in New England somewhere north of "the City" (clearly a version of New York City). The story is dreamlike, quiet, and meandering, spanning a hundred years of the intertwined family trees of the Drinkwaters and their relations - from the turn of the twentieth century to a sparsely-described dystopian future America ruled by a sinister despot. The magical elements are subtle rather than overt, with only occasional glimpses of the fairies themselves, although their presence is felt throughout.
One of the recurring motifs in the work is the sense of the disparity between the insides and the outsides of things; that is, how large insides somehow fit into small outsides. The Edgewood house is certainly the most obvious of these. The memory palaces of Ariel Hawksquill also point to the inside-outside, little-big motif.
Crowley has mentioned some of the main elements that came together to form this work. One of these is the image of Smoky tying up the ends of his life to go to his uncertain future at the Drinkwater house. Another is the idea of a huge multi-generational family and their intimate ties with faerie.
One other recurring theme is the idea of generation, in this case, human procreation. This theme is illustrated by both the sheer size of the Drinkwater clan and the constant emphasis on family life. A thread of incest also becomes apparent when George Mouse sleeps with his second cousin Sophie Drinkwater. Though never stated flatly, there is heavy implication that George Mouse is Sylvie's father, in addition to being her one-time lover.
Seasons affect the mood of the book throughout. Auberon tries to relive, and forget, his life with Sylvie by remembering the seasons. The whole book has the feel of going through the seasons. It starts in the Spring, then moves onto Summer where everyone is happy and has few worries. There is a story about a mouse that doesn't know what winter is, and, metaphorically, the characters are not prepared for Winter, either. Then the feel gets slowly darker as Auberon loses himself to alcohol in the story's Winter. In the end, Spring is swept back in.
The first link below is the novel recommendation, the rest are "subtle magical" clues for my approaching winter not the novel's.
http://aantares.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/3536008334/m/755101351?r=346104361#346104361
http://aantares.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/3536008334/m/4821086855?r=783102351#783102351
http://aantares.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/3536008334/m/4821086855?r=149104351#149104351
http://aantares.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/3536008334/m/33210479?r=980107541#980107541
