#john bowen

[jd-posts2]

drawing of John and a very young Ivy Pepper around the time of 1920. Ivy seems very curious about him, I might make this into a some kind of comic…

[everythingsecondhand]

The Birdcage, by John Bowen (Penguin, 1964)

From eBay

[haveyoureadthisbook-poll]

Have you read The Girls: A Story of Village Life by John Bowen (1986)?

yes

no

I didn't finish it

I've never heard of it

Voting ended onDec 24, 2024

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

After the Rain by john bowen, 1965

[mariocki]

A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Treasure of Abbot Thomas (BBC, 1974)

"In what other parish church in the advowson of the good Abbot Thomas shall we find Bartholomew, Jude, Simon and Matthias all together in one window?"

"Not the 'good' Abbot Thomas, Peter. That was never suggested, not even by himself."

[paperandsong]

Is Ancient Magus Bride Gothic?

A story about a vulnerable orphan girl, abused and haunted, who is welcomed into the home of a mysterious older man - this could be the summary of Ancient Magus Bride or Jane Eyre. Rochester’s home is even called Thornfield Hall! 

Author Kore Yamazaki set her story square in the ancestral homeland of Gothic literature, but it is not clear that she meant to write a Gothic romance. In several interviews she lists her influences as folk and fairy lore from the British Isles, but she does not make reference to any Gothic novels:

“I grew up reading a lot of fantasy books about fairies. A lot of them took place in England. It was a place that was very close to my heart.” 2017 Interview

“I usually read books on mythology and folklore, and I often have a stock of ideas that I can use in development. Perhaps it's because I don't think of fantasy as something that can't happen in reality, so I create a story where humans meet fantasy in an ordinary way. ” 2021 Interview

(If you know of any interviews in which she does make reference to Gothic literature please let me know!)

Is Ancient Magus Bride Gothic? Some people might say no, it’s not Gothic because it’s Fantasy. I usually see it described as “dark fantasy.” But there are enough traditional Gothic motifs that make the question worth asking. 

I used professor John Bowen’s list of Gothic motifs as a guide. Let’s start with ways Ancient Magus Bride is not Gothic and work through Bowen’s list. 

Strange Places - It’s not the House

Most lists of Gothic motifs will include a castle or a rotting mansion. Bowen’s list did not specify that the “strange place” motif must be an old house, but even so, Elias’ home does not qualify as Gothic. It is cozy, well lit, the garden is neither secret nor overgrown, and even though his housekeeper is a banshee and its master a mage, it is not a haunted house or even very creepy. 

A World of Doubt

Bowen writes “Gothic is … a world of doubt, particularly doubt about the supernatural and the spiritual.” In Gothic novels like the Secret Garden, and the Phantom of the Opera, there is persistent doubt about what is causing the action, something supernatural or something human? But this is not the case in AMB. There is never any doubt that magic and spirits are real and that they do influence the human world. We know from the very beginning what is haunting Chise. Chise has a lot of doubt about Elias, but she knows he isn’t completely human and that doesn’t frighten her. 

Crisis

Bowen states that the Gothic is a way “to try to master and understand enormous [political] changes.” Gothic literature written in the nineteenth century often addresses the moral rot stemming from colonialism and slavery. There could be no Thornfield Hall without first a Jamaican sugar plantation. But Elias doesn’t live in a manor house. He isn’t really even British. AMB reads as a love letter to England from Yamazaki. It is definitely not a critique of nineteenth century colonialism. 

Those are a few ways Ancient Magus Bride doesn’t fit into the Gothic tradition. Let’s explore some ways that it does:

Power and Constraint/Eroticism

Bowen writes, “The Gothic world is fascinated by violent differences in power, and its stories are full of constraint, entrapment and forced actions.” The subversion of the power dynamic between Chise and Elias is central to AMB. Chise begins the story with no agency at all; Elias has every power over her. While that dynamic shifts with time, the story poses burning questions: What does it mean that he owns her? What does he mean when he says he wants to make her his bride? What is marriage, really? 

Bowen writes that gothic plots are “often driven by the exploration of questions of sexual desire, pleasure, power and pain.” Chise is full of questions about how she feels about Elias. While not clearly sexual, the contrained physical relationship - full of face touching and hair stroking - at least presents the questions: What kind of marriage will it be? Can they even?

