The Shadow of the Bear (And Fraggles!)

"Have you ever felt there was something going on in life not everyone was aware of? . . . As though there's a story going on that everyone is a part of, but not everybody knows about? Maybe 'story' isn't the right word--a sort of drama, a battle between what's peripheral and what's really important. As though the people you meet aren't just their plain, prosaic selves, but are actually princes and princesses, gods and goddesses, fairies, shepherds, all sorts of fantastic creatures who've chosen to hide their real shape for some reason or other. Have you ever thought that?"

Want to know where that marvelous quote comes from? Read on:

I've been revisiting a lot of 'old loves' today: Finding old books, films, and interests that used to entrance me but were somehow left behind in the stream of time. It does in many ways feel like plumbing a river; although somewhat distorted by my maturing memory flowing over them, once clear of the water they shine (to my surprise) nearly as bright as I once knew them to be, and perhaps, in a few cases, even brighter. So it is that I have been reminded that Fraggle Rock wasn't just a strange hippie puppet show, it was quite wonderful, and in many instances, spoke almost eerily to my own personal philosophies. Don't believe me? Watch THIS . . . And then just try tell me that doesn't sound like something I would say/think! It has a sort of melancholic, gentle wisdom that I love, and I expect that is thanks very much to Jim Henson, one of my favorite people ever. I read somewhere that he said that he would have loved to have the job of the man who wanders sidewalks picking up trash with his stabbing stick thing, because it would make the world more beautiful, people more happy, and as a plus, he would be able to wander the streets stabbing trash with a stick! I had forgotten, sometime during the past few years, how much I loved this man and his work (outside of "The Muppet Christmas Carol" and "The Muppet Movie", that is), so it has been a real pleasure reacquainting myself with his stuff. "The Dark Crystal" is also better than I had remembered it, and I found a few quotable gems in it, too. My favorite, I think, is this exchange between the two protagonists:

Jen [looking at runic inscriptions on a wall]: “This is all writing.”

Kira: “What's writing?”

Jen: “Words that stay.”

So simple, but somehow profound. For that is the essence and power and beauty of writing, isn't it? That the words stay. That the scene is placed in the ruins of a dead civilization just made the lines all the more powerful. I will definitely adding this to my collection of quotes pinned above my writing desk!

So now I can return to the lines I quoted at the beginning of this post. They are from a novel by a Catholic homeschooling mother, Regina Doman, entitled The Shadow of the Bear.

I read this book when I was . . . oh, thirteen? Fourteen? . . . And had not read it since, due to the fact that as a Catholic book it is just about non-existent at libraries and when I read the thing I was only borrowing it from a friend; I don't own it myself. It made quite an impression on me at the time, but since I didn't own it, I sort of forgot about it. And then, today, I stumbled across it again and re-read it . . .

And was hooked again!

I'll try to explain why. As a Catholic myself, I find it interesting to read a novel written about contemporary Catholic teens, but as a lover of fairy tales and poetry, I also find it interesting to read a good novel based upon a fairy tale or with fairy tale elements in it. This story is both. It is a modern retelling of the story of 'Snow White and Rose Red', and rather cleverly done, too. This is a story that quotes Chesterton and poetry with reverence, is written in a lyrical, entertaining way, and intelligently weaves God, religion, morals, engaging characters, and subtle-enough-to-work parallels to a famous fairy tale into an entertaining story. Catholicism is a part of the story, but not in such a way as to make this book accessible or enjoyable only to Catholics. Oh, and I used to /love/ the character of Fish, and now I remember why (hehe). And the 'Snow White' and 'Rose Red' characters, Blanche and Rose, I now realize in many ways parallel my curren interests and likes: quoting poetry, modest clothing, flights of imagination and fancy, Chesterton, etc. 

The story isn't for everyone. It deals with a lot of dark issues: drugs, murder, bullying and peer pressure, and there is a scene where one of the female protagonists has to be disillusioned of and escape from a drunken boyfriend. I think these issues are, on the whole, tastefully dealt with and in a healthy manner, but one can always question whether they were necessary to the story. Some parts (a kidnapping and torture, especially) can seem a bit too outlandish for the realism of the rest of the story, but as a creative way of translating a fairy tale into a modern story, I can forgive them. And even enjoy them a little, heh. So I recommend it, even though it's somewhat hard to find.

