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Must-read Fantasy Novels - A Christmas Carol · Mythmakers

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  Hello and welcome to MythMakers. MythMakers is the podcast for fantasy fans and fantasy
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  creatives brought to you by the Oxford Centre for Fantasy. My name is Julia Golding. I'm
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  an author and screenwriter but also director of the Centre. Today I'm going to carry on
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  with my series of fantasy books that you really should get around to reading and my pick today
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  might well already be well known to you but you might not have thought about it as a fantasy story.
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  And today's pick is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Now why is this fantasy? Well the very
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  first thing to remember is that it is structured around screws being visited by three ghosts.
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  Now you may say well actually ghosts are horror they could be real but the way the ghost
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  transport him through the equivalent of portals to his past to different places in his present
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  and to his future is very much a sort of fantasy trope so I'm claiming it for fantasy.
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  A Christmas Carol was first published in 1843 by the London publisher Chapman and Hall
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  and that edition has illustrations by John Leach which you may also have seen because
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  if you google them you'll find them and they have those images about around which many of the
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  adaptations have sort of picked on of the what screws looks like and what the ghosts look like.
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  So it was a very wonderful production to launch this book and I think present day authors would
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  love to have that treatment of fully illustrated novella around Christmas time I mean it was the
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  dream package really. It was wildly successful in its own era and Charles Dickens went on to write
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  several other Christmas books a bit like we now have the Christmas movies he started producing
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  the Christmas books because Charles Dickens was quite a cany marketing person.
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  So why have I chosen the Christmas Carol? Well I've chosen it because it is one of those books one
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  of those fantasy books which has become a lens through which we see something and in his case it's
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  the Christmas period. Charles Dickens was writing at a time when Christmas was being sort of redefined
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  so if you read 18th century accounts in England of Christmas it was very much focused around 12
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  days of Christmas feasting there was some idea of mumming where you would go from house to house
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  and sort of traditional mummers like entertainers with knock-on doors, carol singers but there wasn't
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  this overwhelming sense of peace and goodwill that sort of it's the most important time of the year
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  kind of pressure that the season has now attracted it still had its roots in obviously the winter
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  festival that the Christian church borrowed in order to set the birthday of Christ but it wasn't
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  such a huge deal as it is since the Victorian period and Victorians themselves began to redefine
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  Christmas you probably already know the story of Queen Victoria's husband Albert bringing in some
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  traditions from Germany so things like the Christmas tree and of course we get the rise and rise
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  and rise of the image of Father Christmas at this time Saint Nicholas who was once upon a time
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  primarily described as a saint and he sort of morphed over the over this period into being the sort
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  of Santa Claus Father Christmas who is now a star in many a movie so Christmas was in flux
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  into this comes Charles Dickens who loved a party and he loved theatricals and I think both of
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  these are very evident in the way he thought of Christmas in a Christmas carol so let's think about
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  it as a piece of writing before we turn to the adaptations of it if you haven't read it and you
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  may well have perhaps think you know it so well that you may not have actually read the book
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  you might be surprised to find that it is structured in staves so he's playing on the idea that
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  it's a Christmas carol so it's got staves or verses like a carol wood and it's got a very very
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  strong structure so you have the first day of a kind of prologue piece where Scrooge is sitting in
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  his office making life miserable Bob Cratchits refusing to support causes for the poor turning away
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  the carol singers all the stuff that makes it into the films and actually it's interesting that
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  very few of the plot moves are left out when you see adaptations because Dickens has such a strong
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  structure then he goes home and as well he's preparing to go to bed that he is visited by his
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  old partner Jacob Marley who appears as the ghost carrying his cash boxes and he warns that what
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  you do in life follows you after death but the problem about being dead is you can't do anything
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  about it you can only weep for the people that you mistreated and Scrooge is in his
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  he's not wanting to believe in this phase and so he has the wonderful line that he accuses
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  Jacob Marley of being a piece of undigested cheese you know he sort of is rationalising it
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  so then we move into the second stave which is the first visitation by the ghost of Christmas
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  past so Scrooge goes to bed and he sees the light and he gets up and finds that Jacob Marley who
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  promised him the visit of three ghosts has been correct because there is the ghost of Christmas past
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  but it then goes on to the the next stave which is the ghost of Christmas present
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  and then the penultimate one is the ghost of Christmas future or to come and then finally
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  you get the sort of coda or the last phase which is the renewed reformed Scrooge the one where he
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  wakes up and sends the biggest goose on sale round the crutches and goes to see his nephew who he
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  has shunned and joins in the party so the first thing to talk about is just the beauty of that
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  structure one of the things that we don't often talk about with Dickens is how he structures things
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  and probably because his novels are quite long it might be hard to see how he works it out but in
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  this novella it you see what a beautiful job he makes of that so if you're listening to this as
