Sunday, October 16, 2011

A Fairy Thing

by Jeffe Kennedy

I'll fess up: I have a fairy thing.

Maybe it's the Irish/Scot ancestry, but I believe in the little people. I love fairy tales and most of my writing is heavily influenced by those archetypes.

I may or may not have an extensive collection of fairy figurines.

Now, let's be clear. I'm not talking about Tinkerbell and her cutesy ilk. It's difficult for me to find fairy images I like, because of the silliness factor most artists seem compelled to slather on, like pink frosting and decorative sugar heaped on a sublime dark chocolate. It's a Hello Kittification of things that are alien and unsettling.

For me, fairies are the other. They don't share human values. They play tricks and have a ruthless self interest that shows up in story after story. In many ways, fairies cross over with demons and devils, as far as their behavior and roles in stories. This might have to do with the advent of Christianity into the Celtic world and the co-opting of these pagan spirits into the hierarchy of heaven and hell.

Fairies are similar to demons. They represent chaos and run counter to the neat structure of a good Christian society. They're as capricious and cruel as nature herself.

When I wrote OBSIDIAN (which comes out June 18 from Carina Press - hooray!), I wanted to preserve that sense of alien wildness in my version of Faerie. My heroine is a neuroscientist, very ground in logic, who ends up in this place without clear rules. The only real structure, in fact, comes from deal-making and bargaining. (Something else fairies share with the devils - striking an agreement to receive a gift in exchange for a price. Be very, very careful what you wish for!) Some of my fairies are pretty. All of them carry a sheen of beauty or whimsy, with a dark and twisty interior. My heroine even refers to one as Nasty Tinkerbell.

This is one of the best parts of being a writer. I get to write the fairies my way.

15 comments:

  1. Do you have the Faeries book by Froud and Lee? I love that book!

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  2. I don't, Sullivan, but it looks very cool!

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  3. There's a tarot deck based on the Froud faeries. Very fun - in that pretty, but dark and twisty kind of way. :)

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  4. I have the Froud book - it's wonderful!

    I'm reading a book now about demons and other subversive spirits. It includes fairies in its analysis for precisely the reasons you describe in your post. They're atavistic and are motivated by their passions.

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  5. Love pretty, but dark and twisty! I might have to put that book on my wish list.

    Ooh, how very interesting, Laura. I might like to read that, too.

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  6. Remember the Time Life "Enchanted World" series and the book about Fairies and Elves? That was my first exposure to Waterhouse and de Morgan's art. Totally made me rethink my vision of otherfolk.

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  7. I haven't seen that one either, KAK! #lamefairycollector

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  8. I totally grew up on the Faeries book by Froud and Lee. Eventually stole it from my aunt and I've got one or two other Froud books as well as both sets of his Faerie tarot cards. (They aren't really tarot, but the concept is similar.)

    I'd call him one of the definitive artists of all things Faerie, actually. (Not counting the old school Rackham pixies etc.)

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  9. Yay for Obsidian!! The portrayal of the faeries is one of my favorite parts, precisely because you captured that capricious otherness.

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  10. Sounds like I'm going to need to snag Obsidian. I love dark and twisty fairies. So does my daughter. In fact, if you haven't read Seanan McGuire's October Daye series, you're missing out on some great twisted Fae.

    Yay! New twisted fairies to read. =o)

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  11. Ooh, I haven't read that, B.E. Added it to my wish list!

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  12. Hee. You said "ground in logic". I think it's a Freudian slip. I think one side of your brain feels oppressed by the other.

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  13. erf! yes, my left and right brains are in a major civil war right now. sad thing, work brain is winning, so creative brain has resorted to sneaky tactics. Alas. Can't say I blame her!

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