What I’m appreciating: James P. Blaylock
September 20th marks the birthday of American fantasist James P. Blaylock. Apart from the Narnia books and the work of JRR Tolkien, no other works of fantasy I read in high school have stuck with me in quite the same way. In fact, there was a time when I would turn to the books of Blaylock’s Balumnia series (The Elfin Ship, The Disappearing Dwarf, and The Stone Giant) whenever I felt down.
I have also kept my first edition copy of his seminal steampunk novel Homunculus around (though it’s pretty grim in places, and I don’t recommend reading it as a means of restoring your spirits).
I think what appeals to me most about Blaylock’s books is the way they consistently place ordinary people in extraordinary situations—and the way his characters respond with emotions and actions that an ordinary reader can identify with and imagine employing. Take as an example Jonathan Bing, the main character of The Elfin Ship. Bing is a cheeser by trade, and he sets off on his adventure with the quotidian (if still noble) aim of salvaging his town’s Christmas celebrations. And as his travels expose him to a wider and wider (and more and more dangerous) magical world, he responds not by seizing some enchanted artifact, or by developing some latent supernatural power, but by relying on his own ordinary courage and physical resource (though he does occasionally receive help from more magical characters).
In short, Bing moves through the world of The Elfin Ship as an Everyman might move through Middle-Earth. This makes the quality of his challenges seen far different than a protagonist’s challenges sometimes seem in fantasy. His relatability also gives his experiences an emotional color that you don’t get in Lord of the Rings, for example (though you sometimes catch a glimpse of it in The Hobbit). Bing’s capacity for wonder seems much deeper than even the hobbits’, for one thing, and for another, his return doesn’t so much leave him changed as much as more attuned to his ordinary human strengths and to the wonder of his ordinary life.
