The About The Characters post series focuses on the minor characters in The Wall Of Night series, in large part because:

“I think it’s the presence of the smaller characters that “makes” a story, creating texture around the main points of view.”

~ from my Legend Award Finalist’s Interview, 2013

Initially, the series focused exclusively on characters from The Heir of Night, but now I’m continuing on with minor characters from both The Gathering Of The Lost and Daughter of Blood — in alphabetical order, by name, of course!

Currently the focus is on “M”—but it may be a challenge to equal or better the number of entries for “L.” Consider the gauntlet thrown down! 😊

—

Manan: an inn-wife and healer on the Northern March of Emer, in the Southern Realms of Haarth

“Aha, so you are awake at last!” said a voice so smooth and rich it made Carick think of cream. The door opened wider, admitting one of the largest women he had ever seen. She must have been at least six feet tall, with a mass of curling, dark brown hair piled up haphazardly and kept in place by combs. The body between shoulder and ankle billowed generously and was arrayed in layers of blouse, kirtle, and a lavishly embroidered cote that made her seem larger still. … Carick…thought she was beautiful, with skin as creamy as her voice and the largest, merriest, velvet-brown eyes he had ever seen. It was only when she came to stand by the bed and smiled down at him that he saw the deeply etched crow’s-feet at the corners of her eyes, and threads of silver in her dark hair. “Well, well,” the woman said, smiling still, “we were starting to think your sleep was going to last forty years, like the young man in the fable.”

~ from © The Gathering of The Lost, The Wall Of Night Book Two – Chapter 13, Normarch

Final Giveaway Reminder:

Firstly, The Hobbit/The Heir of Night giveaway closes today – at midnight (NZ time) to be precise, for any who may still be debating whether or not to enter.

A couple of those entering have asked why the 10 day gap between the giveaway closing and announcing the recipient. Although it seems a long time, sometimes it takes a while for the winner to claim the giveaway, and at least once I’ve had to redraw, so now I like to allow time for any wrinkles to get ironed out.

Over On Supernatural Underground:

Supernatural Underground HQ were kind enough to spruik the giveaway, but AK Wilder also has an ebook special right now for Crown of Bones, plus the netgalley for Curse of Shadows, the second book in her Amassia series, is now available for review. So if either of those opportunities grabs your interest, head on over to find out more:

Supernatural Underground: Galleys, Giveaways & A Special

WALL #4 Update

Just a headsup that this will post next Monday, 22 August.

NZ Poetry Month

I believe it’s NZ Poetry Month currently, with NZ Poetry Day on August 26. So I shall try and post something poetic for you before the month is out.

By way of a headsup, I’ve finished reading Joanna Preston’s Tumble, which won this year’s Ockham NZ Poetry Award, so will try and get back to you with a report on that, too. Maybe in Poetry Month, who knows? O-o…

Conclusion:

I think that’s about it on the this ‘n’ that front – otherwise, have a great start to your weeks and see you Thursday for more About The Characters goodness.

Just a reminder that I’m currently running a belated Tolkien Reading Day giveaway of The Hobbit, together with The Heir of Night (The Wall Of Night, Book One), which closes on at midnight, next Monday 15 August (NZ time.)

 

To enter, email me at contact[at]helenlowe[dot]info with “Giveaway” in the subject line and your name and contact details in the body of the email.

For full details, click here.

I’ll announce the recipient here on Thursday 25 August.

~*~

At which time, dear readers, it will be Just One Week until The Rings of Power: Second Age drops on Amazon.

If you’re anything like me, this will be a cause of excitement, because the teasers and trailers do look visually spectacular. But also trepidation, because what if the casting of a much-loved character, such as Galadriel or Elrond, or the retelling of one of the famous prequel stories, such as the forging of the rings, or the fall of Numenor, falls short?

Will I be watching to find out, though? You betcha!

Over the past week I’ve been reflecting on the last two weeks’ Monday posts:

• “The Hobbit”, Tolkien’s Legacy — & A Giveaway!
• “The Hobbit”: There & Back Again – 85 Years On!

