Mythic Interview Friday: Number 9 - Katherine Langrish

When I was a child, I adored Henry Treece's books, and in particular his Viking trilogy, Viking's Dawn, The Road to Miklagard and Viking's Sunset.  I first met Leif Erikson though Treece's Vinland the Good, and after that was always rather contemptous of Columbus's claim to have discovered America.  The other author I loved back then was Alan Garner, whose deep love of British myth and folktale nurtured and fed the same love in me. These are two of the things I have in common with Katherine Langrish, another lover of Vikings and British myth. But I have not (sadly for me) been mentioned in the same breath as Garner, which Katherine has, for The Sunday Telegraph says that her "power to locate her story in the reader's imagination is reminiscent of Alan Garner."  I've read Katherine's Troll Trilogy, (and enjoyed them all immensely for their mix of Norse derring-do, myth, magic and Viking saga)--but the latest, Dark Angels, set in the Welsh Marches of the 12th century, is her most powerful book yet, and the one which, once I'd read it, I couldn't stop thinking about. It does definitely have that Garner feel about it.  Her excellent blog, Seven Miles of Steel Thistles, (aptly named after a line in an Irish folk-tale), has much thoughtful wisdom and knowledge about myth, legend and fairytale, and I enjoy reading that too, and joining in with the invariably lively comments.  Katherine knows her mythology, and without further ado I shall welcome her to Scribble City Central and hand you over to her for another set of fantastic and fabulous Mythic Interview Friday answers.  Thanks for coming to visit, Katherine!

1. Do you think that the retelling of Greek and other myths is important or relevant for the children of today? Why should they care about some “dry old stories” which come from ancient cultures they might never even have heard of?
For a start, myths and fairytales speak to the deep subconscious in a symbolic and poetic language which it’s important to learn at an early age. Otherwise a child may grow up to miss many nuances and expect only literal and obvious meanings in books such as the Bible which were never intended to be read in that way. Growing up ‘myth-blind’ can be as much of a disadvantage as growing up colour-blind. Myths are old, handed down over hundreds of generations – and anything kept alive for so long by people down the ages has undergone a sort of natural selection – only the best stories and those that really fulfill some deep emotional needs will have survived. Furthermore, without some knowledge of Classical mythology in particular, children will have difficulty fully appreciating some of the world’s most wonderful paintings, poems and music, much of which has been inspired by Greek and Roman myths and legends. In psychology too, mythological references are everywhere. But on top of all of that, these stories are fun. Flying horses, heroes with swords, snake-haired monsters, sea serpents, trees covered in golden apples – what’s not to like?

2. What age were you when you came across your first myth or myths? Tell us how you felt then about the myths you first discovered. Did you love them or hate them? Did they scare you, excite you—or were you indifferent? What kind of myths were they? Greek? Norse? Native American? Celtic? Or from another culture entirely? Were they in a book you read? Or did you hear them as oral storytelling from someone else?
I must have been quite young. I’d personally include fairytales in the general ‘myth’ category: but I was certainly reading a version of the Odyssey before I was ten. And I absolutely mopped up Roger Lancelyn Green’s retellings of the Greek and Norse legends. I loved them! They didn’t scare me: I found them exciting and wonderful. I remember trying to make lists of gods and goddesses and line them up. Mars = Ares = Tyr, for example, and Venus = Aphrodite = Freya – but there were always the odd men out, like Loki in the Norse canon, whose role might be compared with Mercury/Hermes, but whose character seems quite different. I even wrote about them. I composed a long story when I was about 12, of a a boy who goes on holiday to Greece (a country I’d never visited) and meets the Medusa in a sea cave.

I read as many as I could find from all over the world. Egyptian, Greek, Norse – Celtic legends I came to later, in my teens. And Native American legends I have only recently begun to explore as I researched for my book ‘Troll Blood’ which deals with the 10th century Norse settlements in Vinland (Nova Scotia and New Brunswick). Continent-wide and extraordinarily diverse, Native American cultural stories have often been misrepresented in European retellings, and I went right back to some of the earliest written records of the Mi’kmaq tales of the north-east and learned to distinguish between those which had been straightforwardly transcribed, and others which had been warped to suit European preconceptions. Myths and legends often have a political dimension which should never be ignored: far from being dead and dusty, they may be of immense importance to living people as proud symbols of an oppressed culture.

