Bittercon: "Forgotten Treasures"

[intertext]

What I think of as the "Harry Potter Effect" - a renewed interest in YA or children's fantasy - has resulted in the welcome recent republication of authors who had been well-known in certain circles, like DWJ, or well-known from the past, like Edward Eager. It has also seen the reprinting of some rather more obscure but equally deserving works, like A String in the Harp by Nancy Bond or Elizabeth Marie Pope's The Perilous Gard. I've been thinking for a while of beginning a series of posts on old forgotten treasures from my own collection - not necessarily SF or fantasy, but books I loved that I wondered if anyone else had heard of, that I think deserve a bigger audience and potential reprinting. So, I thought I'd launch that series here, and invite others on my flist or from the bigger bittercon community, to link comments to posts about their own forgotten but deserving treasures.

My first oldy but goody is Ellen Kindt McKenzie's
Drujienna's Harp, which begins on a day in an unnamed city in what seems to be our world - indeed I've always assumed it was San Franciso. It is uncharacteristically hot, and the sky is a strange translucent pink. Tha and her brother Duncan visit a curio shop and pick up a bottle that the shop-owner warns them has a curse on it. They are instantly transported to another world.

Of relevance to one of sartorias's panel topics on world building, this is one of the most distinct and well developed worlds I remember encountering in children's fantasy. It has almost a quality of the surreal, with its pink sky, killing winds, geographic areas spreading out in concentric circles from a mysterious and deadly mound in the center. It is also unusual in children's fantasy for its bleak picture of political totalitarianism. The inhabitants are kept in a kind of controlled state of unknowing; asking too many questions is punishable by imprisonment or death. Yet there are mysterious Histories and a Prophecy, suppressed but not forgotten, that hint of "two" who will come and put the world right - or destroy it. This book deals with many extremely serious and important themes: ignorance, real or feigned, the importance not so much of physical courage but of moral convictions. Tha is a strong and believable heroine and there is a cast of well-drawn supporting characters, from the morose Eshone and even more grim Acheron to the delightful "Know-nothing" Zacapoos.

Like Victoria Walker's equally obscure but not entirely forgotten work, The Winter of Enchantment, this fascinating novel is now listed on ABE with absurdly high prices. I used to borrow it time and again from the library, and managed to snag a copy a few years ago at a less than astronomical price, and I treasure it. Just writing about it now makes me think I should reread it again - I suspect it will not have lost its magic.

So now it's your turn! How many of you have read any of the books I mention, especially this one? What are your own forgotten treasures? And don't forget to write a review of your favourite and link it here.

Comments

Re: part 1 - fantasy and semi-fantasy

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Yes it *is* a help. It tells me both that it isn't the story I thought it might be and that I'd like to read it. Sounds very interesting.

A propos of Richard III, a children's book I really liked was A Sprig of Broom in which R was a good guy. My first introduction to him, so boy was I in for a surprise when I found out what the usual picture of him was...

How'd you come across Shakespeare's Richard the III as a kid? It's not one of the ones that usually gets assigned in school, so you must have found it some other way...

Re: part 1 - fantasy and semi-fantasy

[elianarus.livejournal.com]

It is most certainly interesting...

Shakespeare's Richard was my first input, but I read Kendell's bio very young, and it is very much in the Ricardian camp. (It is a delightful work, and has a nifty appendix analyzing possible suspects for the murders of the princes.) This is one of my dozen or so favorite biographies (I first read it when I was 8 or so, and liked it despite my anti-Richard sentiments, which, given how strongly the young cling to their prejudices, is a powerful recommendation!) It is, I believe, in the Yale English Monarchs series.

Of the slew of hist-fic which touched on RIII, the only titles I can recall offhand are Tudor Rose (which focuses on Richard's niece, Elizabeth), Song of the Thrush (Clarence's kids), and Sprig of Broom... I know there were so many more, but as a kid I never thought to take notes so I could find any of these stories again!

How'd you come across Shakespeare's Richard the III as a kid? It's not one of the ones that usually gets assigned in school, so you must have found it some other way...