Yes, exclamation marks are much in evidence, but that’s not the source of my reflections. 😀

Chiefly, I’ve been mulling further on eighty-five years and legacy – for all the reasons set out in the two posts, which is really why I wanted to write something that recognized it, as well as about the gift book that sparked everything off.

I’ve also been thinking about my personal anecdote of first reading The Hobbit, along with my not-inconsiderable resistance to doing so, and wondering if there are any larger lessons to be drawn from any of it? Such as:

Lesson the First: Don’t be a contrarian – and always be prepared to get over yourself and try the new! A lesson I’m always relearning, to be honest, although often in different contexts.

Lesson the Second: The important part libraries play in allowing readers to explore the new by offering a wide range of works, both developing young and new readers, and also enabling adult readers to both continue reading full-stop as well as to explore the new.

For example, the small country library referenced in last Monday’s post was really just a corner of the local hall, with volunteers opening it a couple of times a week. The books were provided and “rotated/renewed” by the National Library of New Zealand’s Country Library Service, so The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings would not have been permanently available.

However small, it played a vital role because our community was eighty kilometers from the nearest small town, so without the local ‘branch’ readers would have had far greater difficulty in sourcing new reading material—and my discovery of Tolkien, facilitated by a nexus of specific circumstances, might have been delayed even longer, or never happened at all. O:o…

Lesson the Third: The equally vital part parents play in encouraging and facilitating reading and learning generally in their kids. I recall my parents reading to us and encouraging us to read independently from a very early age. I am particularly mindful, too, that in The Hobbit anecdote recounted last week, my Mum was actively looking for books she thought I would like, as opposed to what she would necessarily choose for herself. She didn’t care for science fiction and fantasy, you see, but knew I did…

The Giveaway — Just ICYMI (“Eyeroll” 😀 )

The “paying it forward” giveaway (although in this case I think it may be  more paying it back – even if I can’t personally account for the full 85 years of ‘back’ 😉 ) of The Hobbit / The Heir of Night is still running. Full details are here and there’ll be a reminder post before it closes, which is on August 15.

 

As For That Postponed WALL#4 Update – It’s Coming Very Soon!

By way of reassurance amid all these other reflections, I haven’t forgotten the WALL #4 update post that I postponed from July 7. I’ve just about finished the section I wanted to get done before updating, so if not next week (fingers crossed!), it should definitely be on for the week after.

On which note—back to the writing desk!

I know, how can it be August already?!

But it is—which means that on Monday 1, US EST, I posted Instalment #6 of the What Makes A Hero series on Supernatural Underground.

This month’s theme is Charisma and in addition to checking out some charismatic heroes—and some villains!—I’m exploring whether charisma is necessary to the making of a Fantasy hero.

Here’s a snippet to get you started:

“Charisma—from glamour and the swashbuckling bravura that inspires others to emulate the hero’s behavior, through to allure and the ability to charm people to a cause—undoubtedly help us to cheer for a protagonist and engage with their ‘path of trials’…The question remains, though, whether charisma is necessary to a Fantasy hero.”

To read more, click on:

What Makes A Hero #6 — Charisma

Last week, I shared receiving a gift of The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien from The Wall of Night series’ publisher, Harper Voyager, and discussed Tolkien’s literary and fantasy legacy.

Only to realize, in retrospect, that I had omitted a salient fact, which is that another reason for the gift is because 2022 is the 85^th year since The Hobbit was first published, away back in 1937!

I don’t know about you, but that feels like a significant numbers of years in print to me, and another amazing achievement, alongside the other notable elements of Tolkien’s legacy featured last week.

All of which made me reflect upon my first encounter with The Hobbit and the consequences thereof.

Unlike The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit is a children’s book, which means I was a late starter in the Tolkien reading stakes, because although I did read it first, I didn’t do so until I was fifteen!

