Portals of Power: Magical Agency and Transformation in Literary Fantasy

Portals of Power: Magical Agency and Transformation in Literary Fantasy (Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy)  by Lori M. Campbell, Donald E. Palumbo, and C. W. Sullivan III is the last of the books sent to me for review by McFarland. This one is obvious more about fantasy literature than fairy tales, so I'm posting it on a Saturday where I tend to be the more relaxed for the blog. The theme of portals is an interesting one and well handled but overall the book will appeal most to those looking for critical analysis of the books discussed within which are thankfully included in the table of contents provided below.

Book description from the publisher:

Fantasy writing, like literature in general, provides a powerful vehicle for challenging the status quo. Via symbolism, imagery and supernaturalism, fantasy constructs secondary-world narratives that both mirror and critique the political paradigms of our own world. This critical work explores the role of the portal in fantasy, investigating the ways in which magical nexus points and movement between worlds are used to illustrate real-world power dynamics, especially those impacting women and children. Through an examination of high and low fantasy, fairy tales, children's literature, the Gothic, and science fiction, the portal is identified as a living being, place or magical object of profound metaphorical and cultural significance.

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgments vi
Preface 1
Introduction 5

PART I
Women and Other Magical Creatures: Portals in Romance and Fairy Tale
1. Who “Wears the Pants” in Faërie? The Woman Question in William Morris’s The Wood Beyond the World 23
2. “For I am but a girl”: The Problem of Female Power in Ford Madox Ford’s The Brown Owl 44

PART II
Charms, Places, and Little Girls: Portals in Children’s Literature
3. E. Nesbit and the Magic Word: Empowering Child and Woman in Real-World Fantasy 63
4. Lost Boys to Men: Romanticism and the Magic of the Female Imagination in J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan and Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden 82

PART III
Haunted Houses and the Hidden Self: Portals in the Gothic, Low Fantasy, and Science Fiction
5. Confronting Chaos at the In-Between: William Hope Hodgson’s The House on the Borderland 103
6. The Society Insider/Outsider and the Sympathetic Supernatural in Fantastic Tales by Edith Wharton and Oscar Wilde 120

PART IV
Haunting History: The Portal in Modern/Postmodern Fantasy
7. One World to Rule Them All: The Un-Making and Re-Making of the Symbolic Portal in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings 143
8. Harry Potter and the Ultimate In-Between: J.K. Rowling’s Portals of Power 163
9. Portals Between Then and Now: Susan Cooper, Alan Garner, Diana Wynne Jones, Neil Gaiman, and Jonathan Stroud 183

Chaper Notes 203
Bibliography 205
Index 213

The Company of Wolves: Film Thoughs by Joy Spicer

Here is our first guest post, by Joy Spicer, about fairy tale films. Thanks to Joy for being the first to share a favorite fairy tale film and sharing her thoughts on The Company of Wolves. You, too, can participate still. Read more about it at Fairy Tale Film Month.

From Joy:

This is a fab idea, discussing fairy tale films, there are so many out there! Usually I would find something like this hard, trying to choose one but this was easy as I love ‘The Company of Wolves’. My guilty pleasure, though, is ‘Enchanted’ – from dark to sort of airy-fairy! But I love the way the animation translated so effortlessly to real life and even though she presented as a wide-eyed ditz, in the end Giselle came through as a don’t-mess-with-me woman!!

I admit I like Disney, but mainly for the music. Although I would prefer a ‘dark’ element in there; even though it’s aimed at children, most do enjoy at least a frisson of danger. When I was growing up, there was no such thing as ‘age rating’ for films, so I saw some pretty scary stuff. I was afraid of the dark (still am sometimes) but it was a delicious kind of scary … it made you feel alive even if I wouldn’t have articulated it in that manner as a child. My children, now in their teens, enjoyed cuddling up to watch scary films, feeling safe with their parents … although my younger son refused to watch things like Jurassic Park, only because that could well happen so was a bit too real for him! The point there could well be, if the child can’t handle it, then don’t watch it but don’t dumb everything down and make it all sweetness and light, in the hopes of making maximum profit.

