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| SFReader Forums > SF Fiction and Art > Right Now I'm Reading.... > Group Read: The Worm Ouroboros | Forum Quick Jump
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Silly Boy
Schrödinger's Jester
      
Date Joined Dec 2007
Total Posts : 40
| Posted 1/6/2008 12:38 AM (GMT -4) |   |
Bill Ward said...No, I thought it was pretty useless actually. The kind of thing that would be excised from a modern novel for sure...the fact of its survival alone gives it a sort of charm I suppose, but it doesn't serve a function really. Maybe in a time before Fantasy with a capital F as a genre it was felt to be needed, I don't know. Superseding the Induction in importance, to me, is this line from the dedication: It is neither allegory nor fable but a Story to be read for its own sake. Now, that's an attitude I can relate too. I think Tolkien might have brought that line up in one of his essays as well, as an example of the kind of thing he thought 'faerie stories' ought to be.
It seemed to me to be a combination "hey, I'm about to delve into fantasy, here, so don't blame me if you were looking for something "serious" and an attempt to set a mood. The former, because (in my VERY limited understanding of literature) before the formal codification of the genres, some people could get a little pissy if it wasn't explicit from the onset that a book was "just" a fantasy. The more erudite of you in the crowd, feel free to slap me silly (or sillier, anyway) if I am wholly incorrect. As for the latter, I think (without having read ahead) that he has done an admirable job of conjuring up a sense of creepiness and dread about the house, and the events that are transpiring.
Oh, and if you want to hear "Les Barricades Mysterieuses," it's here:
you may have to copy and paste, since I have no clue what i'm doing...
"I used to think that the brain was the most wonderful organ in my body. Then I realized who was telling me this." Emo Phillips | | Back to Top | | |
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Nathan Jerpe
Acolyte
Date Joined Nov 2007
Total Posts : 228
| Posted 1/6/2008 8:21 AM (GMT -4) | | Silly Boy said...
It seemed to me to be a combination "hey, I'm about to delve into fantasy, here, so don't blame me if you were looking for something "serious" and an attempt to set a mood. The former, because (in my VERY limited understanding of literature) before the formal codification of the genres, some people could get a little pissy if it wasn't explicit from the onset that a book was "just" a fantasy. The more erudite of you in the crowd, feel free to slap me silly (or sillier, anyway) if I am wholly incorrect. As for the latter, I think (without having read ahead) that he has done an admirable job of conjuring up a sense of creepiness and dread about the house, and the events that are transpiring.
I think you're on to something, though even back then there was no hard and fast rule. Verne and Poe would often delve into fantasy implicitly, though from what I've seen it was more of a crescendo than an overture like we have here.
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Despiciblus
Neophyte
Date Joined Jul 2005
Total Posts : 78
| Posted 1/10/2008 12:21 AM (GMT -4) | | I’ve read that Eddison cribbed the names for the nations/factions in The Worm Ouroboros from his own childhood notebooks. Apparently the story had been stewing away in his mind from an early age. I wish I could site my source for this info but I’m drawing a blank.
I’m probably stating the obvious but this strange nomenclature is simply Eddison’s way to denote nationalism, and the genealogies of his world’s aristocracy. There's probably no hidden meaning in them. That said, I’m going to climb out on a limb with the following: since the tale reads like Jacobean lit in both plot and language, I’m wondering if the Witches, Demons, Goblins and Pixies might be reflections of the Greco-roman belief in the humors: blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile, which were supposed to explain behavioral differences in people. Ben Jonson did it, so why not Eddison?
Allen  | | Back to Top | | |
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Bill Ward
Biblioholic
Date Joined Jul 2006
Total Posts : 1669
| Posted 1/14/2008 7:55 PM (GMT -4) | | | | |
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von Darkmoor
Small Press Publisher (and Dancer still)
Date Joined Dec 2005
Total Posts : 2992
| Posted 1/15/2008 12:59 AM (GMT -4) | | moi?! Y ever 4? You're a big boy, Billie; methinks perhaps it is the overkill you've done to yourself the last few years. so you don't have 50 books read by the end of January - will you really melt away? 
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Bill Ward
Biblioholic
Date Joined Jul 2006
Total Posts : 1669
| Posted 1/15/2008 1:26 AM (GMT -4) | | | | |
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Nathan Jerpe
Acolyte
Date Joined Nov 2007
Total Posts : 228
| Posted 1/21/2008 11:16 PM (GMT -4) | | | | |
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Nathan Jerpe
Acolyte
Date Joined Nov 2007
Total Posts : 228
| Posted 2/1/2008 12:14 PM (GMT -4) | | | Below is a Dramatis Personae for the Worm Ouroboros. Might be fun to add annotations (short descriptions, what chapter a character was introduced in, etc.)
This is a work-in-progress.
HUMANS
Lessingham
Lessingham's wife(?)
ANIMALS
The Martlet
DEMONS
Lord Juss
Volle
Vizz
Lord Zigg
Spitfire
Goldry Bluzco
Brandoch Daha
Lady Mevrian
Astar of Rettray
Bremery of Shaws
WITCHES
Ambassador to the Demons
King Gorice XI
Corinius
Corund
King Gorice XII
Duke Corsus
Hacmon, son of Corund
Heming, son of Corund
Viglus, son of Corund
Dormanes, son of Corund
Laxus
Lady Sriva
Gallandus
Heming
Cargo, son of Corund
Dekalajus, son of Corsus
Gorius, son of Corsus
GOBLINS
Lord Gro
Gaslark
Teshmar
Helteranius
Zeldornius
Jalcanaius Fostus
PIXIES
La Fireez
Prezmyra
IMPS
Fax Fay Faz
Mivarsh Faz
Illarosh Faz
Lurmesh Faz
Gandassa Faz
Philpritz Faz
OTHERS
The Red Foliot
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Nik
Adept
Date Joined Feb 2007
Total Posts : 774
| Posted 2/1/2008 3:20 PM (GMT -4) | | Thanks, nathan, This is great. Don't forget Mevrian for the Demons category.
Nicholas Ian Hawkins
Forthcoming
"Knowledge and Dust," in Magic & Mechanica, from Ricasso Press, Winter 2008
Published
"Relativity," in FLASHSHOT, September 28, 2007
Visit my website, Trampler of Beautiful Phrases, at nihawkins.wordpress.com | | Back to Top | | |
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