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Text:
Everyone who’s read the book says that the world of Random Magic is so colorful and vivid that they can actually almost see the world right in front of them, as if it were a movie.
It was definitely written that way, since that world actually is a lot more magical and overwhelming than our own world. Everything would be more powerful and startling, including something as basic as the colors surrounding Henry and Winnie as they search for Alice.
But a lot of the colors in Random Magic aren’t just there for decoration, but actually have some particular significance.
Here are some quick reader notes about the more symbolic uses of color in Random Magic. This post is about the use of the color black:
The color of black is the color of night. It’s the color of secrets, mystery, mourning and power.
But it’s also the color of renunciation of the world, as is the case with priests or other religious figures, even including modern-day Wiccans.
So, although the color black is often associated with evil, or with ill luck -- as in the saying “don’t let a black cat cross your path” -- it’s also a deeply spiritual color, the color of people who have turned their back on the world, or those who are outcasts through no fault of their own.
Or it might just be in their own particular nature. Night creatures might not necessarily be evil, so much as much of what they are is hidden from plain view.
The Dark Queen, for example, wears black. She may or may not necessarily be evil, but she favors black because night is her natural environment. The De Morgues, as well, are isolated in their castle, in a gloomy, dark nest of spooky places.
These characters feel comfortable with their secrets and mysterious ways, isolation and connection to their inner and outer darkness. So, they might not necessarily do you any harm. On the other hand, it’s never a good idea to push your luck.
The Black Forest, on the other hand, is an unabashedly unpleasant, vicious and dastardly place to visit. The curt and unfriendly signpost to the entrance to the Black Forest says it all.
The Black Forest, well, it embodies all of those non-friendly aspects of night, darkness, and things that go bump in the night, and is best approached with just one point of view: If you don’t have to go there -- don’t.
Of course, this doesn’t stop Winnie. She knows her way through the Black Forest…but only because she’s already made it out alive.
Showing posts with label Reader Notes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reader Notes. Show all posts
The Colors of Random Magic: Black
[Tour host info: This is one post in a series of quick reader notes about the colors used in Random Magic. If you would like this essay for your post during your tour stop, please leave your comments on this page, send a msg via Twitter, or drop an email -- trying to figure out who would like which piece so there are no double posts. You know, so we sort of look semi-organized. Yeah, we're really just winging it, but hey!]
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Text:
Everyone who’s read the book says that the world of Random Magic is so colorful and vivid that they can actually almost see the world right in front of them, as if it were a movie.
It was definitely written that way, since that world actually is a lot more magical and overwhelming than our own world. Everything would be more powerful and startling, including something as basic as the colors surrounding Henry and Winnie as they search for Alice.
But a lot of the colors in Random Magic aren’t just there for decoration, but actually have some particular significance.
Here are some quick reader notes about the more symbolic uses of color in Random Magic. This post is about the use of the color black:
The color of black is the color of night. It’s the color of secrets, mystery, mourning and power.
But it’s also the color of renunciation of the world, as is the case with priests or other religious figures, even including modern-day Wiccans.
So, although the color black is often associated with evil, or with ill luck -- as in the saying “don’t let a black cat cross your path” -- it’s also a deeply spiritual color, the color of people who have turned their back on the world, or those who are outcasts through no fault of their own.
Or it might just be in their own particular nature. Night creatures might not necessarily be evil, so much as much of what they are is hidden from plain view.
The Dark Queen, for example, wears black. She may or may not necessarily be evil, but she favors black because night is her natural environment. The De Morgues, as well, are isolated in their castle, in a gloomy, dark nest of spooky places.
These characters feel comfortable with their secrets and mysterious ways, isolation and connection to their inner and outer darkness. So, they might not necessarily do you any harm. On the other hand, it’s never a good idea to push your luck.
The Black Forest, on the other hand, is an unabashedly unpleasant, vicious and dastardly place to visit. The curt and unfriendly signpost to the entrance to the Black Forest says it all.