Even as a child, and especially when I was older, I wasn’t that enamoured of the Red Riding Hood story. Why? Because I minded the wolf getting killed! And Red wasn’t much of a role model, was she? Couldn’t do anything for herself, had to be rescued by a man … not that there’s anything wrong with a man coming to the rescue but in most, if not all the fairy tales – Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella – the women cannot function until a man comes along. A message about women knowing their place and not stepping off the path?

I think one of the reasons I enjoyed The Company of Wolves is the part that warns against men whose eyebrows meet in the middle; at the time my eyebrows met in the middle (before I discovered the joys of eyebrow tweezing!) and I didn’t care that I was female, I liked to think that maybe there was something ‘wolf’ in me …

The film revolves around two versions of Rosaleen – the ‘real’ girl who seems to be from a rich family, who locks herself in her room, surrounded by her toys. All this points to someone who is still a child, who seems to be hiding from life, except she’s wearing very red lipstick and looking most un-childlike as she sleeps. She’s dreaming of the second Rosaleen, who is basically herself but the opposite; the dream Rosaleen is poor, she seems to be stronger and more questioning of her life, someone who gains confidence as the film progresses.

All through the film, there are constant references to the ‘path’, especially from Granny. Rosaleen must stay on the path, where it is safe; she must not stray from the path. The path is the safe way through the forest, which is dark and forbidding where all kinds of nasty things are just waiting to pounce on the unwary – just as in life. Keep to the prescribed rules of society, which will keep you safe; don’t explore or spread your wings, for you will surely take a tumble and be lost. It becomes blindingly obvious that Granny never strayed from the path, and now she’s alone with only her knitting and the stories she tells Rosaleen – stories that tell of punishment for those who stray from the path, who give in to temptation. Interestingly, when Rosaleen has a go at telling her own stories, they are positive and about the power that women have.

What I said before about fictional females being unable to function until a man comes along – I read quite a bit of young adult fiction as the stories I write are young adult fantasy, and I’ve noticed that that seems to be the way most young women are portrayed these days. They seem to wait around, seemingly helpless, for the man to save them from ‘whatever’!! The Rosaleen in the dream, however, is the opposite of these female protagonists – she is in charge of herself, she questions things; for example: when Granny says, “All alone in the woods and nobody there to save her” (referring to Rosaleen’s sister who was killed by the wolves), Rosaleen asks, “Why couldn’t she save herself?” And when Granny tells the story of the travelling man, Rosaleen doesn’t seem to be shocked by the werewolf who attacks his wife, but by the woman who fails to defend herself when her second husband hits her. By the end of the film, Rosaleen shows that she knows how to stand up for herself, unlike her sister and that woman, unlike her Granny even who never strayed from the path but still got eaten. When the huntsman changes into a wolf, Rosaleen doesn’t scream, neither does she get eaten. Instead she defends herself with a shotgun before embracing her adulthood and willingly becoming a wolf, mate to the huntsman’s wolf.

I also liked the way Rosaleen’s family is portrayed in a positive way. Yes, her mother is a housewife, a seemingly stereotypical role but she’s a strong woman, with her own views. I always wondered if Granny was her mother or mother to Rosaleen’s father, for Granny never referred to Rosaleen’s mother as her daughter. Surely Granny would have made sure her own daughter never strayed from the path … Rosaleen’s mother’s comment – “If there’s a beast in men it meets its match in women too” – doesn’t sound like something Granny would say!! That, and her mother’s seeming acceptance of Rosaleen’s wolf-transformation at the end, makes me wonder if, somewhere in her past, she strayed off the path, if only for a while? And if her mother strayed from the path and survived, maybe this gives Rosaleen the confidence to do so.

My favourite story in the whole film is the one which Rosaleen tells of the wronged woman who, pregnant, turns up at the aristocrat’s wedding party where she curses him and his guests to be wolves forever. I particularly like the part after the wolves run off, when the footmen bow to her and she bows in turn before swanning off, and the musicians play on! When the wolves come to serenade her baby, she takes pleasure in the power she has over them. Even though she was used and then left by the aristocrat, still she seemed to come out the winner.

