klwilliams (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
klwilliams) wrote2007-07-15 08:53 pm
klwilliams) wrote2007-07-15 08:53 pm
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The numinous in America
At Westercon, both Lois McMaster Bujold and Michael Swanwich brought up the idea that fantasy needs to contain "the numinous", a spiritual or divine element, the supernatural. I've been thinking about that in regards to fantasy set in the United States. I find that stories with elves set in the downtown of a major city usually (though not always) feel grafted on, because elves aren't something that started out in the U.S. Neil Gaiman's American Gods were gods brought over to the U.S. from other countries. There are good stories with Native American gods and mythology, but I've been wondering what "the numinous" means in the WASP, urban United States, without bringing over gods or mythologies from other continents.
Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker series springs to mind, based as it is on American folk magic and the Mormon religion. While both have their roots in Europe, they are still distinctly American. (The Book of Mormon is, roughly, the story of Jesus traveling though North America bringing his Word to the Indians.) Nina Kiriki Hoffman's The Thread That Binds the Bones, and her other supernatural stories, are another example. Michaela Roessner's Vanishing Point, while more science fictional than fantasy, is set in the Winchester Mystery House and contains at least a supernatural (science indistinguishable from magic) element.
What are the numinous elements in, say, downtown Manhattan, or the Financial District of San Francisco, or even downtown Pocatello, Idaho? There are always ghosts. Neil Gaiman created the Endless. American churches, such as the Baptists or Presbyterians, don't have the same kind of almost-magical liturgy that Catholic-based churches have.
I'd love to hear your suggestions.
Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker series springs to mind, based as it is on American folk magic and the Mormon religion. While both have their roots in Europe, they are still distinctly American. (The Book of Mormon is, roughly, the story of Jesus traveling though North America bringing his Word to the Indians.) Nina Kiriki Hoffman's The Thread That Binds the Bones, and her other supernatural stories, are another example. Michaela Roessner's Vanishing Point, while more science fictional than fantasy, is set in the Winchester Mystery House and contains at least a supernatural (science indistinguishable from magic) element.
What are the numinous elements in, say, downtown Manhattan, or the Financial District of San Francisco, or even downtown Pocatello, Idaho? There are always ghosts. Neil Gaiman created the Endless. American churches, such as the Baptists or Presbyterians, don't have the same kind of almost-magical liturgy that Catholic-based churches have.
I'd love to hear your suggestions.
Horror
(Anonymous) 2007-07-16 07:00 pm (UTC)(link)We are afraid to have real, positive contact with other-worldly stuff. Americans are very connected to the material world and don't like to even think about elsewhere, except to decide it's a scary, unwelcoming, dangerous place.
The Tommyknockers and Insomnia are two novels by King that I very much enjoyed. The former has spaceships (see "conspiracy theory" and "science fiction" in the posts above), and the latter has a great deal of mythical connection to a sort of other dimension. Both have telepathy, which can really be either science fiction, reality, or fantasy, since the gods seem to have telepathy in their omnipotence.
Our numinous icons are all frightening, not inspirational.
--Coke
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