Book Club 2.0 - - - The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany

Took me a while to get to posting about this book, but its been a busy start to the new year. Nevertheless, here it is, our last book club pick of 2021: The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany.

Published in 1924, Dunsany's fantasy tale was a precursor text to much of the fantasy genre we see today. His works were a key influence to some of the greatest fantasy and science fiction novels ever written by J.R.R. Tolkien, Ursula K. Le Guin and Neil Gaiman.

Despite most of us being on the high end of the rating scale for this book, one of the book club girls was very specifically on the low end. I wish I had asked her permission to quote some of the things she said in her scathing review of the book for this blog, but alas, I did not. I will mention a few things though, one being that she said she was coming around to some of the fantasy stuff we were reading (fantasy is not her go-to genre), but that unfortunately this book set her way back on her kindness scale of what fantasy could be. I feel bad because the rest of us liked it. *sad face*

The other thing from her review that I will note is that she called the book "pretentious". Now, I only mention this because it sparked a REALLY good conversation and thoughts from me about the book being a product of its time. I can agree, that if someone tried to write this book today with the language and structure Dunsany used, I would definitely think: "WTF is this person trying to do? What a pretentious twat for trying to pull this off." The structure and language of novels has significantly changed over time and what worked then would DEFINITELY not work now. The early 1900s were influenced by the Victorian era and the rise of the novel during that time. Writing was still quite lyrical coming out of the 1800s, but personal descriptive writing in letters through the First World War would have given rise to a new edge. Perhaps Dunsany was trying to capture and keep alive some of the magic that was present in writing and novels from the Victorian period?

Moving along... Carmen noted that this is not a book she would recommend to everyone, and I agree. I found the language beautiful, moving and it drew me in as I read. But not everyone would feel the same. It was kind of poetic, and there was repetition of specific lines that cemented certain ideas and ideals, much like poetry can do. The language created a feeling, a mood, to the book that was more than just a description of the setting or the plot of story. This feeling is hard to explain...

We also discussed how the magic was part of the world in the story and not just a plot device. Its not being wielded for good or evil, it may be feared and those non-magical curious about it, but its not menacing. There is a juxtaposition between the magical realm of Elfland and the mundane, normal world of "the fields we know". This difference between the lands has a lot to do with time and the discussion and impression of how time flows and influences everything. The world of "the fields we know" is change and is always changing, whereas Elfland is stagnant, stuck in time.

I could go on and on about the themes and writing and intriguing things about this story, but I think I am going to wrap up with the upset that was: the unicorn hunting. Orion, the son of the Daughter of Elfland, is part magical so he is drawn to magical beings. He hunts unicorns and it is very sad; plain and simple. Even more upsetting is that the town cannot fathom that magical beings such as unicorns are real, despite seeing one. So they just DECIDE that it didn't happen; they didn't see anything. This part of the book had so many callbacks to reading The Last Unicorn and King Haggard's obsession with possessing all of the unicorns in the world.

Last but not least - Carmen told me there is a concept album adaptation of this book by Bob Johnson from 1977. How cool is that?! I haven't had the chance to listen to it yet, but I did find it on YouTube music. I've loaded it to listen to it this week and I'll post an updated of my thoughts about it.

Medium Raw - Another of Anthony Bourdain's Finest

Our last audio book of 2021 was Anthony Bourdain's Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook. We did quite good with only doing audio books in the car and got five done throughout the year.

Medium Raw was much like Kitchen Confidential, but also very different. It had all the sass and pizzazz of Anthony's KC debut, but was also deeper. He didn't just write about himself, he wrote about the world of food and the people who work and live in it. It wasn't just about him and his upbringing in the culinary dregs, it was about where he fit in the culinary world as a whole after experiencing and doing the things that he had done.

Bourdain does not hold back when it comes to his opinions about other chefs, particularly famous chefs that he finds annoying. While he understands the push and drive to keep building a food empire, he also writes about how that kind of pressure can go to people's heads or burn them out. He particularly takes quite a few jabs at the Food Network, and I can't do any sort of justice in summing up what he says, its just so perfectly him.

He also takes shots at food journalists as well. One in particular he devotes an entire chapter too. He really just does not like the guy. And after listening to the chapter, I can understand why. Bourdain also praises some journalists and chefs as well, giving credit where credit is due. He's not a complete asshole all the time.

One of the most touching parts about the book was him writing about his wife (at the time) and daughter. You could feel the love and excitement he had about being a dad come across in his writing and the way he read the audio book.

This piece is shorter, but that's because I cannot do the book, and the attitude Bourdain brings to reading his own writing, any justice. His self-narrated audio books are just an experience you have to have on your own. No amount of someone else writing about it is going to live up to that experience of listening to it yourself.

I do have to say though, if it wasn't for Medium Raw, I wouldn't have been able to identify the fancy little bird dish that Child Valda eats in the Wheel of Time adaptation. Bourdain does a whole piece about ortolan in this book and I was pleased as punch to be able to pick that out in another piece of media as a VERY fancy, and very illegal dish to be eating. There is a whole connotation to the character eating that dish that makes it more sinister knowing the history behind it.