My favourite scene is right at the end, when wolf-Rosaleen breaks out of Granny’s house and joins her mate as they race through the forest … then it becomes a whole pack of wolves (or cuddly German shepherds!) running and tumbling through the dream landscape of giant toys, through the house of the real Rosaleen, except now it looks abandoned, as if the forest is reclaiming it, up the stairs and bursting through the walls … When I first saw the film, I didn’t understand why the real Rosaleen woke up screaming; it was some years and many viewings later, when I was older, that I realised it had to do with the end of her childhood – how strange that the dream Rosaleen embraced her impending womanhood with confidence but for the real Rosaleen, it was something she seemed to fear.

I admit there are still bits of the film that I just don’t get – like when Rosaleen climbs the tree, finds the nest with the 4 beautiful eggs and they ‘hatch’ to reveal the little figures, and later, when the one she shows her mother sheds a tear … I really don’t get that at all.

I also have the Angela Carter book that has the stories that are in the film. Obviously the book is so much darker and more explicit than the film, but I enjoy both – the book gives so much more food for thought and the film is a visual treat.

I’m looking forward to reading the wonderful entries and discussions, though I shall endeavour not to wish the month away! Happy for you to use my name – Joy Spicer; I do have a blog but I don’t tend to post about my writing … though I might if and when I do get an agent and, fingers crossed, a publisher!

http://joyous-art.blogspot.com/

Advertising: What if Cinderella hadn't been at the party?

Tagline: What if Cinderella hadn't been at the party?
When you miss an important event, you could be missing much more than just an event.

For Meio e Mensagem, Advertising Events and Seminars

Advertising Agency: Moma, Propaganda, Brazil
Creative Director: Rodolfo Sampaio
Copywriter: Rodolfo Sampaio
Art Director: Fábio Baraldi
Illustrator: Fernando Moussali / Agency Team
Published: October 2010

Found via Ads of the World.

Totally Off Topic, Downton Abbey 2 Trailer

Had to share because I am excited for winter just to see this. The music, by the way is With or Without You by Scala & Kolacny Brothers.

Edited: I changed the video to the longer version of the preview. So, so excited...

Sulagna Panigrahi

 Sulagna Panigrahi latest images, 05 more images after the break...

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Ritemail Picdump — 52 Pics

Ritemail Picdump 50 more images after the break...

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People without Eyebrows

 People without eyebrows, Eyebrows are very important part of our beauty, 17 more images after the break...

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12 Year Old Girl

This little girl with a big heart is the dream of the future. But doctors say that 12-year-old girl named Ontlametse Falaste was only a few years of life. It is the only black child diagnosed with Hutchinson-Gilford syndrome, Progeria - a rare fatal disease, accelerating the aging process. Children with this disease die from heart failure at the age of 8 to 21 years, suffering from high blood pressure, strokes, coronary artery disease and heart failure. On 9 June 2010 on 53 people suffering from progeria. 11 more images after the break...

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Crazy Horse Monument — Ruth Ziolkowski

 Crazy Horse sculptor's 85-year-old widow says it is her life's work to ensure world's largest monument is completed

Nearly every morning for more than half a century, 85-year-old Ruth Ziolkowski rises around dawn, puts her feet on the ground and gives thanks she is part of a dream. Since 1947, she has worked at the Crazy Horse monument to Native Americans in the Black Hills of South Dakota, where she is leading the effort to literally move a mountain. 08 more images after the break...

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Fairy Tale Films: The Slipper and the Rose

 

This is a slightly edited version of my original post about this film for my previous attempt at a fairy tale films theme. I am planning on a film post every day for the next month, including some of the reader submissions. I now have two! Thank you. Here's more to inspire and a link about the incentive for sharing your own.

For a discussion of fairy tale films, I must start with The Slipper and the Rose. After all, barring the animated Disney features, this was my very first fairy tale film. And for years I knew virtually nothing about it, even its title.

