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89e6722
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"Some years ago I had a conversation with a man who thought that writing and editing fantasy books was a rather frivolous job for a grown woman like me. He wasn't trying to be contentious, but he himself was a probation officer, working with troubled kids from the Indian reservation where he'd been raised. Day in, day out, he dealt in a concrete way with very concrete problems, well aware that his words and deeds could change young lives for good or ill. I argued that certain stories are also capable of changing lives, addressing some of the same problems and issues he confronted in his daily work: problems of poverty, violence, and alienation, issues of culture, race, gender, and class... "Stories aren't real," he told me shortly. "They don't feed a kid left home in an empty house. Or keep an abusive relative at bay. Or prevent an unloved child from finding 'family' in the nearest gang." Sometimes they do, I tried to argue. The right stories, read at the right time, can be as important as shelter or food. They can help us to escape calamity, and heal us in its aftermath. He frowned, dismissing this foolishness, but his wife was more conciliatory. "Write down the names of some books," she said. "Maybe we'll read them." I wrote some titles on a scrap of paper, and the top three were by Charles de lint - for these are precisely the kind of tales that Charles tells better than anyone. The vital, necessary stories. The ones that can change and heal young lives. Stories that use the power of myth to speak truth to the human heart. creates a magical world that's not off in a distant Neverland but here and now and accessible, formed by the "magic" of friendship, art, community, and social activism. Although most of his books have not been published specifically for adolescents and young adults, nonetheless young readers find them and embrace them with particular passion. I've long lost count of the number of times I've heard people from say that books by Charles saved them in their youth, and kept them going. Recently I saw that parole officer again, and I asked after his work. "Gets harder every year," he said. "Or maybe I'm just getting old." He stopped me as I turned to go. "That writer? That Charles de Lint? My wife got me to read them books.... Sometimes I pass them to the kids." "Do they like them?" I asked him curiously. "If I can get them to read, they do. I tell them:
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myth
fantasy
charles-de-lint
power-of-stories
troubled-backgrounds
magical-realism
childhood
mythic-fiction
folklore
urban-fantasy
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Terri Windling |
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851f4ef
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Finally, I'd say to anyone who wants to tell these tales, don't be afraid to be superstitious. If you have a lucky pen, use it. If you speak with more force and wit when wearing one red sock and one blue one, dress like that. When I'm at work I'm highly superstitious. My own superstition has to do with the voice in which the story comes out. I believe that every story is attended by its own sprite, whose voice we embody when we tell the tale, and that we tell it more successfully if we approach the sprite with a certain degree of respect and courtesy. These sprites are both old and young, male and female, sentimental and cynical, sceptical and credulous, and so on, and what's more, they're completely amoral: like the air-spirits who helped Strong Hans escape from the cave, the story-sprites are willing to serve whoever has the ring, whoever is telling the tale. To the accusation that this is nonsense, that all you need to tell a story is a human imagination, I reply, 'Of course, and this is the way my imagination works.
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folktales
tales
folklore
stories
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Philip Pullman |
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d5d83a6
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Had she believed all that? Old Pilar's folklore? No, not really; or not exactly. Most likely Pilar hadn't quite believed it either, but it was a reassuring story: that the dead were not entirely dead but were alive in a different way; a paler way admittedly, and somewhat darker. But still able to send messages, if only such messages could be recognized and deciphered. People need such stories, Pilar said once, because however dark, a darkness with voices in it is better than a silent void.
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darkness
folklore
stories
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Margaret Atwood |
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e3055b3
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"There are a number of good books that draw upon fox legends -- foremost among them, Kij Johnson's exquisite novel . I also recommend Neil Gaiman's (with the Japanese artist Yoshitaka Amano); Larissa Lai's unusual novel, ; Helen Oyeyemi's recent novel, ; and Ellen Steiber's gorgeous urban fantasy novel, , as well as her heart-breaking novella "The Fox Wife" (published in ). For younger readers, try the "Legend of Little Fur" series by Isobelle Carmody. You can also support a fine mythic writer by subscribing to Sylvia Linsteadt's . For the fox in myth, legend, and lore, try: by Martin Wallen; edited by Kenneth Varty; by Kiyoshi Nozaki; by Raina Huntington;
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fox
folklore
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Terri Windling |
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c44782d
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An intelligent enemy,' he would say, stroking his beard as if it were a bristly pet, 'rather than a foolish friend.' Or, 'He learnt the language of pigeons, and forgot his own.' Or, the favourite of Jan Fishan Khan: 'Nothing is what it seems.
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wisdom
sufis
saying
afghanistan
proverbs
sufism
folklore
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Tahir Shah |
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81b5535
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"I've been very influenced by folklore, fairy tales, and folk ballads, so I love all the classic works based on these things -- like 's 19th century fairy stories, the fairy poetry of , and 's splendid book . (I think that particular book of hers wasn't published until the 1970s, not long before her death, but she was an English writer popular in the middle decades of the 20th century.) I'm also a big Pre-Raphaelite fan, so I love early fantasy novels. Oh, and " " by
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fairy-tales
reading
folk-ballads
folklore
influences
pre-raphaelite
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Terri Windling |
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cb8ea17
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You can take your gold, but afterwards, things are, things are . There is less beauty in a rainbow, less meaning in a sermon, less joy in a kiss...Less.
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morals
folklore
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Neil Gaiman |
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0795283
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Where would tourism be without a little luxury and a taste of night life? There were several cities on Deanna, all moderate in size, but the largest was the capital, Atro City. For the connoisseur of fast-foods, Albrechts' famous hotdogs and coldcats were sold fresh from his stall (Albrecht's Takeaways) on Lupini Square. For the sake of his own mental health he had temporarily removed Hot Stuff Blend from the menu. The city was home to Atro City University, which taught everything from algebra and make-up application to advanced stamp collecting; and it was also home to the planet-famous bounty hunter - Beck the Badfeller. Beck was a legend in his own lifetime. If Deanna had any folklore, then Beck the Badfeller was one of its main features. He was the local version of Robin Hood, the Davy Crockett of Deanna. The Local rumor mill had it he was so good he could find the missing day in a leap year. Once, so the story goes, he even found a missing sock.
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story
life
all
and
application
atro
badfeller
beck
blend
capital
coldcats
crockett
davy
deanna
fast-foods
features
for
from
had
lifetime
local
make-up
menü
mill
moderate
once
planet-famous
size
sock
square
stall
taught
the
there
was
were
missing
year
where
he
collecting
of
hood
to
little
luxury
bounty
goes
everything
city
folklore
university
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Christina Engela |
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e7a8801
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I love folklore and all festering superstitions.
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howards-end
superstition
folklore
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E.M. Forster |