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  a creative and you're thinking what's a good example of structuring have at a Christmas Carol
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  is a very good place to look another thing about it which I picks up on his love of the theatre is
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  it does feel very theatrical they are like scenes it very strongly moves from one scene to another
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  not normally with that many people involved there is a couple of party scenes where
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  it's beautifully described where Scrooge is a spectator on his younger self and he wants to
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  join in and he can't but he's guessing the his guessing the conundrums and he you know he's the
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  outsider like there's a frosted plain pain between him and the action so it's very theatrical
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  and surprise surprise when you look up the number of theatre adaptations of this they are endless
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  you probably are at the very moment living near somewhere that is putting on a Christmas Carol
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  this Christmas and so and the other thing about it which makes it a really good piece of writing I
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  think is the delightful characterization of Scrooge there are wonderful characters in it all the way
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  through but Scrooge himself is the standout favorite because he is both wonderful before and after
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  so this comagenely man miserable miserable old man who gives us the word to be like Scrooge
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  is beautifully delineated through the choice of some details like how cheap he is about his own
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  dinner you know he's not dining on venison or anything he's he's eating gruel and he doesn't
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  heat his house and it doesn't heat his office it's just all these details and the way that he doesn't
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  even want to give his poor clerk the day off for Christmas he feels it's like daylight robbery that
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  he's allowed to go home for Christmas these details are wonderfully over the top wonderfully
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  um it just solidifies him in our mind and it starts him at a point so his story arc is even more
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  enjoyable if he had any redeeming features at that point well he does have one which I'll come
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  to in a moment but mostly he shows no redeeming features his redeeming feature is that he did
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  love I suppose his partner Jacob Marley there was affection there even if it was like to
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  difficult people banding together so he is moved by the visit of the ghost and I suppose that
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  is the chink in his heart which is widened by the visitation of the ghost so again if you're
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  a person who's wanting to write a character like this who starts really really far down on the
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  sort of baddie scale if you give him these redeeming features that is what you work at and open
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  up so that they can go on the trajectory that Scrooge goes on he's also funny this is something we
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  often forget in the power of being funny in fantasy a lot of the most successful fantasy series
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  have it within there are comedy themes it don't take themselves too seriously so Scrooge himself
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  is we are invited to laugh at him it's kind of a pulled laughter but it's laughter nonetheless
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  and then you get the figure of course when he's being taken around by the ghost of this guy in
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  his night shirt trailing around behind his ghost one of the ghosts is this great big sort of
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  spirit of Christmas past almost jovial figure and then it's with an old man you know it's funny
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  and what he says is funny and his reaction when he reforms is also absurd and funny you know
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  sort of blessing the boy for being a bit cheeky when they're talking about what time it is and
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  what day it is so there is a affection I think from the author to that character which comes across
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  in a kind sort of humour and a really important ingredient in that character is an understanding of
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  why he is how he is the story is set up to show us he goes back to his neglect neglect as a child
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  his grief over his sister and rejection you know that he's a way he he's swerved towards serving
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  man man rather than love and took some wrong choices which ended up him as a bitter old man so it
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  looks behind looks under the bonnet of what makes Scrooge the character he is and that buys us in
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  to root for him so when he sees his future we are with him saying don't go there don't go there
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  so we're not rejoicing in the downfall of the bad guy we're wanting to stop him
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  so that in itself is a wonderful way to build a character who starts off quite repellent
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  but to carry your audience with you if that's something you'd be interested in having
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  go at writing it's quite difficult that is another reason strong visuals when I think of
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  a Christmas Carol which I have read many times and heard it and watched it there are certain
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  scenes that are that I can conjure in my head like Bob Cratchett tried to nurse some
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  flame out of this poor little piece of coal in his in his fire grate another picture of course
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  his tiny tin being carried on the shoulders of his father Scrooge going to his bedroom later on
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  and finding when in the future finding the charlade is sort of haggling over his bed clothes
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  these things you all have your own there are lots of very powerful images and probably the most
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  powerful of them all is the confrontation between Jacob Marley the ghost and Scrooge before he goes
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  on this journey of reformation with the cash boxes and lock boxes and chains representing
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  what he did Jake what Jacob did to all the people they had fleeced and telling
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  Ebenezer yours is even bigger I can see it but you can't so that image if you just someone
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  just sketched out for me I know exactly which story I'm in it's an image which has the weight
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  of the story in it because there's an element of comedy in it with this guy wrapped up in chains
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  but also it's deeply serious about the neglect of the poor in that age and in our own
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  and before we move on to the adaptations I just wanted to also mention the language it reads
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  beautifully so just the the opening Marley was dead to begin with there is no doubt whatever
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  about that the register of his burial was signed by the clergyman the clerk the undertaker