3. Looking back, what is your favourite myth of all time, from any culture? And why would you choose it?
This is really too hard. I think some of the most moving myths are those which deal head on with our own mortality. Orpheus in the underworld, trying to rescue his dead wife Eurydice. Achilles in Hades telling Odysseus ‘do not try to console me for dying. I would rather be a peasant and follow my master’s plough than be king over all the perished dead.’ And Baldur from the Norse myths, who cannot be brought back to life even though all the world wept for him (save Loki).

4. Who is your most hated mythical hero or heroine, and what made you feel that way about them?
I can’t say I’ve hated many heroes or heroines – after all, they are usually the ones we identify with! I suppose I wasn’t too thrilled about Theseus abandoning Ariadne – but I still like Theseus. It’s hard, I must say, to feel any great fondness for Zeus – if a god counts as a hero?

5. Is there a mythical beast you are particularly fond of? If so, which one?
I should love to see the Phoenix building its nest in the ‘sole Arabian tree’ and singing its song as it burns itself away.

6. How have myths had an influence on your writing, if at all?
Certainly myths and legends have had a strong influence on my books. The Troll trilogy was based on Norse folklore rather than myths about the gods; still, the memory of all those tales of Asgard was there at the back of my mind, and I doubt if I could have possibly written the books without it. ‘Troll Blood’ of course also took in folklore and tales of the Mi’kmaq, on whom I based the Native Americans my Norse characters encounter. And ‘Dark Angels’ (‘The Shadow Hunt’ in the USA) is rooted in the folklore and legends of Wales and Shropshire – and, interestingly, figures a genuinely medieval version of the myth of Orpheus, ‘Sir Orfeo’. For myths and legends cross-pollinate, and it’s hard to find a story which has not been brushed by the wings of some other story in the course of the years.

7. Finally, if you could choose to be the demigod child of any one mythical god or goddess, which one would it be? Which power would you like to inherit from them—and what would you do with it?: I’m not sure that being the child of a god or a goddess would be such a great thing. There is usually some catch. And imagine trying to live up to your parent’s expectations! I think I might pass.

More about Katherine:
Katherine grew up in the Yorkshire Dales, and can’t remember a time when she wasn’t writing stories. She loved reading, too, and when she was ten her favourite books were the seven Narnia stories by C.S. Lewis. When she’d finished them she was desperate to read more – so she started writing her own Narnia book. She thinks this was the moment she decided to be an author. She studied English at university, got a job, got married, had children and went to live in France and then in America. During this time she was almost too busy to write – so she began visiting libraries and schools, telling stories aloud. This turned out to be excellent practice for being an author! When she moved back to England she started writing the stories that turned into the Troll Trilogy, 'Troll Fell', 'Troll Mill' - and 'Troll Blood' (HarperCollins) which was recommended in the ‘Top 160 Books for Boys’ compiled by the School Library Association. So far 'Troll Fell' has been published in nine languages. Her latest book is ‘Dark Angels’ (published in the US as 'The Shadow Hunt'). Katherine blogs at Seven Miles Of Steel Thistles, her website is HERE, and she tweets at @KathLangrish

Mythic Interview Friday: Number 8 - Alison Croggon

Tamora Pierce says she couldn't put Alison Croggon's Pellinor series down.  Neither could I--and the trouble was that I started reading just as the first one was published, so I had to bite my nails and wait for years to see what happened in the end (there are four books altogether and it was worth the wait).  In the meantime, I contacted Alison to say how much I was enjoying her writing.  Personally, I'm always happy to get fanmail (always surprised too) and reply at once, but somehow, when I write to another author, I never expect a response--perhaps seeing them as much more grown up and important and busy than me.  This is stupid, I know.  Anyway, I was altogether delighted when Alison wrote back from the Land of Oz.  Eventually, after emailing back and forth for a while, we met up for a long and chatty lunch in London, and I am now the proud possesor of a full set of signed copies of Pellinor.  It's hard to put a finger on what I like so much about these books, but for a start it'll do to say that they're quite different and unique.  Yes, there's a hint of Tolkien's Middle Earth, a smidgen of the ice tales of the Edda, a soft breath from a myriad mythical cultures--but the final mix is all Alison's own, and very rich and satisfying it is too.  As soon as I started planning these Mythic Interview Fridays I knew I wanted Alison to take part because I reckoned that no one could have written the books she has without a knowledge of and love of all things mythological. I was absolutely right, and I'm delighted to share her wide-ranging, thoughtful  and knowledgeable answers with you.  Over to you now, Alison--and thanks for being my first Australian guest on Scribble City Central.