This is one of those movies that would be played as filler on Sunday afternoons on one of the local stations and occasionally the networks. I wasn't given much TV viewing time as a child, especially on Sundays, but on occasion a bout of bronchitis or such would send me to the couch on a weekend where this would appear magically on the little screen for me, with me usually missing some portion of the beginning and thus the title and credits sequence. I didn't know what it was but I knew I loved it and I remember rediscovering it at least two or three times before I finally was old enough to get a title from the TV guide in the paper. (Oh, I feel old.) The film wasn't even that old for it was released in 1976 but just timed for my discovery.

Then I eventually was able to record it when we owned a VCR and watched it quite a bit. I eventually saw it on the big screen when I was in college when it was shown one Friday night on campus. I was thrilled. I remember sitting in the theatre with some friends. It was a big audience that night and the first time Richard Chamberlain broke into song--for this is a musical--most of the guys in the audience broke into hoot and hollerin' laughter. They didn't know they were in for a musical, especially with Mr. Thorn Birds himself. Yes, the musical numbers just suddenly happen, so it is a shock, but I imagine a lot of guys didn't have very successful date nights if they didn't wise up quick because I doubt I was the only girl in the theatre with an emotional attachment to the movie.

Is it a perfect movie? No. Is it still a hidden gem? Yes, certainly. Here are my reasons why:

1. The aforementioned music. I think the music to this one blows Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella away, even my favorite version with Julie Andrews. I like some of the songs from R&H and even performed a few of them long ago for a musical comedy class, insuring I was quite intimate with them. I prefer these songs by the Sherman Brothers who also gave us the music to Mary Poppins. The tunes are catchier but lusher at the same time. And overall, they are consistently better than the R&H ones. There are some standouts by R&H but there are some I just don't like very well, too. I like all of the music offered here by the Shermans. Personal taste, but I have met many over the years who agree.

2. One of the bitterest complaints against this version is how passive Cinderella is. Valid point. However, I've always considered this movie to be the prince's story. We all forget that he is just about as passive as her in the tale. We even tend to dislike him for just being a silent paragon of princeliness who hasn't much character at all, a blank blob we can lay our own expectations over. The Slipper and the Rose shares his story about politics and protocol. He is expected to marry well and most certainly not for love. This becomes an important part of the plot, one usually glossed over or completely ignored in other versions of the tale. He has to fight for what he wants. It's different and thus entertaining. There are some unexpected twists to the story, too, not major ones, but somewhat unusual.

3. The setting and scenery and costumes, oh my. This is lush. It's the 70s fantasy version of another era and it is pretty to look at if not the height of historical accuracy. However, it is Cinderella so is historical accuracy necessary? No.

4. All the character actors. Singing and dancing no less. If you love BBC productions, so many of the faces we know, especially from older movies and series from the same era, are here. And they sing and dance which is quite amusing.

5. The Fairy Godmother as played by Annette Crosbie. She just may be my favorite fairy godmother. If I could pick one for myself, I'd pick her without a moment's hesitation. These days she is best known for One Foot in the Grave but she is a brilliant fairy godmother and made such an impact that I recognized her immediately when I first saw One Foot in the Grave. She has great lines and delivers them with great aplomb, many referencing other fairy tales which makes it fun for me as a grown-up who gets the references. She is spunky and funny and very no nonsense, a great antidote to the Disney Fairy Godmother with her Bibbidis and Bobbidies and Boos. 

Finally, the DVD is out of print and selling rather expensively. There are several illegal videos on YouTube--the studio hasn't pursed them--but I always feel bad showing them here even if they are one of the few ways to view the film since the studio isn't releasing the movie for purchase right now. However, I found a passable movie trailer made by a fan, so I thought I would share it here.

Elli Köngäs-Maranda Prizes: Call for Submissions 2011

Call for Submissions 2011
Elli Köngäs-Maranda Prizes
American Folklore Society Women’s Section

Each year, the Women’s Section of the American Folklore Society awards
two prizes in honor of pioneering scholar Elli Köngäs-Maranda. The
prizes recognize superior work on women’s traditional, vernacular, or
local culture and/or feminist theory and folklore.

