Asakiyume mita

I read Linnets and Valerians because I was intrigued and entranced by what sovay described about the gold-hearted, black-hearted, and silver people (quotation here), especially the silver people, descended from fairy folk.

That turned out to be a wrong reason to read the book, or maybe what I should say is, whatever nebulous concept, and therefore hope for the story, that I had, based on that description, it was misguided. Those concepts didn’t really figure in the story the way I imagined they would. There’s genuine magic, both good and wicked, but its actions are almost all entirely congruent with everyday reality as ordinary people experience it. (Almost. There are some exceptions.)

But the immanent presence of magic that those words suggest is definitely present in the book, and if you adjust your eyes to see it, and turn your ears toward it, to hear it (like the singing of the bees), then it’s there, and its wonderful. Magic like this moment, when mist rolls in over Weeping Marsh (which I can’t help but associate with Marshwood Vale, which I recall seeing shrouded in mist when we lived in Dorset, one county over from the Devonshire setting of Linnets and Valerians):

When they turned and faced the other way the sunlit moor had vanished in a moving pall of gloom. There was no wind but the air that touched their faces was clammy and cold.

“The sea is coming in over the moor!” gasped Nan.

“And there are devils on horseback riding over the waves,” said Timothy. He spoke calmly but with a sort of despair, as well he might, for the sight was truly frightening. The waves that were rolling in were the high gray waves of storm but they made no sound and the terrible tossing riders made no sound either. It would have been less terrifying if they could have heard the crash of waves or the neighing of the horses.”

“Don’t yee be feared, children,” said Ezra. “ ‘Tis naught but mist rolling in over Weepin’ Marsh. It can come very sudden and take queer forms. But us’d best be going and quick too.” (239-240)

As much as by that magic, though, I was moved by the characters. When Betsy, the younger of the two Linnet girls (there are two girls and two boys), meets the reclusive Lady Alicia, two things happen that I love. First, we get a child’s eye view of a situation that the child can’t comprehend, but that the reader can (even if the reader’s simply an older child, which is likely the case for most readers of the book—I’m far above the target audience age). I find this style of unreliable narrator very effective:

( some excerpts )

But it’s not all solemn moments. There’s plenty of humor, too. For example, Robert, the oldest boy, is always imagining himself the hero of the moment:

Robert found he was sweating profusely and trembling like an aspen leaf. He did not know what an aspen leaf was but he knew it was what you trembled like when a moment of supreme crisis was safely past. (13)

Upon meeting Lady Alicia:

It was obvious that she did not like being visited and Robert bowed very humbly indeed, sweeping his feathered hat from his head. Sir Walter Raleigh could not lay his cloak at the feet of Gloriana, since she showed no signs of wishing to leave her chair, but his burning glance told her of his deep devotion.

“Is this histrionic gentleman your elder brother?” [Lady Alicia] asked Betsy. (116-117)

The plot of Linnets and Valerians centers around Lady Alicia’s missing son and husband and a village woman, Emma Cobley, who also happens to practice black magic and who was in love with Lady Alicia’s husband (and, in fact, essentially thrown over by him). She’s made harmful spells; those spells must be dissolved for the story to reach its happy end.

Which brings me to my only dissatisfaction with the story.

( has to do with the end--spoilers ahoy )

But this dissatisfaction is minor. I loved the book overall.

Fan Chengda (1126-1193), a government official of the Chinese Song dynasty, made observations of the people on Song China's southern frontiers. They're recorded in Treatises of the Supervisor and Guardian of the Cinnamon Sea, which wakanomori happens to have borrowed a copy of.

Fan's notes are fascinating:

( on pearl fishermen )

( the Ziqi people )

( embroidered faces )

Tune in next post for more ethnography, from a more recent era.