Bright as iron, swift as arrow, strong as oak. I am the land

[sovay]

Yesterday I woke up to the news that Robert Holdstock had died. He was not one of my formative writers, but one I resonated with: I discovered him in college, the summer I was unofficially teaching Latin at Belmont Hill and walked home past the same tiny used book store every day; they had the U.S. paperbacks of Mythago Wood (1984) and Lavondyss (1988) and their covers of masks and granite outcroppings must have caught my eye, because I kept picking them up, reading stray lines of prologue and weighing their weirdness, unsure whether they would be as wild and rough-barked as I was hoping or merely another iteration of crystally Celtic twilight. They were not the latter. My memory tells me that the school year had started by the time I finally brought Mythago Wood home and that I read Lavondyss by falling snow, but perhaps I associate the books so strongly with their presiding seasons that the story has changed inside my head. He wrote one of the three truest autumns I know. I am not pleased there will be no more in his timeless, blood-bronzed, shape-changing forests.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I saw this news yesterday too, but didn't know the author. Just now you prompted me to go read up about Mythago Wood.

I know that Greer's work is another of your truest autumns. Who does the third?

[sovay]

Just now you prompted me to go read up about Mythago Wood.

I think you might like it very much. The newest book in the cycle came out in June and I didn't even know: I am going to find it now.

I know that Greer's work is another of your truest autumns. Who does the third?

Angela Carter in "The Erl-King." I grew up on Ray Bradbury and Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962) is a magnificent evocation of October, but his autumns are more agricultural than wildwood; I turned out to prefer the latter.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I love the song of the Erl-King, and I love wildwoods, too--I might have to check out The Erl-King before Mythagos.

[eredien]

Ah. Mythago Wood is one of my formative books.

[wirewalking.livejournal.com]

I don't know his work, but you've just prompted me to go find it.

[thistleingrey.livejournal.com]

I read Mythago Wood a little too early to appreciate it well--at the time I recognized that it was very, very different from e.g. Paxson's The White Raven, but not how. Somewhere I have that 1984 paperback; it's past time for a reread.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

What's poignant for me is that I've yet to read him. Fool that I am, I was waiting. And now I'll never get to have that conversation with him in the borderland between our woods.

He walks in his ever-autumn. Winter will not come.

Nine

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's sad. He wasn't a formative writer for me, either, but I enjoyed Mythago Wood.

[4nt1g0n3.livejournal.com]

Wah! I still have the hard copy first edition of Mythago Wood that you gave me so many years ago. Its such a head trip - but wonderfully so. Speaking of which, I DO highly recommend House of Leaves, if you haven't gotten to it yet. Its a definite mind-fuck, and I'm barely half way through it!

[sovay]

Mythago Wood is one of my formative books.

I think I envy you that. I am sorry he's gone.

[sovay]

I don't know his work, but you've just prompted me to go find it.

For me, the two named here are his best; I would also recommend his collection The Bone Forest (1991), whose title novella really messed up my dreams.

[sovay]

Somewhere I have that 1984 paperback; it's past time for a reread.

I look forward to hearing what you think of it.

[kenjari.livejournal.com]

I loved the Mythago Wood cycle, although it was not formative for me. Ralph Vaughn Williams even shows up asa character in Lavondyss.

[sovay]

Ralph Vaughn Williams even shows up as a character in Lavondyss.

Yes!

[sovay]

Its such a head trip - but wonderfully so.

I feel very strongly about that kind of strangeness: it should exist in the world. And so should the people who write it.

Speaking of which, I DO highly recommend House of Leaves, if you haven't gotten to it yet.

I have a copy borrowed from greygirlbeast; I thought the first section I read was amazing and then I didn't finish it, because it was interfering with the thing I wanted to write. Which I haven't yet finished, so I might as well read House of Leaves.

[sovay]

What's poignant for me is that I've yet to read him.

He might have read you.

He walks in his ever-autumn. Winter will not come.

A good benediction.

[sovay]

He wasn't a formative writer for me, either, but I enjoyed Mythago Wood.

I like that it became an archetypal text for the handling of the mythos of England. That was very appropriate.

[sovay]

I love the song of the Erl-King, and I love wildwoods, too--I might have to check out The Erl-King before Mythagos.

It's the fifth story in her extraordinary collection The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories (1979), which gorgeously, rowdily, darkly by turns retells fairy- and folktales from "Little Red Riding Hood" to "Puss-in-Boots" in a variety of times and settings, late nineteenth-century France, Romania on the eve of World War I, Italy of the commedia and a wood of wolves that exists nowhere but in the words Carter uses to create it. As you can tell, I recommend the book highly.

(Then you should read Robert Holdstock, too. Speaking of songs, Lavondyss has as a supporting character Ralph Vaughan Williams.)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Short stories? Even better!

I'll put out a call for it on interlibrary loan.

Ralph Vaughan Williams? Cool!