Student Prize
· for an undergraduate or graduate student paper (up to 30 pages in length)
· entrants must either be currently enrolled in a degree program as
of the submission deadline or have been enrolled in one during the
2010-2011 academic year
· carries an award of $100
· submission deadline is September 30, 2011
· may be submitted as email attachment (preferred) or as hard copy


Professional/Non-Student Prize
· eligible work includes: publications, films, videos, exhibitions
or exhibition catalogues, or sound recordings
· materials should have been published/produced no more than two
years prior to the submission deadline
· carries an award of $250
· submission deadline (postmarked) is September 26, 2011
· please submit three copies of books, videos, etc.


The awards will be announced at the American Folklore Society Annual
Meeting in Bloomington, IN, October 13 – 16, 2011. Prize recipients
need not be members of the Society.

Please direct all submissions and questions to:
Jennifer Spitulnik-Hughes
University of Missouri
Department of English
114 Tate Hall
Columbia, MO 65211
jspitulnik (a) gmail dot com

About Elli Köngäs-Maranda
Internationally renowned feminist folklorist Elli Kaija Köngäs-Maranda
was born in Finland in 1932. She studied Finnish folklore at the
University of Helsinki and did her doctoral dissertation at Indiana
University (1963) on Finnish-American folklore. She held various
research positions, and taught at the University of British Columbia
(1970-1976) and at Laval University from 1976 until her premature
death in 1982. She was elected a Fellow of the American Folklore
Society in 1978. Academically, she was known for her structural
analysis of traditional culture, demonstrating precision and
mathematical intellect, but also for her eloquent writing. She
published extensively and in English, French, Finnish, German, and
Russian. Her feminism was particularly evident in her research and
writing on the Lau people, based on fieldwork conducted between 1966
and 1976. In 1983, the American Folklore Society Women’s section
inaugurated two prizes in her memory, one for student work and one for
professional work, funded by highly successful auctions, T-shirt
sales, the making and raffling of a quilt, and, most recently, the
sale of note cards commemorating that quilt.

Barbro Klein’s obituary gives the most personal feminist view of Elli (see Folklore Women’s Communication, fall-winter 1983 (30-31):4-7). For an example of Elli’s work, see "The Roots of the Two Ethnologies, and Ethnilogy.” Folklore Forum 15 #1 (1982):51-58, at http://hdl.handle.net/2022/ 1765. See also Felix J. Oinas, "Elli Kaija Köngäs Maranda: In Memoriam.” Folklore Forum 15 #2 (1982):115-123, at http://hdl.handle.net/ 2022/1778. A full bibliography of her work in French and English (as well as several example studies, a longer biography, and an introduction to her contributions to folkloristics) is in Travaux et Inédits de Elli Kaija Köngäs Maranda, Cahiers du CELAT 1, 1983. A later consideration of Elli’s intellectual contributions, particularly her unusual uniting of fieldwork and structural analysis, can be found in Leila K. Virtanen, "Folklorist Elli Kaija Köngäs Maranda: A Passionate Rationalist in the Field.” The Folklore Historian 17 (2000):34-41.

Troll Hunter Film

Have you heard about the Troll Hunter film? It is looking like the little film that could with the media coverage I have seen for it. It is a foreign film--Norwegian, no surprise--that draws a little bit of inspiration from The Blair Witch Project in its storytelling. The buzz is positive overall but I admit I don't do visual horror so someone will have tell me if its watchable for me before I try as much as I enjoy trolls thanks to my quarter Norwegian heritage. It's officially PG-13 although it has been rated R a few places, so I wonder. I am a wimp, but not as much as I think since I did translate and edit all of those Bluebeard tales which would certainly get a hardcore rating. And it's something different to offer in the way of folklore films here on SurLaLune.

Description from the official site:

The government says there’s nothing to worry about – it’s just a problem with bears making trouble in the mountains and forests of Norway. But local hunters don’t believe it – and neither do a trio of college students who want to find out the truth. Armed with a video camera, they trail a mysterious “poacher,” who wants nothing to do with them. However, their persistence lands them straight in the path of the objects of his pursuits: trolls. They soon find themselves documenting every move of this grizzled, unlikely hero – the trollhunter – risking their lives to uncover the secrets of creatures only thought to exist in fairy tales.