Oh, and get this: A student fan film is currently being made!

I've recently become a fan of fan films (hah, that sounds strange) after being being treated to "The Hunt for Gollum" (A Lord of the Rings fan film) and "Fire and Ice" (Doctor Who-based). So now I have not only "Born of Hope" to look forward to, but this as well! Life is good.

It's good to revisit one's past from time to time. Little treasures like these invariably turn up and make the present a whole lot better!

In the Words of Gabriel Gale

My newest hero, added to my select but large list of literary heroes. He is the poet/artist/detective-ish protagonist of the G.K. Chesterton book 'The Poet and the Lunatics'. I am only just now beginning chapter three, and they are short chapters, too--I'd say I'm about 60 pages into the book--but I am already spellbound and demand that you read it too. Gale's purpose as a character seems mainly to illustrate the point Chesterton made in Orthodoxy (which Linden has already quoted on her blog) that poets are saner than rationalists, because poets seek to get their head into heaven, while logicians try to cram heaven into their head, and therefore are destroyed. I know I will be re-reading this book many times during the 4 weeks I have it from the library. There are so many layers to its brilliance.

But anyway, here is a collection of my favorite Gale quotes from the first two chapters alone. I have trimmed some by taking out descriptions and such between his continuous dialogue, to save room. I might add more as I get further into the book, who knows?

'"Excuse me," he said, "I often [do handstands]. It's all very well to talk about being topsy-turvy. But when the angels hang head downwards, we know they come from above. It's only those that come from below that always have their noses in the air. . . Shall I tell you a secret? The world is upside down. We're all upside down. We're all flies crawling on a ceiling, and it's an everlasting mercy that we don't drop off."' (p. 21)

'"We were talking about St. Peter," he said; "you remember that he was crucified upside down. I've often fancied his humility was rewarded by seeing in death the beautiful vision of his boyhood. He also saw the landscape as it really is: with the stars like flowers, and the clouds like hills, and all men hanging on the mercy of God."' (p. 22)

'"Do you call that practical? You can only forbid him to die. Can you persuade him to live? Believe me, that is where we come in. A man must have his head in the clouds and his wits wool-gathering in fairyland, before he can do anything so practical as that."' (p. 14)

'Gale still lay in the shadow of the thick trees staring up at the birds, as if he had never stirred. Garth called to him by name, but it was only after a silence that Gale spoke. What he said was:

"Were you ever an isosceles triangle?"

"Very seldom," replied Garth with restraint. "May I ask what the devil you are talking about?"

"Only something that I was thinking about," answered the poet, lifting himself up to one elbow. "I wondered whether it would be a cramping sort of thing to be surrounded by straight lines, and whether being in a circle would be any better. Did anybody ever live in a round prison?"' (p. 39)

'"I used to want a hammer to smash things with," continued Gale; "but I've learnt to do something else with a hammer, which is what a hammer is meant for; and every now and then I manage to do it."

"What do you mean by that?" inquired the doctor. 

"I can hit the right nail on the head," answered the poet.' (p. 41)

'"Would it do, I wonder, when one has changed a cheque into gold, to give a man coppers, instead, and explain that they have more of the rich tones of sunset?"' (p. 43)

Pic

Quotation T-Shirt Challenge, Woot!

Every book-lover should make one of these. It's so much fun.

So is that my challenge to you for April? Um . . . why yes, I believe it is ^_^

This was a summer project I set for myself the summer before I left for college--and yes, I did mean to post pics and stuff sooner, but one thing drives out another, so to speak *wink*. I bought this t-shirt at Jo-Ann's for about 3 dollars, and a pack of fabric pens for about the same. Those are the only supplies needed, apart from a whole lotta booklovin'.

