Silvercatcher

October 19

Posted by Madeline on Oct 19 2009

Listening to: Bruce Springsteen

I was sick last weekend with the flu, and, without any energy to move off my couch, I somehow stumbled across a fantasy TV series called the Legend of the Seeker. Oddly enough, I’ve never been one to particularly watch or read Fantasy, although I’ve tried much harder to do so because I write it. All the same, however, I got about halfway through the first season over the long weekend. The show was sometimes much too predictable and often clearly written for a fairly obvious moral, but God, it was so cool just seeing it. Although I can picture what I write very well, it’s always a little fuzzy to read another author’s words, and it’s difficult to picture things precisely while reading. I have to admit, I love seeing books made into TV or movies- though I’ve never read the Legend series, so I’m not sure how faithful the series is- because I love SEEING it. And this, because the setting was similar to my writing, was just awesome. I love seeing the type of setting, the intricate beauty of a forest landscape or the harshness of a coast, and being able to picture my characters in it. Maybe it’s because fantasy is always considered such a part of “another world”- and yet these TV shows can make completely convincing fantasy scenes from our world, as it is. That’s cool, particularly since I live in a city, and the only nature I see regularly is my backyard.

I dunno…if TV people can take our world and turn it into fantasy, I think that says something. People say we don’t have magic in our world, and that’s the worst criticism of the genre, I think. Of course we have magic- in the beauty of our world, in genuine emotions, in love, in faith, in simple acts of kindness. Fantasy is, after all, not just dragons and elves and treasure and swords and whatever else catches the author’s fancy, but truly a representation of the boundaries of humanity. By stretching what the reality is, we can better understand the limits of the human mind, of human emotions, and of the human consciousness. And personally, if we can picture that a little more in our own world, right where we’re standing and in the person standing next to us, I think maybe we’d find out a little bit more about ourselves.

A thought from Sava’s 2nd Book: “You think mages who can start fires or move objects are the only people with magic, but everyone is filled with it. Magic is everywhere- in every touch, in every breath….Your magic is more a representation of your self than any other part of you.”