The obsessive nature of their love is perhaps the most Gothic element of the story. Elias’ jealousy drives him to literal, monstrous hunger for Chise. And it doesn’t even scare her. This is Wuthering Heights territory. 

Chapter 31: Forgive and Forget

The Sublime

Bowen credits philosopher Edmund Burke with the concept of the Sublime: “When danger or pain press too nearly, they are incapable of giving any delight, and [yet] with certain modifications, they may be, and they are delightful, as we every day experience.” There are many moments when Chise is overwhelmed or astonished, either by the beauty or terror of the world Elias shows her. Think about the first time she rides a dragon, the first time she uses her wand to fly on her own, the moment she wakes up in the fairy kingdom. These are scenes of fantasy, but they evoke in Chise a sense of fear and wonder. There are darker scenes of the sublime too - when Elias holds her in his jealous jaws or when she holds Cartaphilus in her arms, covered in blood and surrounded by a mesh of thorns.

The Uncanny

Bowen credits Freud with the concept of the Uncanny as seen in Gothic literature, defined as “...that class of the frightening which leads back to what is known of old and long familiar.” The question hanging over Elias Ainsworth is: Just how human is he? Aside from the times he uses a glamor, Elias does not try to hide his skull head. But he does take on the pretense of a man. The way he dresses, the way he holds his tea cup, his talk of marriage, all so very human. But also so very fake. I wrote a little more about this in my comparison of Elias and Erik (Phantom of the Opera). 

Oberon & Elias in Chapter 8: The Faerie Queen

The Macabre

Not on Bowen’s list, but on mine. Are Chise and Elias meant to reference the Death and the Maiden motif? Elias’ wolf-skull head does make me think about death and mortality, even if he isn’t meant to embody death. Depressed and suicidal, death is very much on Chise’s mind. She is not afraid of death just as she is not afraid of Elias. Elias does carry fatal power. While he saves Chise’s many times over, he is always ready to destroy anything that gets in his way.

[drzito]

Esta semana, especial folk horror.

Robin Redbreast (1970), obra pionera escrita por John Bowen y emitida por la BBC.

[vintage1981]

A Ghost Story for Christmas and  Mark Gatiss’ Latest Ghost Story, The Mezzotint, to Exclusively Premiere on BritBox North America this Christmas!

Gather round the fire for a series of chilling Christmas tales featuring seasonally supernatural stories from Charles Dickens M.R. James and more.

In the UK, it's a long-standing tradition to tell ghost stories at Christmas. There are conflicting opinions on exactly how the tradition started and how long it's been going, but it's often believed to have links with pre-Christian solstice festivals that viewed mid-winter as a time when the veil between the living and dead is at its thinnest.

For hundreds of years, people told ghost stories around winter fires until Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans came along and effectively threw a giant wet blanket on all the gruesome, decadent Christmas fun. Cromwell even went so far as to ban Christmas carols. Still, like a ghost in a Christmas story, the holiday would come back from the dead.

Following in the tradition, the BBC created A Ghost Story for Christmas back in the 1970s, producing a new ghost story each year at Christmas time. The first five were based on the stories of M.R. James, with the 6th based on a short story by Charles Dickens. Two more were original screenplays by Clive Exton and John Bowen (Bowen later worked with David Cook to create Hetty Wainthropp Investigates). 

The tradition has been revived in recent years by Mark Gatiss, and BritBox North America will exclusively premiere 2021’s holiday haunt, The Mezzotint starring Rory Kinnear on December 24.

On December 20th, BritBox is bringing us the full collection of the BBC's A Ghost Story for Christmas Specials + a few extras for added creepiness.

Complete list of titles:

The Mezzotint

Martin’s Close

The Dead Room

The Tractate Middoth

A Ghost Story for Christmas: A View from a Hill

A Ghost Story for Christmas: A Warning to the Curious

A Ghost Story for Christmas: Lost Hearts

A Ghost Story for Christmas: Number 13

A Ghost Story for Christmas: Stigma

A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Ash Tree

A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Ice House

A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Signalman

A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Stalls of Barchester

A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Treasure of Abbot Thomas

A Ghost Story for Christmas: Whistle and I’ll Come to You [Plus other ghost stories]

Bedlam

Midwinter of the Spirit

The Secret of Crickley Hall

The Small Hand: A Ghost Story

The Blue Boy