The novels of Jules Verne have suffered neglect in the UK and US because of their hurried and unfortunate translations into English, worse translations on to the silver screen, and the persistent misunderstanding, due to his space travel and submariner adventures, that he is a science fiction genre writer. Reading Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days with my son Timothy, the new translation by William Butcher, I was delighted to find, though not a formulaic ring composition, that this adventure story was composed as a circumnavigation of the globe written as a ‘there and back again’ mirror reflection. Everything from the modes of travel to the critical date of Phileas Fogg’s return to London — today’s date, 21 December — testify to a playful and careful obsession with story parallelism.
21 December or 12/21: ‘Around the World in Eighty Days’ Day
Guest Post: Literary Alchemy in The Canterbury Tales
A Guest Post from Carol Eshleman!
The Canterbury Alchemist: A Pilgrim’s Allegory
A canon and his yeoman race up to Geoffrey Chaucer’s pilgrims, begging to be allowed into their party. What follows is a tale of failed transformation and the subject of scholarly speculation spanning centuries. Analysts have argued about purposes of the Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale along extremes from Chaucer merely imitating the alchemical literature of his time to Chaucer himself being an alchemist. What is more intriguing is why an author would have an outsider intrude upon a set cast of characters after taking such pains to describe them in detail. Mark J. Bruhn points out Chaucer’s self-reflectiveness in this scene: “Chaucer-the-narrator poses from within the dramatic moment the inevitable and crucial question it provokes: who are these unexpected interlopers?” (289). Because the premise of Canterbury Tales is that a group of people on a pilgrimage to Canterbury each tell story, the solution to Chaucer’s purpose must lie within the tale this intruding character tells. The Canon’s Yeoman’s tale of alchemy thrust upon the greater cast of pilgrims points to a larger alchemical allegory that Chaucer wishes to impart upon his readers.
An argument can be made for Chaucer’s use of alchemy as an imitation of other literature during his time period. Indeed, the general format of Canterbury Tales is an amalgamation of medieval literary genres, which fits with alchemical symbolism in general since alchemy “was not confined within the boundaries of few genres” (Linden 4). Because there were a plentitude of writings concerning the processes of alchemy, it’s highly possible that the Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale was merely representative of this content as its own category of literature. The accuracy with which Chaucer portrays the alchemical process, however, is an extensive subject for debate. [Read more…]
Guest Post: Liturgy, Literature, and Mythopeia
A Guest Post from Chris Calderon!
Liturgy and Literature: an idea on Mythopoeia and the Nature and Origin of Story in relation to St. John
In his excellent book Planet Narnia, Michael Ward talked briefly about a theologian named Austin Farrer, who was an acquaintance of Lewis and Tolkien, and even mentioned a book he wrote, A Rebirth of Images, the Making of St. John’s Apocalypse. What Farrer wrote is really an exposition of both the layout and the philosophy behind the most controversial book in the Bible, Revelation. For many Christians just the mention of that name is all it takes to fill a whole room with uncomfortable looks, and they’re not alone. In fact, there is a rumor the early churches debated about whether it should ever even be in the Good Book. If any of it is true, thank Goodness sense prevailed.
Farrer’s book is the kind of tome you love to get a headache from. It is both frustrating in the extreme, and yet it rewards you for paying attention. Part of this has to do with Farrer’s subject matter (how could a theology of Revelations not be difficult?) and partly through his roundabout elliptical style of writing that winds round itself like a Ouroborus swallowing its own tail. Nonetheless, if the reader trudges on, and is very perceptive, perhaps some interesting ideas contained in St. John’s Revelation begin to show themselves, such as the apostle’s use of planetary symbolism, the intriguing suggestion that he is presenting a “Sacred Diagram” of the universe, and the possibility that we are presented with at least one of the possible origins of Western Literature as we know it.
The best place to start is from Farrer’s follow up to Images with a quote from page 44 of his The Revelation of St. John the Divine: Commentary on the English Text, which is given in full (italics mine): [Read more…]
Which Hunger Games Character are You?
OK, Hogpro regulars, take the Quiz and share! I am Prim.
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