Trouble is, I'm now sort of out of room . . . so I need to get me another shirt. I did joke about getting some white jeans and writing on those to make a complete outfit, but I think that idea will remain just a joke. Unless I decide to be a library for Halloween. Which, you know, might happen.

Below is a (nearly--I have since added a couple more, I think) complete list of all the quotes that I currently sport around campus. Enjoy!

“Learning!” Eilonwy declared. “I’ve been up to my ears in learning. It doesn’t show, so it’s hard to believe that it’s there.”

-The High King, Lloyd Alexander

And thus it came to pass that the Silmarils found their long homes: One in the airs of heaven, and one in the fires of the heart of the world, and one in the deep waters.

-The Silmarillion, JRR Tolkien

“What if man is not really a scoundrel, man in general, I mean, the whole race of mankind—then all the rest is prejudice, simply artificial terrors and there are no barriers and all is as it should be.”

-Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky

“He might tell me how my story ends,” he murmured.

Meggie looked at him in astonishment. “You mean you don’t know?”

Dustfinger smiled . . .

“What’s so unusual about that, princess?” He asked quietly. “Do you know how your story ends?”

-Inkheart, Cornelia Funke

“Let me dream yet awhile.”

-The Worm Ouroboros, ER Eddison

Never again would he glitter and glide

and show himself off in midnight air,

exulting in his riches: he fell to earth

through the battle-strength in Beowulf’s arm.

-Beowulf

“Dear me, what would this barren vocabulary get out of the mightiest spectacle—the burning of Rome in Nero’s time, for instance? . . . ‘Town burned down; no insurance; boy brast a window; fireman brake his neck!’ Why, that ain’t a picture!”

-A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court

“Oh, Ahab, Ahab, lo, thy work.”

-Moby Dick, Herman Melville

“Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight!”

-Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson

“Cursed demon! You have met your end! The Shivering Fire awaits you! I shall spread your vile essence across this hall like . . . um, like margarine, a very thick layer of it . . .”

-Ptolemy’s Gate, Jonathon Stroud

“Tell them I came, and no one answered,

That I kept my word,” he said.

-The Listeners, Walter de la Mare

“I wouldn’t care about my spirits,” said Bluebell, “if my legs weren’t so tired. Slugs are lucky to not have legs. I think I’ll be a slug.”

-Watership Down, Richard Adams

“You have no longer a master, Caleb,” said Ravenswood, endeavoring to extricate himself; “why, old man, would you cling to a falling tower?”

-The Bride of Lammermoor, Sir Walter Scott

Better late than never.

-Ab Urbe Condita, Livy

“Do you know I don’t know how one can walk by a tree and not be happy at the sight of it?”

-The Idiot, Fyodor Dostoevsky

“Dear old world,” she murmured, “you are very lovely, and I am glad to be alive in you.”

-Anne of Green Gables, LM Montgomery

Sherwood in the twilight,

Is Robin Hood awake?

-A Song of Sherwood, Alfred Noyes

“Stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark.”

-The Tale of Despereaux, Kate DiCamillo

Curufin, Celegorm the fair,

Damrod and Diriel were there,

and Cranthir dark, and Maidros tall

(whom after torment would befall),

and Maglor the mighty who like the sea

with deep voice sings yet mournfully.

-The Lay of Leithian, JRR Tolkien

If Sydney Carton every shone anywhere, he certainly never shone in the house of Dr. Manette.

-A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens

“We live in an age that reads too much to be wise, and that thinks too much to be beautiful.”

-The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde

“Let’s have different color rabbits, George.”

“Sure we will,” George said sleepily. “Red and blue and green rabbits, Lennie. Millions of ‘em.”

-Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck

Trust dreams.

Trust your heart, and

Trust your story.

-Instructions, Neil Gaiman

When the apple is ripe and falls—why does it fall? Is it because . . . its stalk is withered . . . because the wind shakes it, or because the boy standing under the tree wants to eat it?

-War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy

The mind is its own place, and in itself

Can make a heav’n of hell, a hell of heav’n.