Well, I started seeing live Shakespeare plays when I was 6 or so (at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival). We went at least once or twice a year every year thereafter (I missed one year between the first and the year my eldest daughter turned one...).

Although I immersed myself in as much Shakespeare as possible (audio recordings, reading the plays themselves, the BBC televised versions, etc) I had a very strong preference for the historical plays...

The Richard II to RIII cycle was entrancing to me, and I (for what reason I know not) took Margaret of Anjou as my heroine - I can still recite most of her speeches. But despite my loathing for all things Yorkist, Richard fascinated me. He is so evil, but the complexity, the multi-facetedness of his personality are amazing. I think it must be one of the hardest leads to do really well... his vivacity, the way you can know how horrible he is ... and he clearly shows the audience his manipulations, you are still mesmerized by him, and you can see how Anne is drawn to him against her will.

And the language just rolls off the tongue! .. to a child the vivid insults Margaret throws at Richard are so marvelous: "...thou elvish marked abortive rooting hog, thou that wast sealed in thy nativity the slave of nature and the son of hell. Thou slander of thy heavy mother's womb, thou loathed issue of thy father's loins, thou rag of honor..."

Long before I reached high school age I had read all the plays multiple times, and seen most of them at least once (I've avoided Titus Andronicus - and plan to continue doing so!).

[Side note: if anyone lives near Seattle and has any interest at all in Shakespeare, you *must* see at least one production at the Seattle Shakespeare Company. I am passionate about my Shakespeare, and have seen more performances than I can easily tally, but I have never seen anything that matches this caliber...

There, you ask a short, simple question and I give you my life story... can you tell that the bulk of my writing time is spent trimming? :)

Eliana

Re: part 1 - fantasy and semi-fantasy

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Wonderful! Just wonderful. And I love a long story--the longer the better! so thanks for sharing about your childhood. I'm admiration and envy all mixed together :-D

I've ended up saving this entry of intertext's in my Memories so I can come back and follow up on all the good reading.

Must read Richard III, for one thing! I shouldn't confess that I only know it from hearsay, but it's true. But I'm going to rectify that--based on your enthusiasm. Maybe we can read it as a familiy and take parts. Or maybe we should first read it on our own, to get the language and story down.

Re: part 1 - fantasy and semi-fantasy

[elianarus.livejournal.com]

I should warn you, it is a bloody play without a real hero, or rather with an anti-hero.

I'm not sure what it says about either me or my family that I was so entranced by it... or that I've passed it along to my kids. In all other respects they are very sheltered kids - no TV, no video games, no toy guns (even the Playmobils have to hand over their rifles and pistols when they enter the house), we screen the books they read and the (very few) movies they see with great care...

but we have almost unlimited exposure to Shakespeare.... (well, not Othello, and certainly not Titus A., but we went to Pericles last month... all the really heavy stuff went over everyone's heads, but my eldest knew enough to know she was missing things... which led to our first discussion of the concepts of rape and prostitution. Since she is 14.5, that is evidence of the success of our sheltering.)

Let me know what you think after reading Richard. I wish you could have see our local Shakespeare company's production the other year - it brought Richard to life.

Eliana

Shakespeare's Richard III

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Ah, it was a wise decision, the no-video-games rule... (do you hear the regret in my voice?)

I will let you know what I think of it; I'll come to your LJ and let you know--and if it's a year from now, you'll wonder who in the world I am, so I'll remind you of our conversation here :-D

Re: Shakespeare's Richard III

[elianarus.livejournal.com]

Perhaps by then I will have a journal with content - rather than an account which I use to hijack other people's journals... but if not, you can always email me at: eliana@efn.org

I don't think you'll need to remind me who you are! Having someone express an interest in my passions and a generous tolerance for my babbling is always enjoyable and memorable... and you've been exceedingly generous.

Re: Shakespeare's Richard III

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

:-D

Thanks for the address! And as for generous--thank **you** for your generosity toward **me**--this is why I love LJ ♥