Aphrodite on the Home Front: E.R. Eddison and World War II
2012; Mythopoeic Society; Volume: 30; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0146-9339
Autores Tópico(s)Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices
ResumoTHE TWO DECADES LEADING UP TO THE FORMATION OF THE INKLINGS saw the publication of a number of important works of fantasy literature, with the likes of William Hope Hodgson, Lord Dunsany and David Lindsay all doing some of their finest work. Today, however, those writers are largely unknown to the general public, and are likely to remain so, at least in the short term. Most have also received cursory scholarly attention, though some of these authors found uses for fantasy every bit as striking and original as those employed by more famous authors such as J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. Noteworthy among the fantasists to emerge in this period is Eric Rucker Eddison (1882-1945). Eddison's work deserves closer attention than it has so far received. His fantasy novels use allegory on a cosmic scale, a world predicated on a profound ontological shift, and a uniquely conceived theodicy revolving around the ultimate unreality of evil, and these techniques and devices make his use of fantasy every bit as challenging as that of his more famous colleagues. His use of such techniques is too complicated to be properly examined in the space of a single scholarly article; this paper will provide the background required to explain the value he placed on his ideas, and why he saw them as valuable in the times he lived in. Fantasy, he claimed, was of great importance in overcoming the difficulties humanity faced in the real world, and this was especially the case when those difficulties were at their greatest heights. Eddison eventually found himself arguing, quite sincerely, that his novels should be read during World War II due to the contribution they made, in his mind, to the war effort. The relative obscurity of Eddison's work is compounded by the fact that his books demand a great deal from the reader, offering few concessions to readability and making complete sense as a dense, complicated, 1,500-page unit. Despite praise from contemporaries such as Lewis (Collected Letters 2.535536, 558 et al) and Tolkien (Collected Letters 258), they have since been criticized as anemic (Manlove 154), only partially successful (Anderson 430) and egregiously imperfect (de Camp 130). Eddison's ornate, demanding prose style perhaps goes some way towards explaining the small size of his readership: And Juss, for all his bitter pain and torment, and for all that he was well nigh stifled by the sore stink of the creature's breath and the stink of its blood and puddings blubbering about his face and breast, yet by his great strength wrestled with that great and filthy man-eater. And ever he thrust his right hand, armed with the hilt and stump of his broken sword, yet deeper into its belly until he searched out its heart and did his will upon it, slicing the heart asunder like a lemon and severing and tearing all the great vessels around the heart until the blood gushed about him like a spring. And like a caterpillar the beast curled up and straightened out in its death spasms, and it rolled and fell from that ledge, a great fall [...]. There it lay in its blood, gaping at the sky. (The Worm Ouroboros [WO] 206207) Such prose is obviously an acquired taste, and not everyone will go to the effort of acquiring it. Those who have paid Eddison academic attention tend towards the opinion that, spectacularly written or not, his work lacks the fibre of (Manlove 127), and therefore does not meaningfully intersect with human experience in the way that good literature should, fantastic or otherwise. Eddison is therefore generally regarded by scholars as a fairly marginal figure in the history of modern fantasy, seldom receiving more than brief acknowledgement in genre dictionaries or directories. Perseverance in reading Eddison, combined with archival research, demonstrates that such relegation is unfair. Eddison's invented worlds in fact connect with reality in an intriguing way by interrogating the very concepts of value and morality, and the cosmic frameworks within which they operate. …
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