By way of guilty confessions, I recall this late start being because so very many people assured me I would love The Lord of the Rings that I stubbornly refused to read it. (Words like contrary do rather spring to mind…)

However, I was quite ill with the ’flu during a school holiday that year, and exceedingly bored by the end of my convalescence, when my Mum brought me back The Hobbit from our local country library. Sufficiently bored that although she passed on the local schoolmaster’s assurance that I “would love it” (imagine the eyeroll, dear readers, as only a 15-year-old can execute the same) I gave in, albeit grudgingly, and read it.

The rest, as they say, is history. 😀

I was already a Fantasy fan, having devoured (metaphorically speaking) many volumes of Norse and Greek myths, the Arthurian cycle, and more general folklore and fairytales, as well as authors such as CS Lewis and Alan Garner, Ursula Le Guin, Joy Chant, and Rosemary Harris, among many others. So of course I was going to enjoy The Hobbit once I got over myself and read it.

I was fifteen, though, and The Hobbit is, as aforementioned, a children’s book. So although I appreciated the story, I wasn’t swept away by it. I read it quickly, though, so was still convalescing and still bored once it was done, so graciously agreed that my Mum could get me The Lord of the Rings next. (Since it was also in our country library at that time.)

As most of you will know, The Lord of the Rings begins in similar vein to The Hobbit with the Long Awaited Party—but very quickly transitions into a far darker and unquestionably adult work. Immediately that happened, dear readers, I was hooked and could not put it down (almost literally.) I loved The Lord of the Rings every bit as much as those who knew me thought I would, and maybe even more.

The Hobbit’s other significant achievement, besides getting me to read a book that’s become a lifelong companion and one of those old friends I will always return to and re-read, is that The Lord of The Rings ensured I became an adult reader of Fantasy fiction.

Although it probably would have happened anyway, there was always a possibility I might have pigeonholed the genre as childhood reading. Whereas once I finished The Lord of The Rings the die was cast: once recuperated, I began scanning every available bookshop and library shelf for moar of the same.

So I guess you may now have more of an inkling (no pun intended*) why I might want to celebrate The Hobbit with a giveaway. (Details as per last week’s post and with the essentials reiterated immediately below.

If you have a story of your own first encounter with The Hobbit or The Lord of The Rings (or any other of Tolkien’s works), I welcome you sharing them in the comments.

 

* The implicit pun is that JRR Tolkien, together with CS Lewis, belonged to a writing group 
called The Inklings.

—

The Giveaway Essentials

 

• I’m giving away a copy each of The Hobbit & The Heir Of Night (Wall 1). (NB: Not necessarily the editions shown.)
• The opportunity to put your name in the hat will close midnight, Monday 15 August (NZ time) with the recipients posted on August 25.
• To enter, email me at contact[at]helenlowe[dot]info with “Giveaway” in the subject line and your name and contact details in the body of the email.

Although many of you may already have both books, there’s always the possibility of gifting to a new reader – perhaps even another fifteen-year-old with a contrary disposition and a black belt in eyerolling. 😀

“Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.”

― G.K. Chesterton, 1874 – 1936

.
Or not—depending on the story being told… 😉

 

In Case You Missed It – There’s A Giveaway!

I know, I know, it’s a Middle Earth Age since I’ve done one of these – but receiving a gift book myself moved my own gifting spirit, so to speak (as it were!) 😀

The full details are in Monday’s post, but the fundamentals are:

• I’m giving away a copy each of The Hobbit & The Heir Of Night (Wall 1). (NB: Not necessarily the editions shown.)
• The opportunity to put your name in the hat will close midnight, Monday 15 August (NZ time) with the recipients posted on August 25.
• To enter, email me at contact[at]helenlowe[dot]info with “Giveaway” in the subject line and your name and contact details in the body of the email.

The entries have already begun arriving, but the more the merrier so don’t hold back. 😀

A Gift

Relatively recently, I was surprised but pleased to receive a gift edition of The Hobbit from The Wall of Night series’ publisher, Harper Voyager.

Since 2021, Harper Voyager has also been the publisher of the Tolkien Estate, which now includes a large number of works, but the most significant are (fairly unquestionably, I feel) The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

So I very much appreciated the gift of the book.

