[lbo-talk] Re: Marketing the Chronicles of Narnia

B. docile_body at yahoo.com
Thu Mar 10 22:27:49 PST 2005


John Bizwas wrote:

"For the greatest sustained work of adult fantasy ever, it has to be the gothic fantasy, 'The Gormenghast Trilogy' by Mervyn Peake."

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I haven't read the novels, but I saw the elaborate BBC production of _Gormenghast_, which didn't impress me at all. My understanding was that Peake was supposed to be a "progressive" writer, but all I got from the BBC production was this: "Jealous and resentful prole kitchen boy takes unjust revenge on the monarchy, and threatens the wholesome national order of Gormenghast; he is defeated by an heir to the throne and the rightful Order of Society is re-instated much to everyone's happiness and security." Didn't strike me as very progressive -- in fact it came off as very reactionary. The prole kitchen boy seemed to be a ruling class caricature of the "resentful" worker. It's as if Ben Stein could have written it as an elaborate argument against the death -- sorry, I mean the estate -- tax.

But, again, I'm only talking of the BBC multi-volume edition of Gormenghast, not the Peake book it's based on. The BBC could have fucked it up.

-B.

"I'm not too worried by hegemony / I know the cadre will look after me" - Magazine, "Model Worker," 1978



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