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Author
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Comment
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Erica Carlson
Registered User
(8/30/05 12:29 pm)
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Marvelous Means of Transportation
As I prepare to drive a gargantuan moving truck across the Midwest and over the Rocky Mountains (do I ever envy Baba Yaga's house!), I'm finding myself interested in stories about marvelous means of transportation--magic ships that sail on land or speak to you, seven-league boots, The Luggage, and so on.
Any story or motif recommendations?
Best,
Erica
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Veronica Schanoes
Registered User
(8/30/05 1:19 pm)
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Re: Marvelous Means of Transportation
Flying carpets and broomsticks are always nice.
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neverossa
Registered User
(8/30/05 2:45 pm)
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Re: Marvelous Means of Transportation
The Blue Cap used by witches to fly and enter the cellars of England without being seen and using a key! You find the tale in K.Briggs collection of English Popular Tales. Refferring to Baba-Jaga (but probably you know it) the pestle and mortar. Always in the tradition of witches there's the motif of shape shifting: it's not properly a means of transport, but witches were believed to change themselves in hares or mares -horses - to go to the sabbah or to steal milk and torment the nights of sleeping people. You should find some reference again in Briggs' book.
A last thing, maybe it's not helpful, but interesting, regarding boats: have you ever heard of the Ship of Fools (Stultifera Navis) diffused in the late medieval European culture? There's a famous picture by Bosch under this title: it's refferred to the custom of sending insane people on sailing boats, because the sea, the water, was a liminal "land" such as madness. The first part of a wonderful book by Foucault (Madness and Civilization) deals with it - maybe it's possible to track a parallel with folk-tales.
Edited by: neverossa at: 8/30/05 2:46 pm
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Veronica Schanoes
Registered User
(8/30/05 4:56 pm)
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Re: Marvelous Means of Transportation
Hey Erica--I'm moving across the Atlantic tomorrow, and am totally wishing I had the Luggage. I just remembered that in the Harry Potter books, there are portkeys (you touch an object and it takes you somewhere almost instantly--I think it's a magical version of teleportation, personally) and the flue network (travelling via magic powder and fireplaces, which I can't imagine working in my case, because neither the place I am leaving nor the place to which I am going have fireplaces.
Mary Poppins travels by means of...an umbrella and a kite and a firework.
Dorothy travels by means of silver/ruby shoes, a twister, and Ozma's magic belt. Of these three, I would prefer not to travel by twister.
Peter Pan just flies, lucky him. Iris, the Greek messenger goddess, travels via rainbow.
Wonder Woman (yes, I'm veering off into silliness now) used to have an invisible jet plane that responded to telepathic commands, but it was kind of silly (it was invisible, but WW wasn't, so it was her, in a sitting position, hurtling through the air with her fists on invisible controls), so after the Crisis on Infinite Earths (which, if you don't know what this is, don't worry, it just means you're not a comic book geek) her newest incarnation can fly.
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Erica Carlson
Registered User
(8/30/05 5:19 pm)
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Re: Marvelous Means of Transportation
And I'd forgotten about Howl's moving castle. I don't think I can locate a fire demon before my moving date, though...
My sympathies on the cross-Atlantic move. I hope it goes well and smoothly and that you don't end up wishing you were riding on a broomstick instead of a plane.
Erica
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gails
Unregistered User
(8/30/05 10:21 pm)
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Rivers of Crystal Light
Since I’m posting this late at night, (or early in the morning) I am reminded of Winkin, Blinkin and Nod sailing on a river of crystal light in their wooden shoe.
G’night all,
GailS
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rosyelf
Registered User
(8/31/05 1:53 am)
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transportation
Erica, this isn't a story, but you might be interested in the paintings of the Spanish surrealist Remedios Varo (1908-1963). She was fascinated with magical means of transport and it's a recurring motif in her wonderful-in-so-many-ways paintings. There's a boat made out of the creases of the coat the passenger is wearing; there are vehicles powered by stardust; other conveyances are pulled by strange beasts.
The best English-language source for Remedios Varo is the book Unexpected Journeys by Janet Kaplan-good text and lots of lovely colour reproductions.