1. Do you think that the retelling of Greek and other myths is important or relevant for the children of today? Why should they care about some “dry old stories” which come from ancient cultures they might never even have heard of?
We all have an endless appetite for stories, and myths are a bottomless source of stories that resonate deeply within us. Everyone plunders them because they give us narrative and symbolic shapes in which to speak about basic human mysteries – birth, death, change. And like all good stories, they give us pleasure. Why should young people miss out on all that richness?

Writers always retell stories for their own times, and most of those stories are, when you dig behind them, very old. At the moment my husband (the playwright Daniel Keene) and I are co-writing the script for a piece of music theatre for young people for the Bell Shakespeare Company here in Australia. We decided to take the stories from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, just as Shakespeare did for his own plays; but we’re distorting their language and imagery to suit our own purposes. Because they’re myths – stories of transformation, that talk about human impulses such as love, greed, desire, fear, joy and so on – they give us enormous scope for our own imaginations. It’s proving to be enormous fun.


2. What age were you when you came across your first myth or myths? Tell us how you felt then about the myths you first discovered. Did you love them or hate them? Did they scare you, excite you—or were you indifferent? What kind of myths were they? Greek? Norse? Native American? Celtic? Or from another culture entirely? Were they in a book you read? Or did you hear them as oral storytelling from someone else?
I was a child when I discovered the Greek myths. I loved them. Maybe because they were beautiful and strange and ancient: they are about being human, but they are also about the world that is not us, and that we can’t control. My father used to tell me the Greek myths as bedtime stories when I was very young, about five or so. I still remember him telling me the story of Perseus and the Medusa. I didn’t realise until I was a little older that it was a Greek myth; I just thought it an exciting and strange tale. When I was about nine years old, I was given a book of Greek myths, which was illustrated with photographs of ancient Greek artefacts – beautiful bracelets and statues and vase paintings. For about a year it was my favourite book. I became obsessed with Greek myths – I went so far as to despise the Romans for copying the Greek stories, as mere johnny-come-latelys, and insisted on the gods’ proper Greek names. I still correct myself if I say Venus instead of Aphrodite....

After that I read through every book of myths I could get my hands on. The next obsession was Norse myth. Then Aboriginal myths. And so on. I still read them.

3. Looking back, what is your favourite myth of all time, from any culture? And why would you choose it?
I think that would have to be the Welsh story of Blodeuwedd, which is in the Mabinogion. I’ve written several poems about it. In the original tale, a king called Lleu Law Gyffes is cursed by his mother, who says he will never marry a human wife. Because he’s lonely, the wizard Gwydion makes him a woman, Blodeuwedd, from the flowers of broome, meadowsweet and oak. She falls in love with another man, Gronw Pebyr, and together they plot to murder Lleu and run away together. Gwydion finds out about the crime when Lleu, in the form of an eagle with carrion dropping from his wings, flies away to find him, and punishes Blodeuwedd by turning her into an owl.

It fascinates me, because of the tragic conceit of a woman who is literally created by a man for a man, but who nevertheless has her own desires. In such a circumstance, they can’t but turn deadly. It’s a compelling metaphor for how men have created the idea of femininity, which out of its powerlessness has become something predatory.

4. Who is your most hated mythical hero or heroine, and what made you feel that way about them?
I’ve never hated any hero or heroine. It seems a bit odd to do so: I think one of the charms of myths is that they are amoral, like the natural world itself is. It would be a bit like hating mountains or deserts. (Mind you, Loki’s murder of Baldr is a prime piece of bastardy.)

