This instalment of the Dalek Game is for Alan Garner‘s novel The Owl Service. My feeling about this book are unformed, which suggests I read it first for a class… genre fiction at uni, I suspect. I probably wrote very profound things about Alan Garner’s worldview as it found expression in the text. From this remove, I remember the owl-eyed figure on the cover, the thrill of forgotten things found in attics (always a Famous Five feeling to that) and of course the story of Blodeuwedd, transformed from flowers to woman to owl and never entirely one or the other.
I like that legend, primarily for the flowers and owls. Off the top of my head, however, I can think of few stories based on it. The bird/woman element is there in Ladyhawk, but that is a romance. The main person-to-owl image I have is that of the Goblin King in Labyrinth. On slight provocation, I’d be prepared to argue that there are thematic resonances with The Yellow Wallpaper. But the legend is a beautiful story as well as a terrible one.
It’s been on my mind lately because I am working on a – well, either a long short story or a novelette, depending on what the flensers do to it – which had as its basis another human/bird story, to which I added elements of Blodeuwedd. I have, however, a sneaking suspicion that while I like “Tam Lin” for the characters, I am trying to work Blodeuwedd into something just so I can draw feathers and flowers.
April 30, 2012 at 10:29 pm
That’s one of my favourite books of all time. I have a strong liking for dinner sets of a certain kind beacuse of it.
May 4, 2012 at 7:37 pm
I’m always looking at designs for owls among flowers, now!
April 30, 2012 at 10:45 pm
The Owl Service freaked me out a bit when I read it as a kid. Elidor terrified me. but then I’d rather be freaked out by Alan Garner than by almost any other writer.
May 4, 2012 at 7:37 pm
Yes. One chooses one’s terrors :)
April 30, 2012 at 10:56 pm
It’s daft but ever since I saw the bird show at Taronga zoo, the scene at the end when the Goblin King re-assumes owl form and flies out the doors has bothered me because barn owls are silent. SILENT!
May 4, 2012 at 7:37 pm
But he’s a goblin owl!
May 1, 2012 at 12:00 am
I remember reading The Owl Service in the library when I was small. It scared me then and it scares me now! I like this Dalek version. Genisis Ark china? :D
May 4, 2012 at 7:38 pm
:D Heheh
May 1, 2012 at 10:26 am
I always found the end of ‘The Owl Service’ very annoying, because I felt there was so much left unexplained or too ambiguous. Alan Garner books usually have a solid ending. That said … I would love a Dalek Service.
May 4, 2012 at 7:38 pm
But – birds, and flowers!
May 7, 2012 at 8:42 pm
Daleks are more decorative!
May 2, 2012 at 10:52 pm
I think if I owned a Dalek tea service, I would never use any other dishes again. Ever.
May 2, 2012 at 10:54 pm
You would have no choice in this, for the Dalek Service would exterminate any dishes foolish enough to share either sink or shelf with them.
May 4, 2012 at 7:38 pm
Hehe