The Black Forest, well, it embodies all of those non-friendly aspects of night, darkness, and things that go bump in the night, and is best approached with just one point of view: If you don’t have to go there -- don’t.
Of course, this doesn’t stop Winnie. She knows her way through the Black Forest…but only because she’s already made it out alive.
Text:
Everyone who’s read the book says that the world of Random Magic is so colorful and vivid that they can actually almost see the world right in front of them, as if it were a movie.
It was definitely written that way, since that world actually is a lot more magical and overwhelming than our own world. Everything would be more powerful and startling, including something as basic as the colors surrounding Henry and Winnie as they search for Alice.
But a lot of the colors in Random Magic aren’t just there for decoration, but actually have some particular significance.
Here are some quick reader notes about the more symbolic uses of color in Random Magic. This post is about the use of the color black:
The color of black is the color of night. It’s the color of secrets, mystery, mourning and power.
But it’s also the color of renunciation of the world, as is the case with priests or other religious figures, even including modern-day Wiccans.
So, although the color black is often associated with evil, or with ill luck -- as in the saying “don’t let a black cat cross your path” -- it’s also a deeply spiritual color, the color of people who have turned their back on the world, or those who are outcasts through no fault of their own.
Or it might just be in their own particular nature. Night creatures might not necessarily be evil, so much as much of what they are is hidden from plain view.
The Dark Queen, for example, wears black. She may or may not necessarily be evil, but she favors black because night is her natural environment. The De Morgues, as well, are isolated in their castle, in a gloomy, dark nest of spooky places.
These characters feel comfortable with their secrets and mysterious ways, isolation and connection to their inner and outer darkness. So, they might not necessarily do you any harm. On the other hand, it’s never a good idea to push your luck.
The Black Forest, on the other hand, is an unabashedly unpleasant, vicious and dastardly place to visit. The curt and unfriendly signpost to the entrance to the Black Forest says it all.
The Black Forest, well, it embodies all of those non-friendly aspects of night, darkness, and things that go bump in the night, and is best approached with just one point of view: If you don’t have to go there -- don’t.
Of course, this doesn’t stop Winnie. She knows her way through the Black Forest…but only because she’s already made it out alive.
Inside Random Magic: The Garden
[Tour host info: A quick write-up on some of the subtexts in the Garden of the Muses. If you'd like this for your post, please leave a comment below, send an email, or msg via Twitter. Trying to make sure there's a nice selection of additional content to post alongside reviews, interviews, trailer, etc.
If you already have your completed interview, you might not need additional content, but if you don't have your interview, yet, and would like to include some useful info about the book for your readers, then just speak up -- the additional content is for use on the tour, just trying to match up a particular post with whoever's most interested in including the topic!]
Images available for use:
Text:
The Garden of the Muses is a visual explosion of color. The garden is vast and nearly limitless, and literally overflowing with flowers.
The purpose of the depicting the astonishing palette of colors in the Garden of the Muses is to give the reader something really wonderful, colorful and magical to enjoy.
But it’s also to give readers a sense of just what the Nine Muses actually are. The Nine Muses are nine sisters, who inspire great works of art. The very air they breathe is, literally, magical.
Henry notices, when he first enters the garden, that the air is alive with color, and everything seems to be freshly painted, as if an artist is painting the scene on canvas.
It's an accurate observation. The Muses don’t just inspire or create art -- they are art. They’re the living embodiments of poetry, or music, or dance.
So, of course, if there are flowers in their garden, they will have a nearly limitless palette of colors. They don’t have to choose between red or white or pink or yellow roses, because they have every single color from any part of human history at their disposal. Any color and any combination of colors.
The flowers that spring up around them, too, aren’t just something to look at. Humans look at a flower that’s been created, and enjoy the beauty of a temporal thing. The Muses, on the other hand, breathe creative energy into the entire world. So, they not only enjoy the flowers around them, but they're actually part of them.
(On a side note, you might consider that in later Judeo-Christian tradition, there was also a very important garden mentioned as both the place of divine creation and the scene of the downfall of the human race -- the Garden of Eden.)