5. Is there a mythical beast you are particularly fond of? If so, which one?
Not especially. I think I’ve always been fascinated by animals of every type, real or mythical. Some of the real ones are as strange as anything that has been imagined.

6. How have myths had an influence on your writing life, if at all?
They’ve informed my writing from the very beginning. It’s possible that they’re the reason I began to write.

7. If you could choose to be the demigod child of any one mythical god or goddess, which one would it be? Which power would you like to inherit from them—and what would you do with it?
On my desk I have a few figures of the elephant-headed god Ganesha, an Indian deity worshipped as the Lord of Beginnings and Remover of Obstacles. He is also the god of storytellers. I guess I want the power to tell stories!

More about Alison:
Alison Croggon is a writer who lives in Melbourne, Australia. Her novels include the acclaimed Books of Pellinor, a fantasy quartet released in Australia, the UK, the US and Europe, and is currently almost at the end of a new novel, Black Spring. She is the prize-winning author of several collections of poems, of which the most recent is Theatre (Salt Publishing, 2008). She works as a theatre critic for the national daily newspaper, The Australian, and keeps a review blog, Theatre Notes (http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com/). Last year she won the 2009 Geraldine Pascall Critic of the Year award.
You can find Alison on Twitter and her website is at http://alisoncroggon.com/

A Writing 101 Production - Part 9 Dreaming of a Whip for the W.I.P?

These Mythic Interviews are fab, but you've missed my Writing 101 Productions,haven't you?  HAVEN'T YOU? Well, even if you haven't let's move straight on to that essential thing...
The Work In Progress.
Let's call it the WIP--less typing.  You're a writer--you have one. Maybe you even have several on the boil at once.  I definitely do. So, as Meryl Streep would say:
What's My Motivation To Keep On Writing It/Them?
Well, obviously there's the small matter of earning some sort of living. But that's a whole other post, so let's ask instead:
What Gets Me Out of Bed To Write The WIP?
Here's the thing. Sometimes I don't.  Get out of bed, that is.  Because writing isn't all tap tap tap on the keyboard.  For me, bursts of physical working on the WIPs alternate with long periods of pyjama-clad silent thinking about stuff--dreaming if you like.  This is the hardest bit of writing to justify to people who don't do it.  I mean, dreaming, for goodness' sake?  You're not seriously expecting us to believe that's work? Get a life, woman! But 'Yes!' I cry, 'It is work.' Do the maths.  Even if I write only 2000 words a day (quite manageable, really), 5 days a week, that's a 60,000 word novel in 6 weeks.  So why does it take me at least a year, then?  What do I do with the other 46 weeks? I could write 8 novels a year on this calculation, and still have time left over for holidays?  Why don't I?

Well, for a start they'd be crap books. I can't speak for how other writers work, but every book has its own rhythm, and for me 'dreaming time' is a big part of that.  Most people don't work in the car while driving.  I do.  I find that the dreaming, problem-solving part of my mind is freed by the act of rolling along the road.  One part of me is noting the other cars, and calculating distance and changing gears and steering and all that mechanical stuff.  The other side (and it sits quite precisely on the left, at the front of my brain) works out plot.  Sometimes, when I come to the end of a long journey I have to scribble and scribble before I get out, just to get the ideas down before they run away. And yes, before you go and ask, I am a VERY safe driver in spite of all this multitasking.  I might be able to do it faster, but it wouldn't be as good--I want to make every book of mine the best it can be.  That takes a year--and for some books more.

So, what's all this with several WIPs? Well, here's the thing.  My brain is coming up with ideas all the time (see above).  Think of it like a painter with canvases.  Some are blank; some are small, some are large; some have a few lines; some are blocked out with most of the landscape; some just need the finishing touches of colour.  I move from one to the other, adding a bit here and a bit there, so they all progress--some faster than others.  Sometimes one will go wrong, and I'll paint over it completely. Sometimes I'll be stuck on where a particular figure should go, and I'll put it away in the rack for a while till inspiration strikes again. 