-Paradise Lost, John Milton

“And I write novels!” chimed in the other cop. “Though I haven’t had any published yet, so I better warn you, I’m in a meeeean mood!”

-The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

“In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, here goes—I mean Amen,” said Ransom.

-Perelandra, CS Lewis

“Now,” said Cei, “it is for you to pay me my story.”

-The Mabinogion

“I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!”

-Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte

“Lacho calad! Drego morn!”

-The Children of Hurin, JRR Tolkien

Marius was done for. He loved a woman.

-Les Miserables, Victor Hugo

Roland is fierce and

Oliver is wise

And both for valor

May bear away the prize.

-The Song of Roland

From these most holy waters, born anew

I came, like trees by change of calendars 

Renewed with new-sprung foliage through and through,

Pure and prepared to leap up to the stars.

-Purgatorio, Dante

All children, except one, grow up.

-Peter Pan, JM Barrie

“My day has been too long.”

-The Last of the Mohicans, James Fenimore Cooper

Oh hark! Oh hear! How thin and clear,

And thinner, clearer, farther going!

O sweet and far from cliff and scar

The horns of Elfland faintly blowing!

-The Splendor Falls, Alfred Lord Tennyson

“Nothing wrong with me,” said Puddleglum. “Not a frog. Nothing frog with me. I’m a respectabiggle.”

-The Silver Chair, CS Lewis

Of arms I sing, and the hero, destiny’s exile . . .

-The Aeneid, Virgil

The fate of this man or that was less than a drop, although it was a sparkling one, in the great blue motion of the sunlit sea.

-The Once and Future King, TH White

“I am the king of Olaf-land, and there’s nothing you and your sheep can do about it.”

-The End, Lemony Snicket

Anything in any way beautiful derives its beauty from itself and asks nothing beyond itself. Praise is no part of it, for nothing is made worse or better by praise . . .

-Meditations, Marcus Aurelius

“Namarie! Nai hiruvalye Valimar. 

Nai elye hiruva. Namarie!”

-The Fellowship of the Ring, JRR Tolkien

She left the web, she left the room,

She made three paces through the room,
She saw the water-lily bloom,

She saw the helmet and the plume,

She look’d down to Camelot.

-The Lady of Shalott, Alfred Lord Tennyson

“Er, aha ha. Hello mateys, I was flying my cloud, you see . . .”

-Mossflower, Brian Jacques

If there be any truth to poets’ prophecies, I shall live to all eternity, immortalized by fame.

-Metamorphoses, Ovid

“Leave him build his flutter-mills. The day’ll come, he’ll not even care to.”

-The Yearling, Marjorie Kinnon Rawlings

“You are a knave.”

-Oedipus Rex, Sophocles

I bow not yet before Iron Crown,

Nor cast my own small golden scepter down.

-Mythopoeia, JRR Tolkien

“I’m dying of boredom,” Howl said pathetically. “Or maybe just dying.”

-Howl’s Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones

“Schmendrick,”—for the wizard had just stooped through the doorway—“how many rs in ‘miracle’?”

“Two,” he answered wearily. “It has the same root as ‘mirror’.”

-The Last Unicorn, Peter S Beagle

Cassandra: O Father!

O my brothers! All your brightness dead!

I go. Now in the land of the defeated I

Will mourn my end and Agamemnon’s. I have lived.

-Agamemnon, Aeschyllus

“I followed you.”

“I saw no one.”

“That is what you may expect to see when I follow you.”

-His Last Bow; The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Sing, O goddess, the ruinous wrath of Achilles . . .

-The Iliad, Homer

The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind,

If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

-Ode to the West Wind, Percy Bysshe Shelley

Two men only have a right to answer the question asked in Ecclesiastes 6,000 years ago, ‘That which is far off and exceedingly deep, who can find it out?’ These two men are Captain Nemo and I.

-20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne

How vain are all the hopes of humankind!

How sweet their promises of quiet seem,

And yet they end in shadows, smoke and dream.

-Don Quixote, Cervantes

Ah, she thought wisely, I am dreaming again . . .

-The Hero and the Crown, Robin McKinley