LA's The Prydain Chronicles discussion

[caliburncy]

This was supposed to be my first OT-Chatter message before Cindy 
smoked me out early with the smell of rotting polar bear flesh, so 
the intro seems strange, since I am announcing my arrival in my 
*second* message to the group, but I am too, well, lazy to change it 
now.

-Mr. March (AKA Luke of the Long and Annoying Main List Messages)

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Hi all,

I have long wanted to join OT Chatter, but always decided against it, 
because I knew I probably wouldn't be able to deal with even more 
message volume. But now I am at a time where I'm finding it very 
difficult to show much interest in the main list at all, even though 
the threads themselves are not the trouble (they're quite 
interesting), I'm just temporarily HP-ed out. So, I figured now was 
the right time.

Eventually, I would love to discuss some interesting abstract or 
philisophical musings or other such things with all you supremely 
cognisant and intelligent folks, but for the moment I will start with 
something simpler.

***

I have seen Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles mentioned in the 
Recommended Reading database and FAQ, and also seen back messages 
briefly referring to it here and would like to add my enthusiasm to 
the furor:

I'd like to start off by giving a Really Hard Sell of these books to 
anyone here that hasn't read them. (If you've already read them, 
skip to the asterisks below--there's more after the hard sell.) The 
Prydain Chronicles are undoubtedly my favorite YA fantasy books of 
all time (and in my top books, period) and I would recommend them to 
anyone, regardless of age or even literary preferences, with one 
addendum: you have to let yourself like them. Like Harry Potter, you 
must go in with a willingness to enjoy the books, because if you go 
in looking for imperfections then (gasp!) you *will* find them. I'm 
not talking about inconsistencies (of which there are hardly any I am 
aware of, which blows my mind, because LA did not plan out the series 
in full ahead of time, though he occasionally gives this illusion)--
I'm talking about finding ways to prove that it's not "high 
literature" (whatever *that* is!). But if you are looking for a book 
with endearing characters, that elusive blend of adventure and humor 
and depth, some wonderful themes, and an author that is so personable 
that you will feel like he's your long lost friend just from reading 
the Author's Note, then you will find all of this in The Prydain 
Chronicles. For reference, the books, in order, are:

The Book of Three
The Black Cauldron
The Castle of Llyr
Taran Wanderer
The High King

There is also The Foundling, which is a collection of short stories. 
I recommend you read this last, and use it to fill in gaps in the 
backstory of the land of Prydain, since it brings to light some 
events that precede Taran's (the main character) birth. In recent 
copies of The Foundling, two short stories are added (once published 
separately as picture books): 'Coll and His White Pig' and 'The 
Truthful Harp'. The short stories of The Foundling cannot be held to 
the same standards as the rest of the Chronicles, but they are 
enjoyable and enlightening in their own right.

Also, anyone that has seen The Black Cauldron movie by Disney should 
understand that this movie, though good and the last bit of "vintage 
Disney" in existence, uses a combined and severely butchered version 
of the plots of book one and two. Many characters are heavily 
altered, combined, or eliminated. So if you didn't like The Black 
Cauldron movie, you very well might still like the books. And if you 
*did* like the movie, expect the books to be different, but even 
better, with a similar combination of darkness and humor, and 
*significantly* more depth and complexity. According to Lloyd 
Alexander himself, the film is enjoyable on its own merits, but has 
basically nothing to do with his books. I very much agree, 
though "basically nothing" is a bit of an overstatement, since many 
superficial similarities are there. But still, regardless of your 
opinion of the movie, be it pro or con or non-existant (if you 
haven't seen it), READ THESE BOOKS. Trust me.

Thank you for your cooperation.

[END REALLY HARD SELL (but if you don't start reading it very soon, 
I'll start up again!) ;-) ]

***

Now then, I have in the past perused the Yahoo! Groups and in fact 
the entire Internet, for every scrap of Prydain Chronicles goodness 
on it--and found the spoils severely lacking. The websites on it are 
scant and have been around since the last time I went looking for 
Prydain Chronicles stuff on the Internet a few years ago, with nary 
an update in sight (though I did find a new(er) page with some very 
cool Prydain artwork!). There are only a couple Yahoo! Groups 
dedicated to Prydain Chronicles discussion, both of which are very 
small, and seemingly defunct--no new messages for a very long time. 
The pre-defunct back messages indicate fairly fun, but not terribly 
consistently high quality discussions.

It seems to me that there is A LOT of potential discussion to be 
garnered from these books with the right set of people, and of 
course, the right set of people includes people like the members 
here. So I was wondering what degree of interest there would be in a 
new Prydain Chronicles discussion group, founded with as many HPfGU 
members as I can con into joining. Any interest at all? I am well 
aware that many people here have about as many Yahoo! Groups on their 
plate as they can manage, but surely the love of these wonderful 
books could persuade you? In any case, I imagine list volume would 
be extremely manageable, especially at first.

FYI, List Rules would be stricter than your average Yahoo! Group, but 
a teensy bit less strict then here: i.e. similar Netiquette rules, 
but completely off topic comments are allowed on the main (and only) 
list with an OT: prefix. Off topic asides amid otherwise relevant 
posts would not need the prefix, unless the off topic severely 
outweighs the rest of the post (use common sense). All List Rules 
would be subject to change as list volume and other circumstances 
demand.

Sound interesting to anyone or should I cash in now?

General comments that would be relevant for everyone should be sent 
here; comments intended for me solely can be sent off-list to 
caliburnCY (at) yahoo.com; general roll calls of interest with no 
other comments should also be sent off-list.

-Luke