What about that Whip you mentioned? Ah yes, the Whip for the WIP.  Perhaps if someone came behind me with a real whip, the WIPs would go faster (though I'd be more than likely to rip it out of their hand and bite them)...but all I really need is one word:
Deadline  I'm funny about contractual deadlines, see.  I like to keep to them once I'm lucky enough to have a signed contract with a date in it.  That particular WIP will take up all my mind and my energy, from the time I sign on the dotted line, and that's all the whip I need.  But by the time I've got to the part where the D-word is set in stone, most of the real proper work has already been done. And yes, that would be the work of dreaming.

See all my other Very Useful and Eccentric Writing 101 Productions

Part 1 An Overview of Author Platforms
Part 2 Author Platforms (Facebook)
Part 3 Writing Resolutions
Part 4 Spambush or Tweettack?
Part 5 To Plunge or to Plan?
Part 6 Blogging Lessons
Part 7 Writer's Block (Feel the Fear)
Part 8 Stuff that Helps Me Write

Mythic Interview Friday: Number 7 - The Bookwitch

I was lost in admiration of the Bookwitch's blog long before I ever found out what she was actually called (it's Ann Giles, if you really want to know). It is, quite simply, the place you go first if you want to find incisive, thoughtful reviews about the latest and best children's books--and also read her wonderful and slightly quirky interviews with top children's authors.  I finally met the Bookwitch at the Campaign for the Book conference--and I think (hope!) we hit it off over tea and cake (there's something very bonding about cake, I find, especially, in my case, if it's chocolate cake).  There's also something about her blog which makes me want to comment at length (possibly too much length)--it's like having a really good literary conversation via the aether. I'm very pleased to have lured her to Scribble City Central--it took a lot of doing, I can tell you, since I have an inkling she likes to be the one doing the interviewing!  Thanks for putting up with my questions, Ann, and over to you for some mythic answers.

1. Do you think that the retelling of mythical tales is important or relevant for the children of today? Why should they care about some “dry old stories” which come from ancient or forgotten cultures they might never even have heard of?
The retelling any traditional tales is extremely important. It’s part of what we are, and I found it amusing to see how young readers believed J K Rowling made everything up herself, when in actual fact she simply borrowed from classical stories. This has always been done, and most stories are richer for having some sort of older background. It’s what you do with it that’s interesting.

2. What age were you when you came across your first mythical tales? Did you read them as a child, or when you were older? Were they in the form of legends or disguised as fairytales? Tell us how you felt about the ones you first discovered. Did you love them or hate them? Did they scare you, excite you—or were you indifferent? Were they stories in a book you read? Or did you hear them as oral storytelling from someone else?
Looking back I find it almost impossible to remember when or how. Fairytales will have come first, and I read a lot of the Brothers Grimm and Asbjørnsen & Moe, as well as H C Andersen. They were far ‘bigger’ in Sweden than any Greek or Norse myths. Thor doing his stuff, being angry up in the sky was a fun idea, but totally implausible to me. Icarus flying too close to the sun was probably read to us in primary school, but again, I felt it was a tall story, if you’ll excuse the pun.

3. Right now, what is your favourite mythic tale of all time, from any culture? And why would you choose it?
I’ll have to cheat and go back to H C Andersen, and his Svinedrengen (Danish title), which I believe is The Swineherd in English. (Do you have any idea how hard it is to switch languages here? You do something in one, and have to talk about it in another.) With a bit of luck this early Mills & Boon can be traced back to something ancient and Greek. Why? The picture in my book was of a very handsome ‘svinedreng’.

4. Who is the legendary hero or heroine you most dislike, and what made you feel that way about them?
I can’t really dislike heroes or heroines. That’s not their purpose. However, I always feel very strange thinking about Achilles. It’s his heel, and it makes me go all funny.

5. Is there a mythical or legendary beast you are particularly fond of? If so, which one?
No, rather the opposite. Cerberus always struck me as a rather dreadful way of ‘designing’ a dog, as he’s got three ways of biting you. Any other beasts always seemed to be snake creatures of some kind or other, and equally off-putting.

6. Have any sort of mythical stories had an influence on your writing and cultural life? How?
It helps to understand where plots in books or films or plays are coming from, and I can sort of nod in recognition, but that’s all. It’s a bit late to blog about the Greek Gods, about what they’ve been up to and all that. If it happened at all, it happened a very long time ago.

