The British Library's Fantasy exhibition ends on Sunday, so if you're able to get to London it had better be now. It's a little disappointing as it focuses on quite a narrow patch (faerie-filled, English language, heroic) of the vast field that is fantasy literature. The curators should try dipping into Borges's Antología de la Literatura Fantástica, Alberto Manguel's Black Water collections, or The Irreal Reader. Just because fantasy gaming presents such a restricted view of the genre is no reason why the British Library should. Still, it's worth a trip.
As part of the exhibition's programme of events there was an interview with Alan Moore (pictured above) and Susanna Clarke (below), both giants of the fantasy field. You can watch that interview here.
Asked in another interview by Pádraig Ó Méalóid about belief in fairies and magic, Alan Moore said:
"I do not believe they are real outside the world of ideas and the mind, but then they have no need to be real beyond that realm, because in that realm they’re completely real, and they can affect us profoundly, as with any of the other denizens of the imaginary terrain, the angels and demons and monsters."
That's exactly how I feel about fantastic ideas, and if you follow the whole discussion you may notice it touches on a lot of the same territory as my Mirabilis comic. Hardly surprising, really, as Moore was one of my biggest inspirations in that medium.
Susanna Clarke spoke to Alan Moore about his Lost Girls comic back in 2007, but that's behind a Telegraph paywall and I'd sooner take a left-hand path in Jewelspider wood than go there.
Unless you are feeling sinister of course...
ReplyDeleteIronic that in real life it's the paths veering right that bother me. (The Telegraph not quite as bad as the Mail in that regard.)
DeleteI won't be able to make it to this exhibition, unless it tours the provinces, but thanks for sharing, Dave, and in particular I love that quote from Alan Moore.
ReplyDeleteMagic spells are real, of course, they are called stories.
And as for Fairies; as children of imagination, are we not their cousins? (Not that I'd presume to impose unexpectedly upon the hospitality of the Fey...)
I find more gold in the words of Alan Moore than in all the treasure-stores of Ellesland, John, and there's the added bonus that it won't turn into a handful of acorns come the sunrise.
DeleteHear, hear!
DeleteYour comment about the Fairy treasure, though, made me think - what kind of dangerous, but also wonderful, 'Faraway Tree' might grow from one of those acorns, if a farm boy or girl found it after the adventurers had in disgust discarded them?
Call it a story-seed!
I'd play in that adventure, John. Although the kind of tree that grows from a Legend fairy seed is going to be more Grimm than Blyton...
DeleteThanks Dave!
DeleteI am imagining that "Sir Blyton Grimm" is a vassal of Aldred, Baron of Gorburn, and his estate lies upon the edge of a vast and tangled forest, which wasn't there yesterday; although the church where the marriage of Sir Blyton's daughter was being celebrated, was...
Just tell me when you're ready to run that, John. I'll be there! Actually, my old Tekumel co-referee and Mortal Combat RPG designer Steve Foster is now living in Liverpool. He was the original Magister Cynewulf, so he might like to join in too.
DeleteThanks Dave! I shall delve further into the mysterious disappearance of Lady Edith Grimm and her bridal party (into the Faery Wood) and report back...
DeletePlease drop me a line in the meantime, if your travels bring you north to seek counsel with Magister Cynewulf!
I shall indeed, John. I was on a call with Steve earlier this evening and he showed me the view from his window -- the very pool, as far as I could tell, from which the city gets its name.
Delete