Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- Part I DIFFERENT ANIMISMS
- Part II DWELLING IN NATURE/CULTURE
- Part III DWELLING IN LARGER-THAN-HUMAN COMMUNITIES
- Part IV DWELLING WITH(OUT) THINGS
- Part V DEALING WITH SPIRITS
- Part VI CONSCIOUSNESS AND WAYS OF KNOWING
- Part VII ANIMISM IN PERFORMANCE
- 35 Nature in the active voice
- 36 Animist realism in indigenous novels and other literature
- 37 The third road: Faërie in hypermodernity
- 38 Objects of otaku affection: animism, anime fandom, and the gods of … consumerism?
- 39 The Dance of the Return Beat: performing the animate universe
- 40 Performance is currency in the deep world's gift economy: an incantatory riff for a global medicine show
- Acknowledgements
- Contributors
- Bibliography
- Index
37 - The third road: Faërie in hypermodernity
from Part VII - ANIMISM IN PERFORMANCE
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- Part I DIFFERENT ANIMISMS
- Part II DWELLING IN NATURE/CULTURE
- Part III DWELLING IN LARGER-THAN-HUMAN COMMUNITIES
- Part IV DWELLING WITH(OUT) THINGS
- Part V DEALING WITH SPIRITS
- Part VI CONSCIOUSNESS AND WAYS OF KNOWING
- Part VII ANIMISM IN PERFORMANCE
- 35 Nature in the active voice
- 36 Animist realism in indigenous novels and other literature
- 37 The third road: Faërie in hypermodernity
- 38 Objects of otaku affection: animism, anime fandom, and the gods of … consumerism?
- 39 The Dance of the Return Beat: performing the animate universe
- 40 Performance is currency in the deep world's gift economy: an incantatory riff for a global medicine show
- Acknowledgements
- Contributors
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In the eighteenth-century ballad “Thomas Rymer” the hero is abducted (without much of a struggle) by the Queen of Elfland, and their route to Faërie is the third road. As she says to him,
O see not ye yon narrow road,
So thick beset wi' thorns and briers?
That is the path of righteousness,
Tho' after it but few enquires.
And see not ye that braid braid road,
That lies across yon lillie leven?
That is the path of wickedness,
Though some call it the road to heaven.
And see not ye that bonny road,
Which winds about the fernie brae?
That is the road to fair Elfland,
Where you and I this night maun gae.
(Child 1965, I: 323–4)Let us explore (cautiously, as befits a wild and “perilous” place) what is variously called Elfland, Faërie or enchantment – which is also, I shall suggest, an animist world. I have ventured there before in print, but this time I will be guided by the metaphor of the three roads, and its significance. My main purpose is to better understand animist enchantment through its continuing presence in a field of British literature and literary culture, one where J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis and, more recently, Philip Pullman have left their mark. But the literary and cultural particularities of its presence also compel attention in their right.
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- Information
- The Handbook of Contemporary Animism , pp. 468 - 478Publisher: Acumen PublishingPrint publication year: 2013