Thank you so much as the blogger site hits 22,815 post views today! I appreciate the dozens of you that visit the blog or the site each week. A simple pitch is that, if you are reading the blog, you can always start at the 'main' site of edwardianjackal.com, as the blog and social are aggregated in a single view. I'm still working on bringing back all of the highest paged view items from the original .com site, so I have weekly changes since I moved domains.
Since the new .com has released last month, there has been 260 unique visitors. I am adding as many new features, and video (as it is the currency these days) on the same weekly clip to gain momentum as I wrap up the long-discussed novels.
“Fantasy writing must be grounded in both truth and life experience if it is to work. It can be as inventive and creative as the writer can make it, a whirlwind of images and plot twists, but it cannot be built on a foundation of air. The world must be identifiable with our own, must offer us a frame of reference we can recognize.
“Fantasy stories work because the writer has interwoven bits and pieces of reality with imagination to form a personal vision.”
Drayton as Amberle - with a bit of Photoshop play to the original.
Shannara, written by Brooks, is a set of ten high fantasy novels that have been adapted into an MTV series, starring Poppy Drayton. The show straddles the line of keeping the spirit of a post-apocalyptic earth - now embued with magic and a species evolution of humans, elves, trolls, gnomes and dwarves - while spinning a bit of pop through-out (read: sexy). There is an overtly obvious connection to tap into the Game of Thrones anthologies on television lately, so Shannara is an epic that can span several series. Specifically, the MTV series is based on The Elfstones of Shannara, which is actually book two in the series, but serves as a reasonable point to follow young characters on a quest to save the world from demons.
Armed with Brooks' quote above, and watching the series on Netflix, you get a sense of the didactic world of Brooks. There is very sharp lines between good and evil, innocence and cynicism. Wil Ohmsford is the last of his kind and holds precious magic that can usurp evil, and he must do so in the service of the young queen Amberle, who, in turn, can maintain the 'tree of life'.
And Amberle (Drayton), who's break-out role was on the Downton Abbey, playing Madelein Allsopp, brings an over-vulnerability to Amberle, who has the world upon her shoulders and enemies seemingly on all sides.
Drayton as Juliet.
Drayton's first major part was in a stage production of Romeo and Juliet, playing the titular role. This (as she intimates in this interview) was the role she most desired to play. Having a classical background as well as a great camera presence, makes Shannara a series to binge, especially if you are a fan of high fantasy and a bit of the post-apocalyptic.
As Juliet was her role, I thought of the difficult aspects to play in light of Juliet's last speech: "How if, when I am laid into the tomb, I wake before the time that Romeo Come to redeem me? there's a fearful point! Shall I not, then, be stifled in the vault, [2585] To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in, And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes? Or, if I live, is it not very like, The horrible conceit of death and night, Together with the terror of the place,— [2590] As in a vault, an ancient receptacle, "
And someone on youtube (of course) has put together this scene study:
"The measure done, I’ll watch her place of stand,
And, touching hers, make blessèd my rude hand.
Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight!
For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night."
- Romeo, Act I, Scene 5
Ugliness shall not stand,
the putrid way of sullen boors lacks all
and does not walk upon the stretch of time.
True beauty, real love
rise to the wondrous impasses of thought
a dwelling for the daring and the bold.
Of Heaven, Asgard, and Valhalla,
those heroes of soul and mind, the more
than the lowly, the dogs that prey upon the weak
they uninspired beasts, of the Devil -
the ambitions of dust.
Run forth, cretans, and not to the fore
ne'er to ascertain the airy vault of ambitious reason
nor to seek the best of yourself or your kind
but to happily scrape the corners of your dusty hovels
revel insipid sure.
And you, as if in no degree unmoved from that of an infant
dimly salivating. When hungry, feast upon a teat of anything
A cage of mind, uninspired, solely in one's self:
A deplorable cage indeed.
A call then, to the passionate, that they should now beat their breast
and howl at the beast, howl for the righteousness
and a call for all that's best. For we must demand,
if in desperation then, dignity.
Lost in petty things, and strewn upon the streets
Like fodder for this age.
Rally! Fight! Not in thy mind, but with a fist
and upon your feet, putting cowardice aside
in as long as to fell the braggart dogs!
Imperatives impart themselves
in peace, and imperatives must
be fought to won.
Whilst walking about at 7am in Borrego Springs, I spied this roadrunner going for breakfast. Animals are really active in the morning and all but disappear in the afternoon. It would be the hottest day in a few weeks that afternoon, hitting a balmy 108.
"They used to get around, walkin' around, lookin' at stuff. They used to try to find clues to all the mysteries and mistakes God had made. My friend George said that he was gonna live to be 100 years old. He said - He said that he was going to be the president of the United States. I wanted to see him lead a parade and wave a flag on the Fourth of July. He just wanted greatness. The grown-ups in my town, they were never kids like me and my friends. They had worked in wars and build machines. It was hard for them to find their peace. Don't you know how that feels? I like to go to beautiful places where there's waterfalls and empty fields. Just places that are nice and calm and quiet." - Nasia, from 2000'sGeorge Washingtonby David Gordon Green The genius of democracies is seen not only in the great number of new words introduced but even more in the new ideas they express. - Alexis de Tocqueville
