#phantastes

Many fantastic tales dwell on a sense that dreams have a great power in the world, and so their characters are often afraid of falling asleep. Dark Shadows has several times referenced Edgar Allan Poe, who explored that fear in stories like “The Premature Burial,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and “The Man of the Crowd.” The show brought up another writer of fantastic tales preoccupied with the fear of…

PHANTASTES: A Faerie Romance by George Macdonald (London: Chatto & Windus, 1894).

Anodos: A woman carved of marble? Maybe if I sing to her she’ll come to life :)

*Sings*

*Nothing happens*

Anodos:

6. What book would you change the end of?

10. Tell me about your top (any number you want) favorite books?

Book rant.

Okay, I was all set to pound out a rant on a book that absolutely drove me up the wall, but I realized that I already left a long review on it and even without mentioning the title I think there are enough identifying plot details necessary to the rant that I could theoretically doxx myself by re-creating it. So instead I will rant about a specific rendition of a book I absolutely hate: the Dune audiobook.

Now, let me be clear; I really like Dune. I went into it (before the movie came out) thinking it would be stale/overrated/severely tropey, but it's actually a really good book. There's a reason it's foundational. But the audiobook (specifically the, like, top one on Audible with over 100k ratings, Scott Brick top-billed VA) is just--agh, it's awful. Usually an audiobook is either single narrator or full cast, but the Dune audiobook made the frankly bizarre choice to have a single narrator for most scenes but a full cast for some scenes--but then also to have the guy doing the single narration be a character voice in some of those scenes, and, crucially, not just voicing Paul, which would have brought at least a semblance of order to the thing. They also didn't do single narration for scenes where Paul is present and full cast for scenes where he isn't--there appears to be absolutely no rhyme or reason.

Now, all that would be bad enough, but throughout the entire book they added this... hum?? I think they were trying to make it sound "spacey" even though it all takes place planet-side, basically. But it legitimately gave me anxiety. Like evil white noise that just sets you on edge. Awful.

I got halfway through and had to bail. Thought the book just wasn't for me. Then, after watching the first movie, I decided to try just regular reading it this time--and hey presto, Dune is awesome! Who'da thunk. I don't know how this book is just shy of 5 stars; like the actual text deserves that, but this recording is just the worst.

6. What book would you change the end of

Oh this is very topical. There's not a lot of books that I remember getting to the end of and really disliking for specifically the ending--obviously I've read plenty where there are things in the plot I would alter, but I've had the good fortune not to hit on a lot of books that spoil themselves in how they end. But I did just finish a book that I really enjoyed, but didn't much care for the ending: Agatha Christie's The Mysterious Mr. Quin. It's a collection of short stories/cases tied together by our main character, Mr. Satterthwaite, who often encounters an odd stranger right before stumbling into some kind of mystery or drama. I really like the book, and basically all the stories are winners; the thing that keeps you moving through, though, is the ever-present of: who is Mr. Quin? And then--what is Mr. Quin?

I don't want to spoil the book's ending, because I do still recommend it even if it didn't quite stick its landing, but basically, I think Christie tried to go a little too big in the final story. She'd built up a really cool but slightly lower-level answer about Mr. Quin (or so it seems to me), but then at the last minute it feels like she tried to amp it up more than necessary. It did facilitate interesting character questions with Sattherthwaite, which was nice, but overall I wish she had kept it a little more lowkey.

10. Favorite books

Oh maaaaaaan. Oh man. There are too many good books in the world. Where to even begin.

Okay, so there's the basics, the classics: Lord of the Rings, Narnia, just about everyone has read those, and they live up to the hype. I'll focus on some lesser-known faves of mine.

Till We Have Faces, by C.S. Lewis is one of my all-time favorite books. I think I've read it five or six times now; I usually re-listen to it at least once a year. It's a retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche, but told from the perspective of one of Psyche's older sisters--who, in the original tale, were jealous of her position as bride of a god and tricked her into angering him. This book is a character study, a rumination on the nature of love, a tragedy--it's got everything. The audiobook version is so good; the narrator has a wonderful voice and really nails the characters.

Continuing the Lewis train, The Space Trilogy is also a huge favorite of mine. The first book is totally solid and good, but for me it's the 2nd and 3rd books that really shine. Perelandra isn't for everyone--a lot of it is pretty plainly laid out theology/philosophy/doxology, not buried in the subtext--but it's been such a comfort to me. That Hideous Strength is practically a horror novel in some parts, which is a really interesting direction for Lewis. Just very good overall.

The Man Who Was Thursday, by G.K. Chesterton is another really stellar book. Chesterton is just a delight; he's one of the funniest authors out there. The Man Who Was Thursday is about a police officer in late 1800s London trying to infiltrate and unravel the plot of a group of sinister anarchists--only as the story goes on, he discovers he's not the only infiltrator. It's a wonderful book and very worth a read.

Phantastes, by George Macdonald is a really underrated classic. It was one of Lewis's favorites, and he said that it "baptized his imagination." It's kind of hard to exactly describe the plot; the whole book feels very much like a fairytale, or a series of fairytales, that all play out around the main character. It has some of the most evocative imagery and themes I've ever had the pleasure of reading. It's kind of like Pilgrim's Progress if Pilgrim's Progress were much more dream-like and fantastical and a less direct allegory.

The Wind in the Willows (always forget the author's name, this is basically the only well-known book he wrote) was one of my top books when I was little. My dad read it to me as a bedtime story, and it really holds up. It's kind of the usual fare of charming British children's literature: a bunch of slightly-anthropomorphic animals have Hijinks, but the characters are so endearing and lovable, you end up coming back to it again and again. Such a fun read.