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Author
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Comment
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Terri Windling
Registered User
(11/21/04 4:04 am)
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Magic fiction about theater
Can anyone here recall the names of good fantasy novels (or magical realist novels) that deal with the theater and/or masks? I'm thinking, for example of Midori's novel The Innamorati, which was inspired by the comedia dell arte.
The winter issue of the Endicott site is dedicated to performance arts, and I want to recommend some related fiction.
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AliceCEB
Registered User
(11/21/04 9:01 am)
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Re: Magic fiction about theater
Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus deals with the theatre of circus (and life) and is magical. Wise Children perhaps fits under magical realism (it's about the song-and-dance team of twin sisters)?
Best,
Alice
Edited by: AliceCEB at: 11/21/04 9:10 am
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AliceCEB
Registered User
(11/21/04 9:08 am)
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Re: Magic fiction about theater
Oh and Salman Rushdie's Haroun and the Sea of Stories although about stories is also about the power of storytelling--a kind of theatre.
Best,
Alice
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Terri Windling
Registered User
(11/21/04 9:19 am)
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Re: Magic fiction about theater
How could I have forgotten Nights at the Circus and Wise Children? I'll definitely mention those -- thanks Alice!
I specifically need fiction about theater (or masks), so the the storytelling in the Rushdie book doesn't quite fit, much as I love the book.
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Veronica Schanoes
Registered User
(11/21/04 11:12 am)
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Re: Magic fiction about theater
What about Terry Pratchett's Wyrd Sisters and Lords and Ladies, both of which hinge on theatrical performances?
Oh, doesn't a key part of Diana Wynne Jones's The Magicians of Caprona involve the protagonists being forced to enact Punch and Judy? I recall theater playing a big part in Pamela Dean's Tam Lin too.
For masks all I can think of is that great Twilight Zone episode where all the nasty people have to wear masks until midnight and then their faces are permanently changed to the grotesque masks. Which was cool, but not what you're looking for. What about Poe's The Masque of Red Death? Pratchett's Masquerade has a whole mask thing going on too and philosophical commentary on what masks are and what they do.
Edited by: Veronica Schanoes at: 11/21/04 11:19 am
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aka Greensleeves
Registered User
(11/21/04 11:28 am)
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Re: Magic fiction about theater
Mary Hoffman's STRAVAGANZA: CITY OF MASKS takes place in a Renaissance Venice-type city where adult women must be masked in public, and deals with the theme of duality and imposture. YA
The protagonists in Guy Gavriel Kay's TIGANA and SONG FOR ARBONNE are musicians (part of the time), as are those in Patricia McKillip's SONG FOR THE BASILISK.
PC Hodgell's SEEKER'S MASK involves mask-wearing women, but I can't recall enough of the story to say more than that.
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TheLurker
Unregistered User
(11/21/04 1:48 pm)
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Fantastic theatre
What about Leroux's Phantom of the Opera? Does that fit?
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Heather
KT
Registered User
(11/21/04 2:25 pm)
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Re: Fantastic theatre
Mary Renault's "The Mask of Apollo"
Lloyd Alexander's "The Rope Trick" (children's book set in Renaissance Italy)
Susan Cooper's "King of Shadows" (another children's book) has time travel back to Shakespeare's theater, but that may be the only fantasy element.
also, would Emma Donoghue's new book "Life Mask" fit? It looks like it has theater/masks, but I'm not sure whether it would qualify as fantasy (it's still on my 'to read' list).
Heather Tomlinson
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Helen J Pilinovsky
Registered User
(11/22/04 10:35 am)
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Re: Fantastic theatre
Tanith Lee's Faces Under Water deals with masks and issues of identity and self-representation, though not theater.
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Ktales
Registered User
(11/23/04 4:20 pm)
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Girl Who Trod On A Loaf
Also Kathryn Davis's intricate and beautiful novel The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf, based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale of the same title, and about (and including part of) an opera of the same title . . .
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Veronica Schanoes
Registered User
(11/23/04 6:53 pm)
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Re: Girl Who Trod On A Loaf
Now that I think of it, isn't there an amateur Midsummer in Kate Atkinson's Human Croquet? It isn't the crux of the novel, I don't think, but it is there.
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