[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: 'Gormenghast' UKer's opinions

[Horst or Rebecca J. Bohner]

<<My local public television station will broadcast the BBC's 'Gormenghast'
series next month. From what I gather, it's a fantasy-LOTR like series. Did
anyone here watch it on the BBC? If so, how was it?>>

I never saw the adaptation (I'm actually afraid to see it, lest I become
enraged and throw things at the screen), but I have read the books.  They
are... um... wow.  Indescribable?  Absolutely nothing like LOTR, except in
the sense that the author has created a very vivid and powerful fantasy
world which, if you have the patience to wallow through Mervyn Peake's
labyrinthine prose, can swallow you whole.

The Gormenghast books (TITUS GROAN and GORMENGHAST; I don't count TITUS
ALONE because not only is it nowhere near the standard of the first two, but
it doesn't take place at Gormenghast, and nearly all the characters you knew
and cared about from the first two books are absent) are bewildering and
hilarious and terrifying and heartbreaking by turns.  Steerpike may be the
most riveting anti-hero in modern fantasy literature.  (The miniseries
adaptation got the colour of his hair wrong, not to mention making him a
great deal more physically attractive than he is in the books... these are
the kinds of changes that make me nervous, but one of these days I know I'll
cave and sit down to watch it anyway.)

There is no obvious magic in the world of Gormenghast, but there is plenty
of odd ritual and tradition.  Gormenghast is very similar to Hogwarts in
that it is a colossal, rambling, ancient edifice where it is incredibly easy
to get lost and there are unexpected rooms and corridors everywhere you
turn.  The names of the characters -- Prunesquallor, Sepulchrave, Fuchsia --
have a somewhat Rowlingesque flavour.  Oh, and there are LOTS of owls...
--
Rebecca J. Bohner
rebeccaj at pobox.com
http://home.golden.net/~rebeccaj