A Legacy

The Harper Voyager representative who wrote the covering letter was also kind enough to say that I am “now a colleague of the Tolkien Estate.”

Although I know association does not mean that Tolkien’s lustre in any way reflects upon me or my work, I nonetheless feel the honour of the association, both as a longtime Fantasy reader and a Fantasy author.

Perhaps I should say, particularly as an author, because JRR Tolkien (again unquestionably, I believe) established Fantasy as a distinct category of literature, where previously it had been classed together with—and as—Science Fiction. JRR Tolkien, chiefly through The Lord Of The Rings, also cemented epic and heroic fantasy as a class of Fantasy in its own right.

Although that is more than sufficient to make association a great honour, Tolkien’s works have also delighted and inspired millions of readers. I can think of no greater legacy.

A Coda…

The only negative in all of this was that I was supposed to receive The Hobbit gift in time for Tolkien Reading Day on March 25.

Unfortunately, due to the current parlous state of international shipping the book did not arrive until considerably after that date. Suffice it to say that I remained all unknowing as Tolkien Reading Day came and very much went.

Yet for those who love and reread Tolkien on a regular basis (yup, I’m outed!), every day is pretty much Tolkien Reading Day so I’m celebrating the gift, my many years of reading enjoyment, and JRR Tolkien’s enduring legacy today, July 25. 😀

I hope you will celebrate with me!

And A Giveaway

To help the celebratory spirit along, I am giving away a copy of The Hobbit (not my gift copy, because that would be naff), but a copy, together with The Heir of Night (The Wall Of Night, Book One)—which is, again unquestionably, very much in the epic and heroic quadrant of the fantasy ‘verse.

The opportunity to enter will close at midnight, Monday 15 August (NZ time) and I’ll post the lucky recipient here on Thursday 25 August.

Note: The editions gifted will be paperback not ebook editions, but the covers and size may not reflect those shown below.

To enter, just email me at contact[at]helenlowe[dot]info with “Giveaway” in the subject line and your name and contact details in the body of the email.

And although many of you may already have both books, it could still be a great opportunity to gift them to new readers—in which case, enter away. Or as my agent, the indefatigable Robin Rue would say, “Let’s have some fun with this!”

A big part of “wot I do” here on “…Anything, Really” is read and share m’thoughts on books I’ve enjoyed reading. Usually this is a pretty easy process, but I felt the stakes were higher with Maus, because of the controversy around it being removed from the Eighth Grade reading curriculum by a school board in Tennessee, USA. The reasons cited, I believe, were “content” and “age appropriateness.”

In the interests of avoiding knee-jerk reactions, I wanted to take my time over reading the book and penning this post. As noted when it arrived, I do believe it’s essential that we read such works for ourselves and form our own views around their merit, rather than relying on the opines of others.

Having said that, the complete Maus (comprising volume one, Maus: A Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds History and volume 2, And Here My Troubles Began) was awarded the Pulitzer Prize (the Special Award in Letters) in 1992, which I do give considerable weight when considering the opines of others. 🙂

Nonetheless, having read and reflected, my view is that Maus is a profound, deeply moving, and thought provoking work of literature.

What Maus Is About

What follows is not a synopsis, for the simple reason that I think it’s impossible to encapsulate Maus. I really believe it’s a work that one can only experience firsthand. In very broad terms, however, Maus is about the experience of the Spiegelman family, and particularly of the author’s father, Vladek Speigelman, during the precursor to the Nazi invasion of their Polish homeland in WW2, through the invasion and subsequent Holocaust, and into the aftermath of the war.

The events of WW2 are juxtaposed with Vladek’s final years in America, as seen through the lens of his son, Art, who is conducting a series of interviews with him. The interviews were undertaken with a view to creating the cartoon, or graphic novel, that became Maus.

Maus: The Creative Motif

Maus is a graphic novel, i.e. a narrative of some length and complexity, told in cartoon format, which I believe contributes to its narrative power. The central creative motif comprises the various nationalities caught up in WW2 being portrayed in animal guise: specifically, with heads and faces in animal guise; the rest of the character’s body is drawn as human.

