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FINAL Current Developments at the Intersection of British Children ONLINE VERSION
The Spook’s Battle
145 centres on the impending invocation and manifestation of the devil. While witches ravage Thomas’ home, abduct and imprison some of his family members, the apprentice and the Spook try to prevent the witch covens from raising the devil. At the end of the novel, however, the devil walks the earth. In view of all the graphic violence in the novels it is not without good reason the warning “Not to be read after dark” is printed on the book cover. This good advice can also be applied to some non-British fantasy literature for children. In particular two popular and bestselling publications stand out here. Firstly, the Tolkien-like, epic Inheritance cycle by the American Paolini and secondly the Abhorsen trilogy by the Australian Nix. Inspired by Tolkien’s work, Paolini follows the tradition of epic fantasy and sees to it that the majority of deaths in his cycle result from heroic battles and duels. Treacherous acts and cold-blooded murder are meant to be the exception. If they occur, then villains are responsible for such acts. Nix’ Abhorsen trilogy comprises the novels Sabríel, Lirael and Abhorsen. Since the trilogy centres on necromancers and their field of activity, the novels inevitably deal with the dark and unnatural. Associated with the wilful and wrongful disturbance of the dead, necromancers in fantasy literature destabilise the natural balance between life and death and thus endanger the living. Instead of raising the dead like necromancers, the Abhorsen in Nix’ novels restore the balance by sending and binding the dead to their realm. 146 Dealing with the dead and death, usually a social taboo, is therefore part of their daily life. However, unnatural 142 Joseph Delaney. The Wardstone Chronicles. The Spook’s Curse. London: The Bodley Head, 2005. 143 Joseph Delaney. The Wardstone Chronicles. The Spook’s Secret. London: Red Fox, 2007. [2006] 144 Ibd., p. 409. 145 Joseph Delaney. The Wardstone Chronicles.The Spook’s Battle. London: The Bodley Head, 2007. 146 Nix, Sabríel, p. 14. 128 deaths or transgressions of the border from death into life immediately call the respective Abhorsen into action. In Lirael, the necromancer Hedge raises as many dead refugees from the South as he can. When this method does not suffice any more, the refugees are killed on purpose so that he can control them. As zombies they become his mere tools. Rallied by the evil necromancer, the dead reach the size of a small army and turn against the Abhorsen and her supporters. In order to slow the advancing ranks of the dead down, Sameth has wooden stumps with metal spikes driven into the zombies’ arms and legs. 147 In return, the necromancer Hedge inserts a piece of metal into Nick’s hand that autonomously wanders to the boy’s heart and lodges there, ready to kill the boy in an instant when Hedge regards it necessary. In the meantime, the necromancer uses dead refugees from the South, the so-called Dead Hands, as workers for his project of digging up and freeing some ancient evil creature. After the battle with the Abhorsen, there “were bodies everywhere, sprawled on the blood- soaked ground. The cast-off remnants of the Dead Hands piled up with the slaughtered people.” 148 The last novel of the trilogy, Abhorsen, fits in with the overall concept. After a bomb attack on the royal convoy, the violence soon reaches an exhaustive extent when the necromancer raises the dead from all over the realm. Decomposing, they are still used for digging but also for killing refugees to enlarge Hedge’s army. Considering the dead as nothing more than cannon fodder, the necromancer is responsible for a brutal and gory scene of death and destruction: “The white mass was like a curtain of a horror show, briefly drawing back to show piles of corpses, bodies everywhere, bodies hanging on the wire and piled on the ground.” 149 After the death of the necromancer, Lirael faces Orannis, the evil creature of Free Magic that Hedge has freed from the pit. Whilst fighting the creature, immense forces melt the sword and burn her hand so much that the Disreputable Dog has to bite Lirael’s hand off to save her life. 150 As we have seen, entire volumes could be filled with just the examination of violence in British fantasy novels for children. Other, future studies may find this approach well worth researching in more detail. The many cases of violence in the corpus novels show not only 147 Nix, Lírael, p. 165. 148 Ibd., p. 488. 149 Nix, Abhorsen, p. 257. 150 Ibd., p. 390. 129 that it is a basic element of current British fantasy novels for children but also that there are no taboos any more as to the forms violence can take. Just like television news have taken to showing scenes of disaster and violence in great detail and computer games feature realistic three-dimensional animations of bloodshed and slaughter, contemporary British fantasy novels for children take over this practice. Focusing on snapshots during which time seems suspended, the quantity of graphic violence recedes and is replaced by its quality, i.e. intensity and gruesomeness. Times and again, one cannot believe one’s eyes witnessing what scenes are taking place between the book covers of novels for children. For this reason, the thesis suggests itself that the status of a fantasy novel for children as a bestseller depends firstly on the number of bodies which pave the path of the characters, and secondly on the physical and psychological harm inflicted. The question is whether this amount of graphic violence is justified, or whether less brutality and gruesomeness would devalue the respective plot. Does children’s literature need its own version of reality TV? Does this really augment its entertainment value? Where does all this violence come from? For one, no contemporary author can write without the knowledge of human atrocities committed throughout the history of mankind. Of course, recent events in history are given special emphasis as they still have more immediate effects, for example the two World Wars. Literature provides a forum for the reflection, digestion and, in the end, the coming to terms with such events and the collective traumatisation they entail. Download 1.22 Mb. 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