7. If you could choose to be the demigod child of any one mythical deity, which one would it be? Which power would you like to inherit from them—and what would you do with it?
Daughter of Aphrodite might be interesting, and if you don’t know what power I’d want or what I would do with it, I’m not going to tell you.

More about Ann:
Ann Giles grew up in Sweden, quite a long time ago, and for want of something better to do she somehow managed to get a degree in English and Swedish at the university of Göteborg. Then, seeking a more interesting life she came to Britain, got married and had two children, enjoying the British weather and the food and last but not least, the people. Having only ever been any good at writing weird comments about what people get up to, she found that blogging is quite a good way to do it. And getting compliments from real writers is so nice that she may not stop just yet. But she is definitely not well versed in old Greek anythings. Sorry about that.

She blogs at:
http://bookwitch.wordpress.com/
http://culturewitch.wordpress.com/
http://bookwitchpasvenska.wordpress.com/

The Most Dangerous Story in the World - Guest Post by Nicola Morgan

If you haven't read Nicola Morgan's newly-published YA novel Wasted yet, then go out and buy a copy. At once.  I say this, not because Nicola is the first Google result for "Crabbit Old Bat" and therefore I'm terrified of her awesomeosity and crabbitness (though obviously I am), but because it's a book I wish I'd written myself. Jess and Jack's story is set firmly in the modern day world, but there are ancient echoes within it, echoes which have everything to do with Destiny and Fate and all those things we inhabitants of the 21st century are meant to dismiss as hokum and bunkum, fit only for the feeble-minded and charlatans.  But I say to you: just try playing 'Jack's Game' for a day (or choose not to--it's up to you, of course).  But if you do so choose, toss a coin (beautifully, of course) to decide your every move.  It's scary and powerful stuff.  I know. I did it.  Now I've spent too much money I couldn't afford and eaten something which disagreed with me.  But I've also rung an old friend I hadn't talked to for years and caught an early train where, by chance, I had an unexpected conversation and found out something I needed to know.  There are many more such stories of chance (including one of mine) over at Nicola's Wasted Blog, which I urge you to visit at the earliest opportunity.  Now, that's quite enough from me.  You'll be wanting to hear from Nicola, who I welcome to Scribble City Central for her first (but I trust certainly not last) visit.  Thanks for sharing your wisdom, O Crabbit One, and over to you for a bit of musing on the Oedipus myth.

Stories are dangerously powerful. The Oedipus story is the most dangerous, devious, destructive story in the world. But it’s also very easy to protect yourself: refuse to believe. Then you retain your power of choice. The story is a very important part of the philosophy behind Wasted – can we escape our Fate? Is there such a thing as Fate? Do we have freewill or are we mere victims?

The Oedipus story goes like this. King Laius and Queen Jocasta of Thebes were expecting a baby. The prophet Teiresias predicted that their son would kill his father and marry his mother. As you can imagine, this wasn’t the best news they’d had all year, but they had a solution: they gave the baby to a shepherd, with instructions to leave him on a distant hillside, making sure he couldn’t escape by driving a wooden stake through his foot. (As if the baby was going anywhere…) Inevitably, the shepherd couldn’t bring himself to leave the baby, and took him to another city, Corinth. Somehow – by a series of coincidences that a modern story-teller couldn’t get away with – the baby was brought up by the king and queen of Corinth. Lucky baby. Or not so lucky, because they called him Oedipus, meaning “swollen foot”. (Be glad your parents didn’t give you such a silly name.)

When Oedipus grew up, he heard rumours that he wasn’t the true son of the king and queen, so he foolishly went to ask the oracle at Delphi. (This was foolish because the oracle was famous for giving unhelpful answers.) Sure enough, the oracle didn’t tell him what he wanted to know but did tell him something he didn’t want to know: that he would kill his father and marry his mother. As you can imagine, this wasn’t the best news he’d heard all year, but he had a solution: a very long journey.