Flowers are beautiful, as the Muses are, but flowers aren’t something that they’re given for their birthday. Flowers are something they actually breathe into being, the same way they’d breathe a painted picture, or a new book, into being.
The flowers, to the Muses, wouldn’t be objects, as much as they would nearly be living thoughts. Gardens are a metaphor for life, but the Nine Muses -- and their garden -- are more than the metaphor. They don't paint with pigments, they paint with life, itself.
[Additional info you'd like to add: URLs, next tour stop info, related links, your review link, etc.]
Text:
The Garden of the Muses is a visual explosion of color. The garden is vast and nearly limitless, and literally overflowing with flowers.
The purpose of the depicting the astonishing palette of colors in the Garden of the Muses is to give the reader something really wonderful, colorful and magical to enjoy.
But it’s also to give readers a sense of just what the Nine Muses actually are. The Nine Muses are nine sisters, who inspire great works of art. The very air they breathe is, literally, magical.
Henry notices, when he first enters the garden, that the air is alive with color, and everything seems to be freshly painted, as if an artist is painting the scene on canvas.
It's an accurate observation. The Muses don’t just inspire or create art -- they are art. They’re the living embodiments of poetry, or music, or dance.
So, of course, if there are flowers in their garden, they will have a nearly limitless palette of colors. They don’t have to choose between red or white or pink or yellow roses, because they have every single color from any part of human history at their disposal. Any color and any combination of colors.
The flowers that spring up around them, too, aren’t just something to look at. Humans look at a flower that’s been created, and enjoy the beauty of a temporal thing. The Muses, on the other hand, breathe creative energy into the entire world. So, they not only enjoy the flowers around them, but they're actually part of them.
(On a side note, you might consider that in later Judeo-Christian tradition, there was also a very important garden mentioned as both the place of divine creation and the scene of the downfall of the human race -- the Garden of Eden.)
Flowers are beautiful, as the Muses are, but flowers aren’t something that they’re given for their birthday. Flowers are something they actually breathe into being, the same way they’d breathe a painted picture, or a new book, into being.
The flowers, to the Muses, wouldn’t be objects, as much as they would nearly be living thoughts. Gardens are a metaphor for life, but the Nine Muses -- and their garden -- are more than the metaphor. They don't paint with pigments, they paint with life, itself.
[Additional info you'd like to add: URLs, next tour stop info, related links, your review link, etc.]
Materials: Reader Notes - Trivia
[Host notes: Here are some notes on trivia related to the book, with an accompanying image (shown below) you can also use:]
Inside Random Magic: Reader Notes - Triva
* The name of the artist, Rasa Oddvilla, is an anagram for Salvador Dalí.
* The Floating City can be considered to be allegorical.
* Only 2000 copies of the first edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland were printed, then discarded as waste paper.
* “Two fathoms” refers to Mark Twain.
* Anagrammatic homage to Douglas Adams in -- Ch. 42, of course.
* Ergot-tainted rye can cause hallucinations. Historians suggest that ergot-tainted rye was the spur for the Salem Witch Trials in 1692.
* Guédé is a voodoo entity; he guards the gates of the cemetery, and is privy to all the secrets of the dead. He's also known as Baron Samedi. Although he is a much-feared entity, he has a wicked sense of humor. He is fond of children, and will sometimes intervene to spare the life of a dying child.
* The invention of the word game of "doublets" is attributed to Lewis Carroll.
* Hypatia of Alexandria was a mathematician and the victim of a political assassination -- she was torn to pieces by a mob in 415A.D.
* Professor Literati's eyes are the color of absinthe, a drink which was popular with artists, writers and poets in the 19th century. Absinthe is also referred to by the moniker "The Green Fairy."
* Gone is the feline retort to the paradox of Schrödinger's Cat. He's rumored to be related to the Cheshire Cat, but we can find no definitive proof.
* The nickname "Wiggy" refers both to Beethoven and to Ludwig II of Bavaria, a/k/a the Swan King, the Dream King, and, natch, the Mad King of Bavaria.
* Mort = la mort (death, Fr.)
