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Alan Garner

Started by holyzombiejesus, October 31, 2021, 03:52:39 PM

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holyzombiejesus

Someone recommended his latest, Treacle Walker,  to me earlier and said he was one of the UK's best writers. I liked a couple of his books when I was at school but been put off by reading them later in life as I am an adult and he writes about magic and stuff like that. Then again, I've been exclusively reading horror for the last month so guess I shouldn't feel so hamstrung by a search for supposed 'literary worth'. Anyway, thoughts on AG (and restricting yourself to proper books)?

Inspector Norse

I read his early novels as a young teenager and would really like to revisit them as an adult with a deeper knowledge and understanding of the ideas and themes he writes about, and the deep connections to local history and folklore, myth and legend, psychogeography and all that. I remember too seeing a production of Elidor (which he first wrote as a play before adapting into a novel) when I was young which made a big impression.
His recent wartime memoir Where Shall We Run To? is the only one of his more recent works I've read but I liked it very much.

Ray Travez

Read The Weirdstone of Brisingamen a few times as a kid. I liked it then, but I reckon I'd fuckin hate it now. Even the title makes me itch.

chabrol

Breaking my lurker status to reply here as I wrote my MA dissertation on Garner's television adaptations of his own The Owl Service and Red Shift which are, particularly in the latter case, great works of modernist television making. I have a huge passion for his work, and few writers have had such a big impact on me.

That said, I prefer his work from The Owl Service onwards; the first three novels (particularly Elidor) are wonderful and rich works of low fantasy, drawing on a genuine sense of place (i.e Cheshire) and its folklore that most works in the genre don't bother with. But I'm not a huge fan of the genre in general. But there's a new richness and sense of reality from The Owl Service onwards- that novel and Red Shift are remarkable in their exploring of themes of class war, sexuality, exploitation, the repetitions of history, psychology, and the links between folklore and modern science.

This is particularly clear in the case of Red Shift, which is also a fascinating formal experiment that paved the way for everything Garner did everything. The writing is stripped back to the bare basics, each line a condensed and chiselled line of poetry. The three timezones the novel is set in are traversed without warning or much of a guide for the reader, who is left to keep pace with the 'shifts'. Garner afterwards said he wasn't sure how much further he could go in this style without writing blank pages, but the rest of his novels after still work with this form and style, which is influenced by the Garner family's history as stonemasons/stone-workers. He sees himself as working the sentence in the same way his family worked stone.

From that point on, as he writes fiction for adults, a low fantasy understanding/use of 'magic' largely disappears from his ouvere, and is barely there in Red Shift to begin with (the totemic object at the center of the story being, in my opinion, little more than that- a symbolic object, representing generations of passed trauma and violence). The Stone Book is Garner's great 'realist' work, drawing on stories of his family's own long history in Cheshire. It is astounding, really; one of the great British novels about place, belonging and change. It reads like a collaboration between Hardy, John Clare and William Blake. Strandloper draws on Cheshire and Aboriginal histories and folklore in its story of a transported convict. Thursbitch and Boneland are difficult novels, but deeply rewarding: the former returns to the time-linking of Red Shift, with two parallel stories acting in opposition and partnership with each other. The characters are aged, and dealing with related mental and physical declines. The same is true of Boneland, the final novel in the 'trilogy' of Weirdstone/Moon, which presents a way of reading the fantasy of the first two novels as a delayed trauma response, but is far stranger than that really, drawing on modern physics and psychology, while still presenting a landscape (Alderley Edge) which seems touched but a rare and unique magic, a gleam of 'the other place'.

His essay collection The Voice That Thunders really displays how deeply considered and meticulously researched his work, language and historical understanding is. In my opinion Garner is one of the greatest living British writers, and one of the finest living writers full stop. He has found wonder and terror in every crevice of a small area of this country, and drawn deep all the meanings of a life lived there at various times in history. If there is a tradition of great visionary writers in this country- writers who combine their mysticism and magic with a deep and passionate understanding for and concern with contemporary issues and pains- Garner is a key part of it. His books resound with anger, sympathy and the poetry of knowledge.

holyzombiejesus

Thanks so much for that, really interesting. Will definitely be getting a few of these now.

chabrol

Quote from: holyzombiejesus on November 05, 2021, 03:47:08 PM
Thanks so much for that, really interesting. Will definitely be getting a few of these now.