Amazon's description:

The Norwegian comedy-fantasy Troll Hunter, a surprise art-house hit across the globe, posits an intriguing question--what if monsters of folklore and popular culture existed, but were kept hidden by the government?--and delivers the results in a clever, faux-documentary format that underscores both the special effects and the satire. Controversial comedian Otto Jespersen is the title character, a world-weary, working-class stiff assigned by a bureaucratic agency to track and eliminate dangerous trolls from the Scandinavian countryside. The lack of respect and notoriety afforded by his job convinces Jespersen to allow a naive collegiate film crew to follow him on his hunts, which nicely balance quirky humor with genuine moments of suspense and some impressive CGI special effects for the trolls. Genre fans' appreciation for the "shaky-cam" subgenre (The Blair Witch Project, [REC], Cloverfield) will undoubtedly affect how they feel about Troll Hunter--the film's light comedy will certainly be lost on those unwilling to either believe or tolerate the idea of another film comprised of "found footage." But more forgiving viewers will be thankful for the rather seamless incorporation of the CGI trolls, all imaginatively rendered as part fairy-tale image and part biological specimen, into live-action scenes, as well as the dryly humorous satire of government "special projects." Pacing is also occasionally an issue--though beautiful, the Norwegian landscape receives far too much coverage--but for the patient, Troll Hunter is a unique and clever experience.

Here's the trailer:

Advertising: Fairy Tale Posters for Brain Candy Toys

I haven't had many advertising posts in a while. Then I saw these from earlier this year and fell in love with them, so I had to share. Obviously a campaign for BrainCandyToys.ca. Found via Ads of the World. Which one is your favorite? And really, what a fun way to introduce math equations, too! The more I look at them the more I like them.

Credits:

Advertising Agency: Revolve, Bedford, Nova Scotia, Canada

Creative Director: Matthew Allen
Associate Creative Director: Allan Carver
Art Directors: Eric Miller, Steve Wallace
Copywriters: Steve Wallace, Eric Miller
Illustrator: Eric Miller
Published: April 2011

 

Wicked by Gregory Maguire: Preorder Bargain Ebook

  

Wicked with Bonus Material: Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire is temporarily offered as a $2.99 preorder in ebook format at this link. There is no cover image yet so I used the paper versions above as well as the current ebook version which is $9.99. This book gets a lot of strong opinions so if you haven't read it, here's a chance to form your own. I'm finally going to see the loosely based musical in October out of curiosity because I am admittedly not an Oz enthusiast.

New Film: The Sorcerer and the White Snake

Here's a change for SurLaLune, a new film based on a Chinese folktale, Legend of the White Snake, that is making the press rounds now. And judging from these trailers it is visually stunning. Makes me want to watch Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon again.

From Action stars put modern twist on classic fairy tale:

Veteran action star Jet Li and action director Tony Ching haven't forgotten their adult audiences, even though their latest movie is the children's fairy tale "The Sorcerer and the White Snake."

The movie, based on a Chinese fairy tale much like Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty, made its world premiere out of competition Friday at the Venice Film Festival.

Cast members said they recalled first hearing the classic tale from their grandmothers.

But Ching says he sought to put a modern twist on the fable by mixing action with special effects. He says "the idea was to blend Chinese tradition, which is martial arts, with Western technology."

There's more about the tale on Wikipedia, with more links to learn more. Here's an excerpt:

The Legend of the White Snake is a Chinese legend, which existed as oral traditions before any written compilation. It has since become a major subject of several Chinese opera, films and television series.

The earliest attempt to fictionalize the story appears to be The White Maiden Locked for Eternity in the Leifeng Pagoda (白娘子永鎮雷峰塔) in Feng Menglong's Jingshi Tongyan (警世通言), which was written during the Ming Dynasty.