So, the Jews are mice (hence Maus); the Poles, pigs; the Germans, cats; the Americans are dogs, the Swedes reindeer; and the artist/author’s French wife is initially depicted as a frog. There are other depictions, but these are the main ones.

There is a logical flaw in what I’ve just written, though, which you may have spotted. I spoke of nationalities, when in fact the Spiegelman family were Polish by nationality, Jews by religion. Similarly, when in the USA, they are American by nationality, and again, Jews by religion. So although almost all the other guises are nationalities, that of “mouse” reflects a religious group within nationalities—which I guess is what Hitler and the Nazi regime did. A particular religion, the Jews, were singled out from the rest of their nationalities, whether German, Polish, French et al, and persecuted as a separate people.

Describing that process, and the human suffering involved, is central to Maus, which may be why Art Spiegelman chose a quote from Adolf Hitler as its epigraph:

“The Jews are undoubtedly a race, but they are not human.”

The narrative that follows, in my humble opinion, consistently and repeatedly underlines the extent to which Hitler was wrong: the Jewish people in Maus are entirely human, reflecting the full and varied “sorts and conditions” of humanity, and therefore, being fully human, cannot be a species apart.

Returning to the central creative motif of animal guises, I would also describe it as a self-aware motif. At times, the mouse guise is clearly drawn as a mask over the underlying nationality of Pole, French person, and so on. While at the beginning of Maus II, And Here my Troubles Begin (which starts with chapter one, Mauschwitz, so you get the picture), the author discusses “how he should draw her” with his French wife, Francoise.

Why I Think Maus Is A Profound Work of Literature

Although I have read and viewed a great many fiction and non-fiction works relating to the Holocaust, Maus still stands out for me. Yet a work can be moving because of its subject matter, without necessarily being great literature

The reasons I believe Maus not only stands out but is literature, is because of the power of the graphic format, the weight of the subject matter, and the subtlety and nuance involved in crafting the narrative, which works at several levels.

At one, it’s the story of Vladek’s wartime experience and a portrait of him as a survivor, as told through his responses to the interview questions posed by Art. In this sense the story, although based on lived historical  events, is also personal and episodic. The narrative moves back and forward in time, between Vladek’s wartime experiences, including Auschwitz and Dachau, and the end-of-life interviews with Art.

It’s also very much an account of how survival has shaped Vladek and Art’s mother, Anja (who committed suicide in 1968), as well as Vladek’s second wife, Mala, and Art himself, as the child of two survivors.

It’s also a story about what survival means, and the emotional reactions and judgments attached to it, including those the survivors themselves—for example, guilt, shame, and despair—as well as the judgments of others.

Most of all, it’s a story of the relationship between a father and son, with all the normal challenges and difficulties where the father and son are very different personalities, compounded by the Holocaust—with Art always trying to determine how much of what shapes and distorts the relationship is “just his father”, and how much is the Holocaust legacy.

Unquestionably, Art has a difficult relationship with Vladek, and this is one axis of the Maus story. The other, I believe, is Vladek’s devotion to his wife, Anja, and determination to hold onto their relationship and be reunited with her. Tellingly, it is their reunion that marks the culmination of the book: the winning through of love (I will not say “triumph”, given all they’ve endured and still have to face together) in the face of darkness, hardship, and loss—which should be unimaginable, but isn’t, because we have very clear records of exactly what occurred. So we do not need to imagine: we know.

Although the Holocaust story is one of horrors, the narrative’s juxtaposition of past and present grounds the reader in hope, by showing Vladek’s survival and a brighter future—one in which there is room for family dynamics and differences.  So at the other end of the book, but also through the book, we see Art’s fraught relationship with Vladek, but also his love and admiration: Maus is testament to it.

