Endicott Redux

Sad news

Madeleine L'Engle died this week, at age 88. She was the author of over 60 books, including the much-loved children's fantasy classic A Wrinkle in Time. Rejected by 26 publishers, the book was finally published by Farrar, Straus, & Giroux in 1963, and won the prestigious Newbery Award. By 2004 it was in its 67th printing and had sold more than 6 million copies.

The New York Times has published an obituary discussing the author's books and life. (Did you know, for example, that she was the librarian and writer-in-residence at St. John the Divine in New York City? Or that her husband was an actor famed for his role on the soap opera All My Childen?) For more information, visit the Madeleine L'Engle and A Wrinkle in Time websites. 

In her Newbery Award acceptance speech, L'Engle stated: "A writer of fantasy, fairy tale, or myth must inevitably discover that he is not writing out of his own knowledge or experience, but out of something both deeper and wider. I think that fantasy must possess the author and simply use him. I know that this is true of A Wrinkle in Time. I can’t possibly tell you how I came to write it. It was simply a book I had to write. I had no choice. And it was only after it was written that I realized what some of it meant." (With thanks to Gwenda Bond for the link.)

To sleep, perchance to dream...

I wasn't able to post a Sunday Poem last week, and I've been surprised by the number of people who have written to Endicott to ask us not to discontinue this feature. Don't worry, we have no plans to! The Sunday Poem will be back this weekend -- and here's a magical piece to tide you over until then: "Dream Fox" by Jack Roberts, which first appeared in Tar River Poetry and can now be found on the Verse Daily website.

Speaking of dreams, the Czech duo Tara Fuki has released a CD of alternative music inspired by dreams, night travel, the unconscious, and the poetry of the dark. Tara Fuki consists of violoncellists and vocalists Dorata Barova and Andrea Konstankiewicz, performing with guest musicians on tabla, kanjira, and other instruments. Visit the Calabash Music blog, Tune Your World, to hear music from the new CD, titled "Auris."

The pictures here are "Foxes" and "Blue Fox," painted early in the 20th century by the German Expressionist artist Franz Marc.

Metamorphosis #15: Lillianna Pereira

 

Lillianna Pereira was born in 1980, studied at the Hartford Art School (University of Hartford), and now lives in western Massachusetts. Her work has been exhibited in numerous galleries in New York, Connecticut and New England, and was recently featured in a solo exhibition, "Fractured Tales," at the Hampten Gallery Incubator Space in Amherst. Her art appeared in "The American Dream/When Worlds Collide" at Trakt Project Raum in Berlin, Germany this summer, and will appear in "Enormous Tiny Art Show" at Nahcotta in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, September 12 - October 7.

Much of Pereira's work is inspired by folklore and classical mythology, using contemporary symbolism to explore traditional narratives. "The language of myth allows a story to be part of a wider universal context," she explains. "Although these stories and archetypes may resonate very closely with me on a personal level, their creation derives from collective material and their power lies in the meaning and the broader truths that myths convey."

Describing her work process, she says: "Culled images from magazines, books, and newspapers are manipulated and reassembled in order to activate the archetypes that lie within. I never start a piece with particulars in mind, serendipity and the personal unconscious guide the composition. The personal becomes collective and conscious once the stories start to emerge. The result is almost never a direct translation. My work, like myth, is in a constant state of flux, malleable like the ephemera that creates it, and ready for its next incarnation."

The title of her recent "Fractured Tales" exhibition was inspired by the "Fractured Fairy Tales" cartoons on the old Rocky and Bullwinkle Show -- for Pereira's art (like those cartoons) presents familiar tales in new and subversive ways. The word "fractured" also relates to the art of collage-making itself: the physical act of tearing paper and manipulating found objects in order to create new imagery.

The collages featured here are: Cupid and Psyche, Janus, Demeter, Snow White, and Ariadne. You can see more of Pereira's wonderful Fractured Tales on her website and on her Flickr pages, and hear her speak about her creative process in an audio file on the Hampden Gallery site.

Carlos Saura: Fados

Carlos Saura has long been one of my most favorite directors, creating gorgeous films of dance, music, folklore, and literature. His flamenco version of Lorca's Blood Wedding is a knockout. He has finished a film on the history of Portuguese fado, that beautiful and oh so heart rendering music. I thought everyone might enjoy seeing the trailer for the new movie coming up -- just the line up of singers alone leaves me breathless.

Send in the clowns!

 

The spirit of the mythic Trickster is alive and well in Knoxville, Tennessee, where clowns are using contrariness and laughter to combat racism.

In an article on the Asheville Indymedia website (via Digsby), Chris Irwin tells a hilarious story of a Nazi/KKK hate rally foiled by the Anti-Racist Action group's clown brigade. As Irwin describes the event:

“White Power!” the Nazi’s shouted. “White flour?” the clowns yelled back, running in circles throwing flour in the air and raising separate letters which spelt “White Flour.”

“White Power!” the Nazi’s angrily shouted once more. “White flowers?” the clowns cheered as they threw white flowers in the air and danced about merrily.

“White Power!” the Nazi’s tried once again in a doomed and somewhat funny attempt to clarify their message. “Ohhhhhh!” the clowns yelled, “tight shower!” and held a solar shower in the air. They all tried to crowd under to get clean as per the Klan’s directions.

At this point several of the Nazi and Klan members began clutching their hearts as if they were about to have heart attacks....One last time they screamed “White Power!”

 

The clown women thought they finally understood what the Klan was trying to say. “Ohhhhh,” the women clowns said. “Now we understand…WIFE POWER!” They lifted the letters up in the air, grabbed the nearest male clowns and lifted them in their arms and ran about merrily chanting “WIFE POWER! WIFE POWER! WIFE POWER!”

(Read the full text of Irwin's wonderful story here.) 

Fools and clowns have played an important role in many ancient traditions around the world. The sacred clowns of the Hopi and other Native American tribes, for example, disrupt and mock solemn ceremonies and chastise tribal wrong–doers by mimicking transgressive behavior. They have license to be rude, crude, lewd, and utterly outrageous -- for in their contrary way they are teachers and healers, using laughter as their medicine. Hinduism and Zen Buddhism have a long tradition of divine craziness, practiced by mad ascetics who lead contrary lives as acts of religious devotion. Ritual clowning appears in the Christian world in Carnaval celebrations and the Feast of Fools, in which all the usual social rules are suspended or turned up–side–down.

For more about Tricksters and clowns around the world, see the Winter 2007 issue of Endicott's Journal of Mythic Arts, which was devoted to the subject. And for more on clowns as political activists, visit the Rebel Clown Army website.

The Hopi clown kachina, above left, is by Richard Gorman. The Pueblo clown sculptures, above, are by Roxanne Swentzell. 

The Weepies

Here's a sweet little video to start your week with a smile. The animation is produced and directed by Joseph Gaffney; the song is "The World Spins Madly On" by The Weepies.