At its most basic, the story tells of a young scholar who falls in love with a beautiful woman, unaware that she is a thousand year old white snake that has taken on human form. A monk intervenes in order to maintain nature's law and casts the white snake into a deep well at Leifeng Pagoda.

Over the centuries the story has evolved from horror story to romance with the scholar and the white snake-woman genuinely in love with one another, but such a relationship is forbidden by nature's law. There have also been variations on the telling of the story : like the thousand year old white snake have met the boy before and the story continues as reincarnation; or the white snake's offspring being a reincarnation of Wenchang Wang.

An additional character is a hundred year old green snake (or in some cases a carp) that has also transformed into a woman, and serves as the white snake-woman's soul sister and confidante.

Wildwood: The Wildwood Chronicles, Book I by Colin Meloy and illustrated by Carson Ellis

Wildwood: The Wildwood Chronicles, Book I by Colin Meloy and illustrated by Carson Ellis. Colin Meloy, lead singer of The Decemberists, has written a children's book. This doesn't sound like the usual "celebrity" books. It sounds like a likeable read, but what I found the most interesting was the accompanying playlist which makes total sense considering the author is a musician and the current popularity of playlists with many YA and adult novels. I am including both the book description and the playlist for that reason. Whether or not you are interested in the book, the music may interest many readers here. Of course, being a celebrity penned book it has already been optioned for a movie by those who brought Coraline to the screen.

And, yes, most of the articles and press mention that the book draws from fairy tales, but from what I can tell it is pretty much in the way most fantasy does. (I keep reading "murder of crows" in the articles about the book and can't help but hear it in Sting's voice from his "All This Time." Yes, music influences us.) I haven't read the book, I was informed of it by the press blitz.


Book description:

Prue McKeel’s life is ordinary. At least until her baby brother is abducted by a murder of crows. And then things get really weird.

You see, on every map of Portland, Oregon, there is a big splotch of green on the edge of the city labeled “I.W.” This stands for “Impassable Wilderness.” No one’s ever gone in—or at least returned to tell of it.

And this is where the crows take her brother.

So begins an adventure that will take Prue and her friend Curtis deep into the Impassable Wilderness. There they uncover a secret world in the midst of violent upheaval, a world full of warring creatures, peaceable mystics, and powerful figures with the darkest intentions. And what begins as a rescue mission becomes something much bigger as the two friends find themselves entwined in a struggle for the very freedom of this wilderness.

A wilderness the locals call Wildwood.

Wildwood is a spellbinding tale full of wonder, danger, and magic that juxtaposes the thrill of a secret world and modern city life. Original and fresh yet steeped in classic fantasy, this is a novel that could have only come from the imagination of Colin Meloy, celebrated for his inventive and fantastic storytelling as the lead singer of the Decemberists. With dozens of intricate and beautiful illustrations by award-winning artist Carson Ellis, Wildwood is truly a new classic for the twenty-first century.

And the playlist:

A Wildwood Playlist by Colin Meloy & Carson Ellis

"Ramble On" by Led Zeppelin
Colin Meloy: I remember reading an interview with Evan Dando from the Lemonheads right around the time the first Lord of the Rings movie came out, bemoaning the fact that the director hadn’t included a single Zeppelin song in the movie. I tend to agree; I mean, how rad would it’ve been after that dramatic ending in The Return of the King, with all its royal celebrations and slo-mo montages—the screen goes black and those monster riffs of “Immigrant Song” kick in? Mind-blowing. So much incredible music in the 60s and 70s was directly fueled by mid-century fantasy fiction, something that Wildwood owes much to; I feel it would be deeply remiss here not to include a little Zepp.