My view that Maus is a profound work of literature is not solely because of its subject matter, or the way in which the past is interrogated through the lens of Art’s relationship with his father in the present. The graphic format also contains and confines the horror. It’s a very spare form of storytelling because so much of the narrative is contained in the images: for example, when we see the mouse guise as a mask, and when it’s integral to the character. For all their starkness, the events are sparely told: this is Vladek’s experience and recounted in his words—including any observations and interpretations, which tend to be confined to the events themselves, rather than animadverting on a larger picture.

Nonetheless, as readers we understand very clearly what the larger picture is. The narrative reveals it very clearly, through the effects of events on the characters. Yet despite those effects, the story’s greatest achievement is that it is not a story of hatred, but of great humanity and of love: qualities that shine through the book, and together with its straightforwardness and the power of the graphic format, make Maus a compelling work. It’s a book I won’t readily forget.

Nonetheless, there are several moments and lines that stand out. One is Art’s conversation with his “shrink”, Pavel, who is also a Holocaust survivor. Art is speaking of his struggle with writing Maus, as well as his struggles with his father. The conversation turns to survival, and whether it is admirable to survive and therefore, conversely, victims should be blamed. Pavel concludes, re surviving the Holocaust, that:

“…Life always takes the side of life, and somehow the victims are blamed. But it wasn’t the BEST people who survived, nor did the best ones die. It was RANDOM!”

Vladek’s experience, as related through Maus, supports that view.

The second moment comes close to the end, when Art discovers family photographs and is looking through them with Vladek. So many photographs, yet only three in Anja’s (Art’s mother’s) family survived the Holocaust, and two in Vladek’s—including Anja and Vladek themselves. The rest, from the very old to the very young, were all gone.

Conclusion

I believe Maus is a great book; I recommend it unreservedly.

In terms of matters of content and age appropriateness for high school age readers, I don’t believe there is anything inappropriate in the content—and again note that it is compelling work of great humanity and love.

Maus also illuminates a period in history, one I believe it’s important we all know of, and understand. Works like Maus provide an important means of accessing that knowledge and understanding. In a high school curriculum context I would expect works to be read with teacher guidance, with the degree of guidance depending on the age of the students.

I studied 1930s Germany and WW2, including the Holocaust, twice while at High School, once at age 13-14, and again as a more senior student. I don’t believe there is anything in Maus that’s unsuitable for high school readers in either age group. I also read many works of equivalent emotional and subject-matter complexity independently during those years—without, I like to think, any noticeable ill effects, then or since. 😀

~*~

For the Record: I purchased my copy the complete Maus, which is a paperback edition, published by Penguin, 296 pages.

The About The Characters post series focuses on the minor characters in The Wall Of Night series, in large part because:

“I think it’s the presence of the smaller characters that “makes” a story, creating texture around the main points of view.”

~ from my Legend Award Finalist’s Interview, 2013

Initially, the series focused exclusively on characters from The Heir of Night, but now I’m continuing on with minor characters from both The Gathering Of The Lost and Daughter of Blood — in alphabetical order, by name, of course!

—

Malisande: a Normarch companion to Ghiselaine of Ormond

She seemed to know a great deal, Carick thought, for a girl who worked in an inn. Although—and here he took in details such as her smooth hands and confident manner—he was suddenly less sure that was her role, even when she picked up his breakfast tray. “Do you live here at the inn?” he asked, testing the waters.

Malisande shook her head. “I am one of the Countess Ghiselaine’s companions, from the Girls’ Dorter. But we are all here to learn, and Manan has the greatest knowledge of herbs and healing north of Caer Argent, maybe even in all Emer…So we all take our turn working with her.”

~ from © The Gathering of The Lost, The Wall Of Night Book Two – Chapter 13, Normarch
.

Yet Raven was not twisted, and Nherenor had not seemed so either, before he fell to his death. Even … Malisande, in Normarch… Ruthless yes, Malian thought now, and deadly, too, but I’m not sure I would have called her twisted. … I have also killed, she reminded herself: on rooftops and battlements and far down in the darkness of Night’s Old Keep

~ from © Daughter Of Blood: The Wall of Night Book Three — Chapter 16, The Dark Hours