Escape hatch

Fantasy as therapy and when that doesn't work, there's "Schitt's Creek"

Aug 29, 2020

“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” - “Coraline,” by Neil Gaiman.

In this Issue:

Fantasy as therapy and some prescriptions for you
This very shareable link to help you cast your vote and then protect it
My Instagram imposter, “Schitt’s Creek,” and Bettye LaVette

Fantasy: My Drug of Choice

Since I met her a few years back, my friend and poet Stacy Ardis Dyson has urged me to read “The Last Unicorn” by Peter S. Beagle. It is one of her go-to books for whenever she needs to escape this world for a little while. But it’s a fantasy, I thought. I don’t read fantasy. And I left fairy tales behind a long time ago.

Then I looked at my bookshelves. Every novel on my shelf is about a made-up world. Some may closely resemble the “real” world but they are only partial views seen through the lens of an author who controls everything in that universe. In real life, of course, we control nothing except, maybe, ourselves.

There are many books on my shelves -- some very old and worn-- that show me I’ve been reading fairy tales and fantasy long into my adult years. The “Harry Potter” books, everything by and Terry Pratchett, Tolkien’s “Hobbit” and “Lord of The Rings,” “Andersen’s Fairy Tales,” “The Chronicles of Narnia,” “Arabian Nights.” I read Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” trilogy as 2019 ended and 2020 began. I am not a fantasy “nerd” - I can’t quote passages at the drop of a hat or tell you everything about the author or a character’s backstory. My fandom is purely as a reader who loves writing, loves story, loves to escape and, also seems to especially love British authors who deal in fantasy and fairy tales.

So I read “The Last Unicorn.” I laughed. I wept. Yes, I wept. The writer in me underlined sentences and descriptions I longed to have written. The fog of despair and isolation I’ve been feeling lifted a little. Like all fairy tales, there is great sadness in this book. There are dark moments, difficult choices, sacrifices. Magic, like power, is seductive and how it is used depends on the person who holds it. The end is not a neat wrapping up of happily-ever-afters -- no one gets exactly what they want, but everyone gets what they most need. Including the reader. No happy ending would feel real. What feels real is the sense of joy, or the possibility of joy, that comes from surviving darkness. The characters each go into the future changed, equipped with strength and understanding they did not have before.

On top of that, I laughed out loud. A lot. Boy, did I need that.

Maybe it’s the heat. Maybe it’s the headlines. Maybe it’s the never-ending confusion and isolation of Covid and the helplessness I feel in the face of nature - both human and environmental. I’ve been down. Really down. And I know I’m not the only one. I want to escape. No, I want to hit the refresh button. I want to read stories that get me out of my own head and back into the world with a sense of hope and possibility that can withstand the forces of darkness around me and inside me. Books have always been my refuge. Lately, fantasy and fairy tales have been my drug of choice. Here are some of the books I’ve prescribed for myself lately with some lines I love.

“The Last Unicorn” by Peter S. Beagle - the tale of a unicorn, a bad magician named Schmendrick, and the search for what makes us whole. Featuring these fighting words from the furious magician: “I’ll stuff you with misery till it comes out of your eyes. I change your heart into green grass, and all you love into sheep. I’ll turn you into a bad poet with dreams.” I’ve not watched it, but it an animated film version was done with Alan Arkin, Jeff Bridges, Robert Klein and more. Judging by the trailer, the book is better.

“His Dark Materials” trilogy by Philip Pullman. Science, fantasy, and coming of age converge in three mesmerizing novels that follow a young girl, Lyra, as she leads a mission to save a friend, and then much more than that. Her discoveries are painful but also joyful. Her resilience rubs off onto the reader. HBO covers the first book, “The Golden Compass,” in season one of “His Dark Materials.” “We are all subject to the fates. But we must act as if we are not, or die of despair.” ― Philip Pullman, “The Golden Compass”

“Coraline” and “The Graveyard Book,” both by Neil Gaiman. These stories, like many of Gaiman’s, put children in the scariest possible scenarios and let them find their own paths out. They throb with heart but never sentimentality. They offer lines like this: “People want to forget the impossible. It makes their world safer.” or “Really, he thought, if you couldn't trust a poet to offer sensible advice, who could you trust?” (“The Graveyard Book”).

All 44 Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett: Unlike the earth, Discworld is flat. People or creatures (often a bit of both) are forever skating towards the edge and, sometimes, slipping into the void. I don’t know another series of books in which Death is one of the funniest characters, speaks always in CAPITALS, and the one who, in the end, can be relied upon to save the day. Start at the beginning or start with “Mort” (about a boy apprenticed to Death) or start anywhere. This line is from “Mort.”

“THAT’S MORTALS FOR YOU, Death continued. THEY’VE ONLY GOT A FEW YEARS IN THIS WORLD AND THEY SPEND THEM ALL IN MAKING THINGS COMPLICATED FOR THEMSELVES. FASCINATING.” - Terry Pratchett, “Mort”

Gaiman and Pratchett collaborated on the very funny “Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter,” “much more fun to read than to watch but watching was fun too when Amazon came out with “Good Omens” in 2019. A sort of odd-couple-meets-bromance story about a demon and an angel who must partner to save the world from itself. “It has been said that civilization is twenty-four hours and two meals away from barbarism.” - “Good Omens” by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.

RX: One half hour nightly as needed

“Oh, I’d kill for a good coma right now.” – Moira, of Schitt’s Creek

And if you just need a quick shot of something to get the endorphins flowing, there’s Schitt’s Creek. I hated the first episode. Then, out of desperation not long ago, we gave it another try. I fell in love. We were hooked, even sat through commercials on POPTV in order to watch the final season before it airs on Netflix in October. Now we are bereft. Tell me what we can watch now in that half hour buffer between the day and bedtime.

Instagram Imposter

This week someone cloned my Instagram account and began to reach out to my friends to scam them. When they and I reported it to Instagram, Instagram responded by deleting my real account and leaving the imposter. Trying to appeal this has been like shouting into the void. My messages to Instagram vanish and nothing comes back, not even an echo, never mind an acknowledgment.

I never thought much about my IG account. I’m no influencer. But it was a lovely way to stay in touch with people. Now it is a reminder that even this tenuous contact with loved ones or friends depends on the benevolence of unseen dictators who use algorithms or make incomprehensible judgments that go unchallenged because there is no possibility of personal contact. The experience has left me angry, frustrated, but mostly feeling strangely vulnerable. I am trying to see it as a chance to practice acceptance, to focus on what I can control, not on what I can’t. It’s probably a good thing to be practicing in this period of our lives.

Anyway, if you have been following me on Instagram you may get a message from this person. It’s my face and those are my photos but this is NOT me. Block it. I’ll be back in touch about my new account. I’m glad we are still connected here!

Thanks, that’s it. I’d love for you to share what you are reading, watching, or doing that helps you these days? What is your prescription for getting through 2020? I really, really, really want to know!

If you’re looking for a good book to take you away for a while, check out the selections in The Spark Community Recommendations page of bookshop.org where every sale supports local bookstores and can help us generate money to donate to literacy projects.

Oh, and please, get ready to vote. The ballot is not magic but it’s all we’ve got. Let’s get ‘em in early and help others do the same. Here’s a post with some info that can help: Our Votes, Our Voices.

Thank you. Stay well. See you next week with equilibrium restored.

Betsy

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PS. And now…your moment of Zen: the incomparable Bettye LaVette singing The Who’s “Love Reign.” Treat yourself to her new album Blackbirds and then share it with a friend. Her version of “Strange Fruit” rips the heart out of the listener and then hands it back with a question: “What are you going to do about it?”