The Dark Is Rising

[lightreads]

The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The one of my heart. But not entirely a book of childhood. Unlike the rest of the series, this one is layered all through young adulthood for me. I read it countless times as a wee thing, of course, but it was also my book on a horrible flight home from Oxford after Trinity Term, and what I read the week I retired my first guide dog, and what I read in tiny pieces in the month after I lost my eye. Looking at that list is one of those foreheadslap moments where you notice that narrative refrain isn't something that happens only in fiction. This book recurs in my life the way Greensleevves recurs in the book. This is a book of departing for me, a book of loss. Which is not surprising, since that's kind of what it's about.



It's true there isn't much of a story here. It has this treasure hunt quality to it, where Will shows up somewhere and magic happens and then he gets a prize. There's this one part where Will beats back the Dark by being a coat rack. Straight up, he stands still and holds up the signs and waits. And this is textually celebrated as extraordinary, because the Old Ones have always needed their minds to beat back the Dark, but now they have things. I stopped reading there and blinked a lot, because you just don't see formulations like that in fantasy, and it was confusing because I remembered this book as being so much about the mind.



That's because it's not about the quest. It's about Will. And it's all about his mind. He has this beautiful, sad, double-voiced narration. One voice is eleven and content with life, and then afraid and delighted by magic in turns. And the other is the Old One, the overnight adult who alienates Will from his family and community. Coming into power -- and into symbolic adulthood -- is a process of endless loss for Will (though of course it doesn't really ramp up until Silver on the Tree). This is the only book in the series to take place at home; all the others are on holiday. It has to be at home, because you have to be home to lose home.



So of course I read it in times of loss. But not in the expected way. I loved Will as a child, fiercely and without reserve, like a totem. There was something hopeful to this sad, sad book. It's like Will reading his book of magic within this book and being granted power through reading -- that's what I wanted, and a little of what I got. That a child could be lifted out of childhood by knowing (and by reading!), that adulthood would come and take me into a new world, and even if it wasn't always a kind world, I would have power there and it would be mine and I could find my people.



And hey, look, here you guys are.



Anyway. There's a whole hell of a lot more going on here, with Merriman's bitter lesson (through loss, of course) that mortal men will break if trusted too well, used too hard. And the connected tidbit that I don't really have anything to say about yet, but I want to flag it for myself, because I willneed it later I think: that a person must be born to the Light to be of it, but that the Dark is a thing any man can choose.



Onward to Greenwitch.





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Comments

[lightreads]

Buy them, buy them!

I have tipped off a whole household reread, and the shocking discovery that axiom_of_stripe does not have hardcopies. So when the Doodledog finally expressed her growing upset over life and moving and boxes and stress and The Cat, it was the corner of a library copy of The Dark Is Rising that she nommed. It was apparently quite tasty, if that serves as a recommendation for you.

[ecaterin]

Well with THAT kind of nommy recommendation, I simply had no choice but to order my books :D Thank you, Mz Doodledog!

So what is the nature of the Doodle's angst with the cat? Dog-to-cat translator sounds a fruitless job :D

[lightreads]

Weeeell. I think one of the fundamental problems is that the Doodledog keeps expecting the cat to be an intellectual equal. Which, uh. He is not. He's very pretty! (orangey red and stripey and very fluffy, quite lionine, really). But if you blow in one ear, you hear a whistling sound.

And the Doodle lived for a year when I very first got her with a cat who smacked her around a bit. So she has learned to be respectful and careful of cats and their reach, with a healthy mix of 'play with me!' in there. But poor Rufus, he is just so inconsistent from one day to the next that he's stressing her out. He'll hiss at her one day, then meow a friendly hello the next, because he honest-to-God doesn't remember who she is half the time. I think she'd probably feel better if he was mean all the time; as it is, she seems to be wailing 'what do you want?' at him.

...So she destresses by disemboweling his plushy mice. I find this unhelpfully hilarious. "Stop that! ....ahaha doggie passive aggression."

[ecaterin]

I think she'd probably feel better if he was mean all the time; as it is, she seems to be wailing 'what do you want?' at him.

Aww! Poor Doodle! She's a relationship sophisticate (humans being rather complicated creatures....) being forced to deal with the feline equivalent of a domestic-violence-via-emotional-abuse chronic history revisionist:

"What?? I didn't yell at you yesterday! You must be imagining things, you always do that!"

[next day....]

"Didn't I tell you never to do that - NEVER TO DO THAT AGAIN? WHY DON'T YOU EVER LISTEN TO ME!"


That kind of shit drives humans crazy, a dog as smart as the Doodledog is no less susceptible, I'm sure!

...So she destresses by disemboweling his plushy mice. I find this unhelpfully hilarious. "Stop that! ....ahaha doggie passive aggression."

ROFLMAO!!!! I find this to be an excellent form of revenge and much approve :D