No problem, can only hope I've made a new fan of someone! Red Shift is probably the best place to start with the 'mature' novels, although definitely swing back to The Owl Service if you enjoy that as much of the groundwork is laid there and it's an astoundingly complex work for what is ostensibly a novel for 'older children'. Tom in Red Shift is one of the most striking portrayals and examinations of a certain type of intelligent male adolescent that I can remember reading, and Garner is both acute and sympathetic in his portrayal of his dissolution. The anger of Gwyn in The Owl Service is a softer precursor in many ways. There are passages in both novels, amongst others of his, that I will never forget.

His folklore collections- particularly Book of Goblins- are well worth picking up too, as he balances stories from around the world and local pieces with short fragments of poetic essay which really demonstrate how deep his knowledge of lore and mythology goes. He keeps making passing reference to meetings with Aboriginal and Native American storytellers and shamen (presumably for these collections and Strandloper), but as far as I know has never written about this at length which is frustrating!

Another lurker here, just want to echo / praise chabrol's post. Red Shift was the first book of his I read (from a Mark Fisher recco) so I first got to know him through his distinct, more developed adult style of writing. Went back through all of his work and there's a real jump up in quality from The Owl Service onward.

Boneland is the one for me. Among the best books I've ever read, a really mature take on fantasy / magical realism and so emotionally charged. I'm curious as to how many times an author has returned to a much earlier series and applied a completely different tone and maturity to the new entry. It both improves the earlier books / overall trilogy but is also able to stand on its own. I would say even if you aren't really feeling it with Weirdstone and Moon Of Gomrath, persevere just so you can fully appreciate Boneland.

chabrol

Quote from: how do you like apples on November 05, 2021, 09:18:03 PM
Another lurker here, just want to echo / praise chabrol's post. Red Shift was the first book of his I read (from a Mark Fisher recco) so I first got to know him through his distinct, more developed adult style of writing. Went back through all of his work and there's a real jump up in quality from The Owl Service onward.

Boneland is the one for me. Among the best books I've ever read, a really mature take on fantasy / magical realism and so emotionally charged. I'm curious as to how many times an author has returned to a much earlier series and applied a completely different tone and maturity to the new entry. It both improves the earlier books / overall trilogy but is also able to stand on its own. I would say even if you aren't really feeling it with Weirdstone and Moon Of Gomrath, persevere just so you can fully appreciate Boneland.

Thanks for the praise! Boneland truly is remarkable; some of the passages with Colin talking into the receivers at Jordell Bank or the Palaeolithic man took me long minutes at a time to get through due to the density of beauty and meaning and imagery in those short sentences.

Garner confessed that in one of the depressive episodes bought on by his bipolar disorder, sometime in the 60s, he started writing a conclusion to the Weirdstone trilogy but ended up killing Colin off in the first few pages (unceremoniously and matter-of-factly strangled in his bed, if I remember right) as he was so sick of the 'smug little bugger'. Amusing to think of after the multifaceted and sympathetic portrayal of the aged Colin in Boneland.

Fisher's writing on Red Shift was great; one of his more astute critics, along with Neil Philip, who penned the superb study 'A Fine Anger' imo.

HamishMacbeth

#8
Quote from: chabrol on November 05, 2021, 10:33:50 AM
Breaking my lurker status to reply here as I wrote my MA dissertation on Garner's television adaptations of his own The Owl Service and Red Shift which are, particularly in the latter case, great works of modernist television making. I have a huge passion for his work, and few writers have had such a big impact on me.

That said, I prefer his work from The Owl Service onwards; the first three novels (particularly Elidor) are wonderful and rich works of low fantasy, drawing on a genuine sense of place (i.e Cheshire) and its folklore that most works in the genre don't bother with. But I'm not a huge fan of the genre in general. But there's a new richness and sense of reality from The Owl Service onwards- that novel and Red Shift are remarkable in their exploring of themes of class war, sexuality, exploitation, the repetitions of history, psychology, and the links between folklore and modern science.

I prefer the later stuff too, but I think the earlier books are interesting for a perspective on what children's fiction can be. The way Elidor for example, has a premise not unlike the Narnia books, but does something so different with it emotionally it's hard to compare the two.

Weirdstone and Gomrath were staples in my house growing up, but I struggled with Owl Service. It wasn't until I went back to it as an adult that my view on Garner broadened.

ZoyzaSorris

Loved Elidor as a kid, really took me places, but didn't get on with his other kids books for some reason. Might have to revisit them!

Crenners

I always thought it was Alan Gamer.