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pretty_plantOne day, while I was reading one particular section of The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories, I was surprised to come across the name "Sylvia Townsend Warner". It was in a footnote in the Tom Brightwind's story and Clarke even quoted from "Kingdoms of Elfin". I did not realize that before because I never pay attention to where any quote comes from. Because that short story was published before JSMN was published, I can imagine that Clarke was influenced by Sylvia's Townsend Warner's Kingdoms of Elfin.
One sentence in "Kingdoms of Elfin" particularly stood out to me is "...fairies of Ireland are reowned for the lice in their long hair." It was a small detail but while reading it, I wondered whether Clarke was somehow influenced by it when she described how a fairy plucked lice out of John Uskglass's hair.
I have talked enough about JSMN. I like Kingdoms of Elfin as much as I like Lolly Willowes. The stories are sad and unsettling and all end abruptly. The endings are unexpected and can be so brutal that sometimes I felt slightly unsure about what I had just read.
Warner was a great writer, masterful in her prose and tone of the text. The topics she regularly touched in the book were mortality, love, desire, religions and class. Her fairies' society seemed to be inspired by that of humans but their longevity and detachment set them apart from humans. But human writings always talk about humans even when we talk about something else entirely.
My favorite short stories in the collection are "The blameless triangle" and "Winged Creatures".
(By the way, when I was reading reviews of Kingdoms of Elfins, I came across one that pointed out to me that Jame Sutherland, the name of the scholar who opened Ladies of Grace Adieu, was the main character of Foxcastle from Kingdoms of Elfin. I cannot believe that I missed that reference. You can find that review here: http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/the-strange-horizons-book-club-kingdoms-of-elfin-by-sylvia-townsend-warner/.
I probably need to pay more attention to characters' names later on.)
One sentence in "Kingdoms of Elfin" particularly stood out to me is "...fairies of Ireland are reowned for the lice in their long hair." It was a small detail but while reading it, I wondered whether Clarke was somehow influenced by it when she described how a fairy plucked lice out of John Uskglass's hair.
I have talked enough about JSMN. I like Kingdoms of Elfin as much as I like Lolly Willowes. The stories are sad and unsettling and all end abruptly. The endings are unexpected and can be so brutal that sometimes I felt slightly unsure about what I had just read.
Warner was a great writer, masterful in her prose and tone of the text. The topics she regularly touched in the book were mortality, love, desire, religions and class. Her fairies' society seemed to be inspired by that of humans but their longevity and detachment set them apart from humans. But human writings always talk about humans even when we talk about something else entirely.
My favorite short stories in the collection are "The blameless triangle" and "Winged Creatures".
(By the way, when I was reading reviews of Kingdoms of Elfins, I came across one that pointed out to me that Jame Sutherland, the name of the scholar who opened Ladies of Grace Adieu, was the main character of Foxcastle from Kingdoms of Elfin. I cannot believe that I missed that reference. You can find that review here: http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/the-strange-horizons-book-club-kingdoms-of-elfin-by-sylvia-townsend-warner/.
I probably need to pay more attention to characters' names later on.)
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Date: 2019-08-08 07:58 pm (UTC)