A Friendly Cow

Where have I been since Fri 4 Oct? 

I found a new place to dwell
down Codeine St, at Bad Back Hotel.

I have been reading quite a bit.  I finished The Hobbit, and am well through the Lord of The Rings I - The Fellowship of the Ring and getting into the swing of it.

I have been thinking about fantasy as a genre, Tolkien being mostly responsible for the huge growth of the genre since the 60s.  One master of fantasy is Alan Garner.  Some would say Elidor invented the genre of urban fantasy where an otherworld exists within (or parallel to) an everyday modern world.  What about Susan Cooper?, I would add.  The Dark is Rising sequence has long been a favourite of mine, and now I am reading LOTR at last, I can see how her work relates to it.

But Alan Garner is a completely different kettle of fish.  He does something I don't understand at all.  He tells you one story, and by some sleight of hand, slips another story, or atmosphere, or scenario, or something-I-don't-know-what, into your mind when you weren't looking.  How does he do that?  I can't figure it out.  I could understand if you were at a live performance, and while ostensibly listening and watching one story, another one snuck into your brain.  But how does Alan Garner do that with the written word?  There is no other performance, no other environment.  Just you, reading words in a book.

It is perhaps his mastery of language?  His language has two strands in it, one that you are concentrating on, another that works in a different way, perhaps?  As Miss Aimson is studying Eng Lit and Creative Writing perhaps she will find out and tell me.

I am quite happy as a person to switch off my intellect and just let art wash over me, giving me what experience it will.  With auditory dyslexia, listening to words to follow the meaning of language can be quite tiring.  I have concluded in the past that that is why listening to singing in another language is so relaxing.  Songs and human voice are a very different thing from instrumental music.  Listening to the human voice is a very different experience, but listening to a song in your own language draws you into listening with the language part of your brain, which is, as I say, tiring with auditory dyslexia.  Listening to songs in foreign language, you have the pleasure of listening to the human voice without trying to understand words.  Sigur Ros, I think, sing in a language known only to them; this has the same effect, you can listen to a song without having to listen to words.

When we went to see Alasdair Roberts (August posts) it was a beautiful live performance, he can  (like Alan Garner) create two strands at the same time, but there was a limit to how long you could concentrate on language that intently (not at all if you were Spanish and had had a few drinks).  Still, I can imagine how a performer could create that experience live, but how does Alan Garner do that on the written page?  And in very concise pieces of writing.  The story of Edward Frank and the Friendly Cow in this volume:

A Very Good Book

is perfection of this type.  I would love to know how he tells one story while telling you another.  And, of course, I would love to be able to do it myself.