| Hope Mirrlees Materializes At Readercon |
[Jul. 14th, 2009|08:02 am] |
 |
I sat in on a lot of really fine readings this past weekend at Readercon, but the highlight of the programming for me was an interview with Hope Mirrlees, the author of Lud in the Mist and the con's Memorial Guest of Honor. Imagine the difficult logistics of this, since Mirrlees passed away in the late 70's. The event was staged by Michael Swanwick and Marianne Porter. This bit of theatre (dramatic, informational, humorous, and not without a sense of the seance) went off flawlessly with Swanwick doing a great job as the official questioner and straight man and Porter doing a truly remarkable job of bringing Mirrlees to life for the audience. Porter effected the illusion of reality by first employing a convincing accent -- not overdoing it but subtley nailing it -- and when she answered the questions with wit and pathos and intelligence her responses seemed extemporaneous and cast a spell that banished the idea that it had all been rehearsed. They discussed Mirrlees' works, her prose as well as her poem, Paris, and even some of her non-fiction. She spoke of her life, her relationships, her friends, and told personal stories about T. S. Eliot and Gertrude Stein. A straight up lecture on the life and works of Mirrlees could never have been as engaging or magical. Swanwick had suggested that I check out the novel, Lud In The Mist, over a year ago, and I picked up a copy at Borderlands when I was out in San Francisco, but I've not yet read it. The book sounds fascinating. I'll most definitely be reading it now along with his Hope In The Mist, a newly published long essay from publisher Henry Wessells (pictured above) with intro by Neil Gaiman and a frontispiece by Charles Vess. Here's the publisher's site if you're interested in acquiring a copy:
http://www.avramdavidson.org/hope-in-the-mist.html
|
|
|
| Comments: |
It was a magnificent tour de force. I've never read Mirrlees nor did I know anything about her but I enjoyed the interview immensely.
Ellen: I was totally ignorant of Mirlees and her work as well. I'm going to give Lud a read. | |
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
14theditch's journal