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  and the chief mourner Scrooge signed it and Scrooge's name was good upon change for anything he
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  chose to put his hand to old Marley was as dead as a door nail it's written to be read aloud
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  and the language it's a very well told story and you could hear the voice of the person telling it
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  I always have in my mind like the another kind of ghost the ghost of the Victorian family
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  listening to this and it is it is a very good book to listen to in audible form if you want to
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  treat yourself something to listen to whilst you're doing the washing up because it reads so
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  beautifully aloud so the language is very energetic full of wonderful little turns of phrase which
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  are quintessentially decantient like after that bit about the door nail he goes on to have a little
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  paroration about door nails which is very Dickens but also part of the world of this book which is
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  the world of Victorian England where it's kind of iron mud coal bed caps you know all that stuff
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  it sort of whole landscaper lexical landscape is built in this beautifully in a small space
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  which of course makes the green and the red and the gold and the festivities shine all more
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  brightly so wonderful use of the contrast between the sort of niggardly Scrooge sitting you know
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  eating his his growl and then going into the feast scene those sort of contrasts of extremely well done
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  undoubtedly is melodramatic and the melodrama is also rooted in Dickens love of the stage and
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  it was quite fitting that this was one of the works which he used as part of his stage show
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  Dickens had a battle with controlling copyright so there was very hard for him to get money from books
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  published abroad at this time that could be pirated particularly in America so one of the things
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  he did to sort of protect his own income from his own work is his live performance it's a very
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  modern issue really isn't it the equivalent of people doing their you know Ed Sheeran going on tour
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  so he did public readings of it and I was looking up it says online that he undertook 128
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  performances or thereabouts until his death in 1870 so it was a regular feature more than one
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  you know a couple of times three or four times a year in order to you know increase his income good
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  for him so the importance of this book though as well as being very well written a lovely example
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  of novella I would say if you're thinking about the short form the other wonderful novella of this
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  period is George Eliot's Silas Marna which I can't recommend them enough they would make a lovely
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  little duo to read over Christmas but this particular one of Christmas Carol I think
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  has helped the invention of Christmas as it is today it shows how fantasy can frame our reaction
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  to something the thing one of the things about it that is it's a Christian story in that
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  part of it is the idea of the redemption and it refers to Dickens faith and practices at the time
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  in the sort of structure of how Scrooge sees the era of his ways but it's only likely so
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  so it can be adopted the outline of that redemption story can be adopted by people of faith and
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  no faith which is why it's gone out into popular culture many of the adaptations don't mention the
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  over-Christian aspect which is in the the Christmas Carol itself and boy has it spread so I was looking
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  at when was the the film versions of this how many were there and the list is formidable the first
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  was in 1901 a very very early film this is like the babyhood of cinema itself and wiki so therefore
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  it must be true lists at least 21 live action versions 11 animated and then when you scroll down
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  you find there's also TV series derivative works all sorts of things so you can see how it's
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  spread out far and wide into our understanding of Christmas but I think it's not just the the story
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  of the Christmas Carol itself you know the Muppet Christmas Carol or whatever it's not just that
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  it's also the concept of Christmas as a time of when that sort of good heartedness can the
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  reformation can happen and I'm thinking that really films like it's a wonderful life
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  owe a lot to the kind of belief that Christmas was a time when you would be different or when
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  you could be different it's just a slightly intangible thing because there is also the the sort
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  of the religious input story of course in society as well but I think in popular culture people would
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  recognize it that spirit in stories like and starting with a Christmas Carol so that's my
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  must-read it's a nice short one so do look it up and or catch a performance of it somewhere
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  because I think that Bar Humbug Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without Scrooge
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  so we always end myth makers with where in all the fantasy world is the best place for something
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  and in honour of Scrooge we'll have to say where is the best place to be a miser?
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  well what what kind of world benefits a miser that is one where you can actually control
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  your wealth and keep hold of it so I was actually thinking what what are miser's in fantasy literature
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  and of course immediately if you think about it dragons dragons are mass treasure and sit on it
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  and don't share it so perhaps the answer to this one is the place where it's a good idea you know
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  it's good to be a dragon so it would be middle earth until the Hobbit arrives you know if you're
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  a smug all the centuries before you had quite a good life and ruling your mountain
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  or it could be going way back in the world of bear wolf because the last monster that bear wolf
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  fights is a dragon who's a mass treasure and it could be in the world of bear wolf until bear wolf
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  arrives so I think where in all the best worlds to be a miser is to be a dragon somewhere before
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  the person comes to disrupt your rather nice quiet life with your lovely treasure thank you
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  very much for listening and if you have any suggestions of your must read fantasy books do let us
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  know otherwise look forward to seeing you next time
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