On this journey he got into an argument and killed a man. And carried on, arriving at the city of Thebes, where they were having some trouble with the Sphinx, who kept eating travellers who couldn’t solve a riddle. Oedipus solved the riddle and the Sphinx committed suicide. So far, so good. The queen of Thebes (Jocasta, you remember, and Oedipus’s mum) forgot about being terribly upset about her husband’s recent unsolved murder, and married the hero. Everything would have been fine, but the truth about Oedipus’s identity came out, including that he’d killed his father and married his mother. Jocasta was so appalled that she killed herself. Oedipus was so appalled that he poked his eyes out with a burning stick and wandered around the country for some years while other innocent members of his family also came to unpleasant ends.

So, what’s the problem with this story? The problem is that it’s supposed to tell you that you can’t escape your destiny and that you have no real choices, no free will. It gives us no hope at all.

But it doesn’t tell us this at all – it just pretends to. It’s a fairy story, not a story of something that happened or might happen but a “what if” story, a “thought experiment”. All it really does is ask us to think, “What if you were told your future? Here’s an example of a made-up story of how someone tried to avoid their foretold future and ended up fulfilling it.” So??? It couldn’t happen because it is impossible on any level to know your future. It’s impossible because there are so many permutations of tiny combinations of events that there are an immeasurable number of possible futures, because each result depends on what comes before, and what comes before depends on what comes before. Etc. Etc. Etc.

When one of my daughters was small she used to ask questions like, “What if you woke up in the morning and you had two heads? What if you woke up and the sea was made of cucumbers? What if chickens spoke French?” I was frustrated by the questions and she was very frustrated by my answer, “But it couldn’t happen.” I wasn’t being obstructive – I genuinely couldn’t answer the question because it was literally impossible in this world, therefore it was philosophically impossible in this world to say what “I” would do because “I” am in this world.

When I studied philosophy at university, one essay question in my final exam was something like, “Can you know what it would be like if you were a scorpion?” Basically, my answer would be, “No, because if I was a scorpion I wouldn’t be me and it wouldn’t be this world.” I think I probably made the essay a bit longer than that….

So, ignore the “what ifs” of the Oedipus question: if you believe the story and think it has any meaning, it will wreck your self-belief. It loses all its power if you refuse to acknowledge it.

You do not have to worry about whether you can avoid your “Fate”, because there simply is no such thing. Like a sea made of cucumbers. Or chickens speaking French. It’s not in this world.

This is what Jack needed to discover in Wasted. I can’t tell you whether he does. Because it depends how the coin spins and you’re the one who has to spin it in the end. Also, the first chapter seems to foretell the end – but it doesn’t. Because the message of Wasted is that nothing is until it is; everything is possible until it isn’t. Oedipus came to a terrible end because a) he was foretold a future and b) he believed it. But a) is the false bit.

If Oedipus had known that, he could have ignored that silly oracle. Just as Jack and Jess ignore Farantella the Famous Fortune-teller. Even though she got it right….

Thanks so much for having me on your blog, Lucy! I know you love the old stories as much as I do. Keep up the good work!

Copyright © Nicola Morgan 2010

More about Nicola:
Nicola Morgan is an award-winning author for teenagers, with successful titles such as Fleshmarket, Deathwatch, Blame My Brain and Sleepwalking. She prefers to forget that she also used to write Thomas the Tank Engine Books.... When she's not writing, she loves speaking in schools, and at festivals and conferences in the UK and Europe, She also enjoys messing around on Twitter or her blogs. Nicola blogs for writers HERE and has set up a special blog about her brand new book, Wasted - you can join the activities and contribute in lots of ways HERE

Mythic Interview Friday: Number 6 - Philip Womack

Philip Womack is a new voice in children's books--and one I want to see a lot more from.  His first novel, The Other Book is a deft and imaginative delve into the story of Merlin and Viviane--I found it left me with gooseflesh down my spine and a need to look over my shoulder.  His second involves the Dionysian cult of the maenads (or Bacchae if you're from the Roman school) transposed to modern London. I've never really been too keen on the maenads since they tore Orpheus apart--and this incarnation didn't dispose me to like them any better--but it's a cracker of a story which I enjoyed immensely.  For me, it's wonderful to find another author who is as much of a mythographer as I am.  Philip really knows his stuff (well, he should with a Classics degree from Oxford), and he's not afraid to delve into the darker side of things either.  The gods of Greece (or almost any culture) in their scarier incarnations are easily a match for all those terrifying vampires and werewolves currently filling the shelves--I'm glad that Philip is giving the creatures of the night a run for their money.  Welcome to Scribble City Central, Philip. I'm delighted to have you here for the sixth Mythic Interview Friday--and even more delighted that you too love the Beast Glatisant, one of my own top favourite Mythical Creatures.

