Mr Pond in Print

In the course of the past several days and weeks, perhaps you have had occasion to stop and wonder, ‘That Mr Pond—just where is he?’ Well, I can lift that worry right of your backs, by telling you the answer.

I’ve been writing and publishing, mostly. Sister Fox’s Field Guide to the Writing Life, by Jane Yolen, was made available for pre-order this week over at Unsettling Wonder. I’m very proud of the work we’ve done on this book. It’s a new collection of Jane’s mythic arts poetry, and is as wonderful and moving and provoking and beautiful as that suggests. You can find more about it here.

The embookenation of this blog is now complete in manuscript, and has been sent to the publishers. Its working title is A Land of Giants: Growing Up with Fairy Tales, Dragons, and Harry Potter. Not sure how long production will take, but I’ll give your periodic updates as the process goes. I’ve had a lot of fun working with Unlocking Press in the past, and so will be looking forward to this process.

Third, speaking of Unlocking Press, I’m very happy—nay, veritably delighted—to announce the release of New Fairy Tales: Essays and Stories, edited by yours truly and the wonderful Defne Cizakca. It’s available for purchase on Amazon here, or here if you’re in the UK, both in print and e-book formats. Other outlets to follow soon. There are so many reasons why you’ll want to buy this book—here’s a few:

Mr Pond in Print

or, Whence Friday?

I’m not sure how the week’s over already, but I’m not complaining. Two big deadlines to whack through, as well as designing the next issue of Unsettling Wonder, and spending most of today working on a Secret Project which will be announced soon, and involves grapefruit.

I guess that all adds up to mean it’s link week at Paradoxes, since we’ll end as we began: with two links that will enrich your life, or mind, or soul, or at least be something like vaguely interesting.

As the title promised, I just had an academic article published this week, co-authored with Joshua Richards. It’s in the new volume of VII: An Anglo-American Literary Review, which should be of interest to any and all who like one of the seven author the journal focuses on, e.g. Owen Barfield, G. K. Chesterton, C. S. Lewis, George MacDonald, Dorothy Sayers, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams. The article we’ve written is called “The Dantean Tradition in George MacDonald’s At the Back of the North Wind,” and it does what it says on the tin, really. We offer a close textual reading of how MacDonald uses the Commedia in his children’s book.
It’s a doozy, that’s all I can say. Not available online, but you can buy the issue here.

Also, yet a bit more about DARE: Language Log reported this week that the Dictionary of American Regional English has got a new lease on life and has raised money they need to start work on their hugely important digital edition. Victory for crowd-funding? No, not really—they got several hundred thousand from UW-Madison, the American Dialect Society, and an anonymous donor. Confirming my general suspicion that the next great wave of the future is patronage. The funds they have really aren’t that much for a project of this enormity, though, so if you can donate anything, do.

There you go—four links when I promised you two. The service here, I’m telling ya.

neglected to mention

I just discovered that my post for Subverting Laughter went live a few days ago. Here’s the link where you can go read it. And here’s what I wrote about SL over at Unsettling Wonder, if you’re wondering what this is all about.

Short version: I wrote an essay on chapter 2 of George MacDonald’s story The Light Princess, a story which shows just how hilarious esoteric fiction can (should?) be.  My essay is about evil old witches and literary critics. I’d already written about The Light Princess for that ASLS anthology I co-edited, which is, y’know, available for purchase.

But do keep an eye on Subverting Laughter. The next post will be by Dr Danny Gabelman, who knows more about The Light Princess than just about anybody, and Prof Bill Gray is writing something later. As is a former student who’s going on to great things, and who I’m terribly proud of. It’s quite a line-up.

Mr Pond in Print

(Well, Mr Pond and a bunch of more interesting people.)

I’m very, very happy to be able to announce that Rethinking George MacDonald: Contexts and Contemporaries was published today, and is available for purchase at this link. This is an anthology I co-edited with Christopher MacLachlan and Ginger Stelle, and was published by the Association for Scottish Literary Studies as Vol. 17 of their excellent Occasional Papers series.

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you may remember when I co-organised a conference on George MacDonald. Well, that conference turned into an anthology and now you can read it for yourself. It’s a book that looks at MacDonald as a Victorian writer, rather than a proto-Inkling, and there’re a lot more of his books and topics and perspectives covered than you’ll see most anywhere else. If you want to read about How the Fairies were not Invited to Court, or Divine Alchemy, or Speaking Matrilineally, or even
George MacDonald and the Grave Livers, look no further: read this anthology.

I’m really very proud of this book.

 

Publisher’s Description (with the wonderful word ‘hitherto’ in):

George MacDonald (1824–1905) is the acknowledged forefather of later fantasy writers such as C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien: however, his place in his own time is seldom examined. This omission does MacDonald a grave disservice. By ignoring a fundamental aspect of what made MacDonald the man he was, the critical habit of viewing MacDonald’s work only in terms of his followers reinforces the long-entrenched assessment that it has a limited value – one only for religious enthusiasts and fantasy lovers.

The sixteen essays in this anthology seek to correct that omission, by looking directly at MacDonald the Victorian – at his place in the Victorian literary scene, at his engagement with the works of his literary contemporaries and at his interest in the social, political, and theological movements of his age. The resulting portrait reveals a MacDonald who deserves a more prominent place in the rich literary history of the nineteenth century than he has hitherto been given.

holiday reading

For all you curious devoted readers, some seasonal reading as the Feast of Christmas begins.

I offer them with much appreciation and thanks, as both a Merry Christmas and belated Chag Chanukah Sameach for all of you who’ve been reading, responding, challenging, and enjoying The Paradoxes of Mr Pond through the years. I figured if you hang around here very often, something to read is the best sort of present. So here’s:

Myself on The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe at The Hog’s Head.

Friend of this blog Danny Gabelman on George MacDonald’s Christmas fairy tale “The Shadows” at Unsettling Wonder.

And from Paradoxes itself, three years ago last Friday:

In a way, the dwindling of childhood wonder appears manifestly at the holidays.  Everyone remembers where they were when Kennedy got shot (I wasn’t born–I remember that), and where they were when the learned there’s allegedly no Santa Claus.  (No, Virginia–I lied.)  Or that Hanukkah Harry was really just a red-haired kid in a wig.

Sigh.  Move on.  We’re grown-ups now, however much it doesn’t feel like it.  We understand about finance, and budget, and the laws of thermodynamics and spelling.  The holidays are a time of expenditure and bustle.  Of fatigue, collapse, exhaustion.  Of too many relatives and not enough falafel.

Wonder?  What about it?

There’s a silent, fluttering part of ourselves that still rushes to fall asleep on Christmas Eve–because maybe, in that place between dreaming and waking, we’ll hear the clatter of  each little hoof, the crunching of snow on the shingles.  Maybe, in the shadowy borders of dream and memory, we can hope like a child again.