One of the things that makes me the most happiest I could ever be is discovering connections between things.
Like the escapade with Mr. William-Heath Robin's Son, and that obscure but not so reference to my all time favorite illustrator. (but I did that myself, and consequently wrote about it, here, so it doesn't really count).
The thing is, as much as I love discovering there things, I also love telling people about them. Which sometimes doesn't end all that well.
'Oh, my goodness, do you know what I realised?!'
'What, Crystal? What did you realise this time?'
'Well', I reply, disregarding any sarcasm that may have found a home in my companions tone. 'I was reading so-and-so last night, and the author makes a reference to this-particular-work-done-by-a-different-yet-equally-as-brilliant-artist-slash-writer-slash-genius. !!! Oh my goodness, isn't that fantastic?!'
To which they reply monotonously, 'I guess. I haven't read one/the other/both. So I don't really know.'
Cue all excitement and life rushing out of me in one disappointed sigh. 'Oh. Okay. They're both brilliant, though.'
'Yes, I know. You've told me before', just in case I didn't get the earlier snub. (Which I did, I just chose to ignore it).
But because you are my blog, and I can tell you whatever I like without being snubbed, I'm going to let it all out in one cross-referenced delirium! Hoorah for literature-induced highs!
Okay, picture this, Annabel Lee, written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1849. She's a child, he's a child, in a kingdom by the sea. She dies, the highborn kinsmen come and bear her away from thee. He's pretty devastated about it, that's why he wrote one of the planet's most beautiful poems to conciliate his loss.
Now, jump forward to one hundred and six years, to 1955. Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. Young Humbert Humbert, and his childhood love, Annabel Leigh. What? you say, a blatant variation of the name? Just wait, it gets better. He lives in his father's seaside hotel, as he calls it, his own kingdom by the sea. Both children, they fell madly in love, in a way adults could never understand. Yes, and wait for it, she dies of Typhus.
How beautiful to use a poem in such an obscure way. You don't realise until you do what Nabokov has done.
Cut to black. New scene.
C.S Lewis's 1953 novel, The Silver Chair, Ettinsmoor is a long, lonely land to the north of the River Shribble, and north-west of Narnia, populated mainly by giants.
J.R.R Tolkien's The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, beginning in 1954. Ettenmoors, a desolate unknown to the north-west of the Misty Mountains, had been laid waste under the dreaded domain of the witch-king of Angmar.
Now, we all know Lewis and Tolkien were great friends, so coincidence? I think not. Both to the north-west. Desolate country in their worlds.
Fade out. New Scene.
J.K Rowling's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, 2007. Apart from the incredible cross referencing she does with all the other seven books and their story-lines, tying up loose ends and characters that you didn't even know needed tying up (not to mention how she gives each character significance in the story) Harry and Hermione go to Godric's Hollow, looking at his parent's, Lily and James Potter's headstone. Know what it says? Of course you do.
''The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death"
Know where that one's from? The Bible. 1 Corinthians 15.26.
Oh, wait, there's more?
Albus Dumbledore's mother Kendra, and his sister Ariana. Their headstone says,
'Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also"
Matthew 6.21. Jesus says that one.
Sorry, what's that? Harry Potter is evil? Uh, I think you'll find you're wrong there. Bam.
Fade to black. Run Credits.
That's all I'll give you right now, but doesn't it make you excited on so many levels?
No? There's something wrong with you.
No comments:
Post a Comment