1. Do you think that the retelling of Greek and other myths is important or relevant for the children of today? Why should they care about some “dry old stories” which come from ancient cultures they might never even have heard of?
Myths are vital. They are the silver veins in the rock of our civilisation, a deep well of joy and fear. They show the strangeness of our earliest beliefs, and yet in that very alienness is humanity in all its strength and weakness. They are, in fact, the most relevant things of all, as they underpin anything and everything – not only from a storytelling viewpoint, but from a cultural one too. You cannot read Milton if you don’t know Virgil, you can’t look at Titian without the stories of Ovid.

2. What age were you when you came across your first myth or myths? Tell us how you felt then about the myths you first discovered. Did you love them or hate them? Did they scare you, excite you—or were you indifferent? What kind of myths were they? Greek? Norse? Native American? Celtic? Or from another culture entirely? Were they in a book you read? Or did you hear them as oral storytelling from someone else?
My father, when he was a child, was given a book of Greek myths. He was disappointed, as his sister got a watch. The watch was lost; the book survived, and was passed down to me. I read it from a very early age. I absolutely adored them, even though the book was very academic and aimed at an older audience. It was like opening a door into a new world. I also read Norse myths and Arthurian cycles.

3. Looking back, what is your favourite myth of all time, from any culture? And why would you choose it?
I think Persephone and Hades, because it has excitement – Hades galloping up from the Underworld to snatch the girl playing with her friends; the sad pain of Demeter who through love wanders the earth in search of her, but doesn’t find her, and the earth is plunged into winter; elements of folklore – the six pomegranate pips that Persephone eats whilst underground; and a beautiful ending that is both poignant and joyous, as Persephone returns to earth in the spring, and must leave in autumn, thus explaining the natural cycle of the world. Wonderful.

4. Who is your most hated mythical hero or heroine, and what made you feel that way about them?
Scylla in Book VIII of the Metamorphoses, who cuts off her father’s purple lock of hair because she’s in love with Minos. I don’t know whether she counts as a heroine though. I suppose Phaedra. I never liked her, but only because I couldn’t see what was so bad about her being in love with Hippolytus.

5. Is there a mythical beast you are particularly fond of? If so, which one?
Absolutely – the Beast Glatisant, or the Questing Beast, in the Arthurian cycle, that poor King Pellinore is always after. Definitely my favourite: it has the head and neck of a serpent, the body of a leopard, the haunches of a lion, the feet of a hart, and its belly makes a noise like thirty couple of hound barking. Dear old Glatisant.

6. How have myths had an influence on your writing, if at all? 
Very deeply. My first book reworked the story of Merlin and Vivien, and my second was directly inspired by Euripides’ The Bacchae.

7. If you could choose to be the demigod child of any one mythical god or goddess, which one would it be? Which power would you like to inherit from them—and what would you do with it?
I would like to be the child of Apollo, and I think I would like to have his prophetic powers, so I could save people. Or at least warn them. They probably wouldn’t listen, though.

More about Philip:
Philip was born in Chichester, West Sussex in the middle of a thunderstorm. He was educated at Lancing College, and read Classics and English at Oriel College, Oxford. Philip now lives in London, is a Contributing Editor to the Literary Review and has also written for a number of national newspapers and magazines. His first novel for children, The Other Book was published by Bloomsbury in 2008 and his second, The Liberators, is out now. Philip imbibed myth and legend from a very early age. Sometimes he wishes he was a Greek hero. His website is http://www.philipwomack.co.uk/ He blogs at http://philipwomack.blogspot.com/ The Liberators Facebook Page is HERE