* Nyx is the goddess of night.
* Charon is the ferryman of the dead. The ancient Greeks buried loved ones with a silver coin under their tongues for Charon, to ensure safe passage.
* Moirtha the cook (one of the Wyrd sisters, related to the Norns) is one of the Moirai.
* Nevermore is named for the well-known poem, "The Raven," by Edgar Allen Poe.
* The book Winnie and Henry read in the library is Der Struwwelpeter, a ghastly/funny children's book of cautionary tales published in 1845. Mark Twain translated the book into English in 1891.
* The woman in the Garden of the Nine Muses is actually a tarot card representing hidden knowledge.
Notes:
Optional header image below (please just pick the one you prefer for your post).
Inside Random Magic: Reader Notes - Triva
* The name of the artist, Rasa Oddvilla, is an anagram for Salvador Dalí.
* The Floating City can be considered to be allegorical.
* Only 2000 copies of the first edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland were printed, then discarded as waste paper.
* “Two fathoms” refers to Mark Twain.
* Anagrammatic homage to Douglas Adams in -- Ch. 42, of course.
* Ergot-tainted rye can cause hallucinations. Historians suggest that ergot-tainted rye was the spur for the Salem Witch Trials in 1692.
* Guédé is a voodoo entity; he guards the gates of the cemetery, and is privy to all the secrets of the dead. He's also known as Baron Samedi. Although he is a much-feared entity, he has a wicked sense of humor. He is fond of children, and will sometimes intervene to spare the life of a dying child.
* The invention of the word game of "doublets" is attributed to Lewis Carroll.
* Hypatia of Alexandria was a mathematician and the victim of a political assassination -- she was torn to pieces by a mob in 415A.D.
* Professor Literati's eyes are the color of absinthe, a drink which was popular with artists, writers and poets in the 19th century. Absinthe is also referred to by the moniker "The Green Fairy."
* Gone is the feline retort to the paradox of Schrödinger's Cat. He's rumored to be related to the Cheshire Cat, but we can find no definitive proof.
* The nickname "Wiggy" refers both to Beethoven and to Ludwig II of Bavaria, a/k/a the Swan King, the Dream King, and, natch, the Mad King of Bavaria.
* Mort = la mort (death, Fr.)
* Nyx is the goddess of night.
* Charon is the ferryman of the dead. The ancient Greeks buried loved ones with a silver coin under their tongues for Charon, to ensure safe passage.
* Moirtha the cook (one of the Wyrd sisters, related to the Norns) is one of the Moirai.
* Nevermore is named for the well-known poem, "The Raven," by Edgar Allen Poe.
* The book Winnie and Henry read in the library is Der Struwwelpeter, a ghastly/funny children's book of cautionary tales published in 1845. Mark Twain translated the book into English in 1891.
* The woman in the Garden of the Nine Muses is actually a tarot card representing hidden knowledge.
Notes:
Optional header image below (please just pick the one you prefer for your post).
Materials: Reader Notes - Book Themes
[Host notes: Here are some notes on trivia related to the book, with an accompanying image (shown below) you can also use:]
Inside Random Magic: Reader Notes - Book Themes
Some of the themes of the book, apart from the nutty adventures and colorful imagery, would be:
• Magic is everywhere, even in daily life, just have to know where to look.
• Always believe in yourself, even if no one else does.
• Inside every woman, there is a queen
• Brains can be more useful than brawn, in a lot of cases
• Knowledge is power
• Bravery isn’t a lack of fear, but a willingness to try even when you’re afraid
• True beauty is much greater than skin deep
• Loyalty, friendship and love are more valuable than gold
• Magic is: Magic. But it’s also: The power to create art, music, and beauty.
• There is spiritual beauty in physical objects, sometimes
• Humans are mortal, but the things they create are immortal.
• It’s foolhardy to underestimate the seemingly small and weak
• Don’t believe everything you see
• One person with courage is a majority
• Never give up
• Love is the most elusive but most powerful magic of all
Notes:
Optional header image below (please just pick the one you prefer for your post).
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