"Marching Song" by Esben and the Witch
Colin Meloy: That said, when I was deep in my preadolescent reverie of fantasy and sci-fi, my friends and I would meet every weekend at someone’s house to play Dungeons & Dragons. There. Confession made. And as everyone knows, the best Dungeon Masters always partnered up their biggest action scenarios with music. While I think it may have been de rigueur to blast Zeppelin or Hawkwind for some folks, I considered myself to be somewhat of a sophisticate. Joy Division was perfect music for a slow, suspenseful crawl through a gelatinous cube-infested grotto. The Legendary Pink Dots added an extra dimension to a party’s first encounter with some weird, reclusive nemesis in a castle tower. An Enchantress might appear to “Under Ice” by Kate Bush or anything from Siouxsie’s output. When I first heard this song from Brighton, England’s Esben and the Witch (even the name is evocative of those days) I imagined a new generation of over-imaginative ten-year-olds pairing their fantastical ramblings with the drowning rains and empty plains of this song.

"Take It Easy" by Hopeton Lewis
Colin Meloy: Switching gears, here. Rocksteady, a kind of precursor to the reggae explosion of the 70s, was a beautiful, thoughtful, random amalgam of classic R&B and traditional Jamaican rhythms. It’s clearly the kind of music that is birthed out of necessity; a bunch of poor kids in the slums of Kingston figuring out for themselves how to re-create the sounds that they were hearing over crappy radio speakers: Sam Cooke, Ben E. King, and Sam & Dave. And what came out wasn’t quite the same, but beautiful and weird and extraordinary in its own right. All this to say: I think that rocksteady music is the music of true enjoyment, the aural equivalent of a slice of bacon, and a rocksteady party was the kind of party I imagined Prue’s parents would throw to celebrate Mac and Prue’s joyful return. And I’ll bet that Prue’s dad dug deep for some Lewis sides—maybe he even had them on 45.

"Tam Lin" by Fairport Convention 
Colin Meloy: My 60s Brit Folk obsession is fairly well documented, but I thought I’d be remiss if I didn’t include an old folk song in this list. This one, in particular, features a forbidding forest and an evil fairy queen and a pair of star-crossed lovers. Clocking in just north of seven minutes, it’s as immersive and complete a narrative as a song can hope to retell.

"Jar of Hearts" by Christina Perri 
Carson Ellis: I love Sibylle Baier’s mournful songs and I listened to them a lot when I was working on Wildwood, especially during the rainy months. Portland winters can be dreary and sometimes gloomy music is the best thing for them. This isn’t my very favorite song of hers, but I chose it because, you know, the title.

"I Lost Something in the Hills" by Sibylle Baier
Carson Ellis: The intensity and focused passion of this song makes me think of my darling Jack, along with the references to heaven and hell, a favorite theme of his.

"My Lovely Elizabeth" by S.E. Rogie
Carson Ellis: Wildwood has a lot of illustrations—85 in all—and it was hard work getting them done. Man, I love to draw but at times this project was exhausting. At times it was downright grueling. Fortunately, I have some remedies for this: taking a walk always helps, as does yoga, as does S. E. Rogie.

"Katie Cruel" by Karen Dalton
Carson Ellis: This is a spooky traditional song that dates back to the Revolutionary War. Like Wildwood’s villainess, Alexandra, Katie Cruel roams the forest and the “bogs and mire,” jilted and in exile. This is a good song to listen to while walking in Forest Park, the real woods that were the inspiration for Wildwood’s Impassable Wilderness. Or while walking in any misty, quiet forest where beards of moss hang from the gnarled branches of dead trees and there’s little sign of civilization. You can imagine that around any bend you might find the solitary hut of Katie Cruel, a little curl of smoke drifting up from its chimney and the sound of her high lonesome banjo coming from within. I also love this song’s beautiful, totally unhinged chorus:

Oh that I was where I would be,

Then I would be where I am not,

Here I am where I must be

Go where I would, I cannot.

"Over the Hills and Far Away" by Led Zeppelin
Carson Ellis: I’m a longtime Led Zeppelin fan and this song, in addition to having a fitting title, was another one I loved when I was Prue’s age. I first heard it around the time I read The Hobbit, and I thought its medieval vagabond vibe was awesome. I’m also a sucker for a song that starts with a pretty guitar part and then gets crazy. As an adult I tend to like Zeppelin’s earlier, bluesier stuff better but, as a kid, I loved the Middle Earth-ish stuff and “Over the Hills and Far Away” was my jam.