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Writerpatrick
Registered User
(8/31/05 9:17 am)
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Re: transportation
Magic means of transport in fantasy are standard. The hard part is often in coming up with something new. C.S. Lewis used a wardrobe as a portal, although closets can work too. In my own writing I've used magic potions and rings. About any object could be made to fly, although carpets and brooms have the advantage of convience, particularly for storage and portability. Flying boats have appeared in stories, but with the invention of the balloon made this something of a reality.
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AliceCEB
Registered User
(8/31/05 10:43 am)
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Re: transportation
In Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Haroun travels by Hoopoe, a magical mechanical bird (as well as by a mail coach, i.e., bus, which was magical, in its way, and which I always thought was the inspiration for JK Rowlings' night bus). In The Phantom Tollboth, Milo travels in his electrical car through a magic tollbooth to the Lands Beyond.
Hope the move goes smoothly.
Best,
Alice
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DividedSelf
Registered User
(8/31/05 10:54 am)
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Re: transportation
Laputa, the flying island...
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - a lot of travelling through mirrors... Also the problem of how to travel inconspicuously when you're surrounded by a column of perpetual night!
Dracula ships himself off in a coffin - not entirely magic, but still pretty weird...
(Love that Bosch picture, by the way... That and The Wayfarer, another picture about travelling with lots of folk symbolism...)
Just remembered, there's also that book where the cities move around on huge caterpillar tracks. What's it called?
Edited by: DividedSelf at: 8/31/05 12:07 pm
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kristiw
Unregistered User
(9/2/05 2:47 am)
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Wizard of Oz
This is somewhat off topic, but people mentioning Dorothy's golden cap and silver shoes reminded me... I recently saw the Muppet version of the Wizard of Oz, and while it is admittedly a rather subpar, enjoyable-enough made-for-tv-movie, it surprised me by resurrecting a lot of elements from the original story that the classic Judy Garland version dispensed with. The shoes are silver, for one thing, the residents of the emerald city wear green goggles, it is the witch's magic eye they must steal rather than her broomstick, and Dorothy wins the golden cap that commands the flying monkeys, to name a few. Just nice to see someone did their research.
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Lamplighter
Registered User
(9/2/05 3:30 am)
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Re: Wizard of Oz
Catbus in My Neighbour Totoro is cute.
I guess nearly all significant movement in fantastic tales involves a degree of creativity to make the journey from the known to the unknown? Perhaps there is a correlation in book tales between how peculiar the means of transport compared with where the adventurers end up?
I think there is a big difference with visual tales, where the act of transition is often limited to revelation of the new world. Consider the wonderful magic of Star Trek's transporters were essentially used to avoid having to cut scene to a shuttle docking everytime the crew had to leave the ship.
There are deliberate exceptions, but these seem to express a change in a person rather than place. The elaborate mechanisms of the Thuderbirds crew or Batman, where their cool ways of getting into cockpits etc underlines the transition from disguise to hero are examples of this personal journey.
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Rosemary Lake
Registered User
(9/3/05 3:37 am)
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fantasy word for 'teleport'?
On another forum someone asked about a fantasy word for 'teleport' ... any ideas?
I always liked the winged feet and winged sandals in Greek myths; I imagined them somehow holding the whole body upright and zooming you along like jet-skis.
As for the new Oz movie that went back to Baum's original -- Baum's is public domain, the changes the movie used are still under copyright. But yes, it's nice to have a movie more like Baum's book.
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Writerpatrick
Registered User
(9/3/05 8:37 am)
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Re: fantasy word for 'teleport'?
"On another forum someone asked about a fantasy word for 'teleport' ... any ideas?"
"Teleportation" has been used in fantasy as well, usually in reference to a type of spell. The only problem with teleportation in fantasy is that it often consists of quests, and that requires a fair amout of travel, so teleporting to the goal would affect the story. However, it is possible to write a fantasy involving people using such magic, but it has to be limited.
In writing, one could also make up a name, such as "instant travel" or "magic motion", as long as the writer clarifies what it is that they're referring to. I think I've used "popping" before.
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Veronica Schanoes
Registered User
(9/3/05 12:18 pm)
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teleportation
J.K. Rowling uses "apparate" and "disapparate."
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