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Red Shift
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From: lhendr at unm.edu <lhendr>
Date: Fri, 30 Oct 1998 22:30:43 -0700 (MST)
I agree that Garner's Red Shift is an amazing work, and I'm not sure there is anything else quite like it. All times seem to exist in one time, an idea he has taken farther in his latest book, Strandloper (published in England as an adult book by Harvill Press in 1996)-- not sure it has ever come out anywhere else), set among the Australian Aborigines and in 18thth c. England, and based on the story of the historical William Buckley.
In _Red Shift, not only does Garner constantly shift among the time periods -- Roman, Cromwellian and modern -- but as the story progresses the shifting speeds up until the effect is almost like strobe lights. The transitions between the times become smaller, until at the end sentences spoken by the characters in the different time periods are spoken almost simultaneously. All the events also happen in the same settings centuries apart. To add even more layers, the modern Tom constantly speaks in quotes, so snatches of Shakespeare are layered among all the other layerings. And yes, the Roman soldiers speak like American soldiers in Vietnam. The effect towards the end is almost operatic -- it needs a whole chorus of voices singing at once yet separately. Is it one story or several? Or both? (Does this sound like Macaulay's Black and White?)
It is definitely not an easy book, but I wonder if it wouldn't appeal to good readers today who have become more accustomed to "non-linear." It is out-of-print and not terribly easy to find. Alethea Helbig presented a paper on Red Shift at the ChLA conference in 1996 that links it to non-western modes of thought, and Garner seemed to like what she said. The paper should be out in the next collection of Phoenix Award essays -- I'm not sure when -- maybe in another year or two?
Linnea
Linnea Hendrickson Albuquerque, New Mexico Children's Literature: A Guide to the Criticism (1987) at: http://www.unm.edu/~lhendr Lhendr at unm.edu
Received on Fri 30 Oct 1998 11:30:43 PM CST
Date: Fri, 30 Oct 1998 22:30:43 -0700 (MST)
I agree that Garner's Red Shift is an amazing work, and I'm not sure there is anything else quite like it. All times seem to exist in one time, an idea he has taken farther in his latest book, Strandloper (published in England as an adult book by Harvill Press in 1996)-- not sure it has ever come out anywhere else), set among the Australian Aborigines and in 18thth c. England, and based on the story of the historical William Buckley.
In _Red Shift, not only does Garner constantly shift among the time periods -- Roman, Cromwellian and modern -- but as the story progresses the shifting speeds up until the effect is almost like strobe lights. The transitions between the times become smaller, until at the end sentences spoken by the characters in the different time periods are spoken almost simultaneously. All the events also happen in the same settings centuries apart. To add even more layers, the modern Tom constantly speaks in quotes, so snatches of Shakespeare are layered among all the other layerings. And yes, the Roman soldiers speak like American soldiers in Vietnam. The effect towards the end is almost operatic -- it needs a whole chorus of voices singing at once yet separately. Is it one story or several? Or both? (Does this sound like Macaulay's Black and White?)
It is definitely not an easy book, but I wonder if it wouldn't appeal to good readers today who have become more accustomed to "non-linear." It is out-of-print and not terribly easy to find. Alethea Helbig presented a paper on Red Shift at the ChLA conference in 1996 that links it to non-western modes of thought, and Garner seemed to like what she said. The paper should be out in the next collection of Phoenix Award essays -- I'm not sure when -- maybe in another year or two?
Linnea
Linnea Hendrickson Albuquerque, New Mexico Children's Literature: A Guide to the Criticism (1987) at: http://www.unm.edu/~lhendr Lhendr at unm.edu
Received on Fri 30 Oct 1998 11:30:43 PM CST
