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A review by dyno8426
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
5.0
Such a banger to start the year with!
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell are two English magicians who are trying to revive the long lost magic in England in the cusp of 19th century. This is placed very creatively and interestingly around the pinnacle period of Napoleon's invasion. They come together as teacher-pupil and drift apart upon intellectual and philosophical disagreement. Their journeys are connected and directed by the footprints and mystery of John Uskglass - the Raven-King - who is believed to be the first proper magician of England.
As you can guess by the intro, this is a work of magical realism, and a very fine, entertaining and engrossingly crafted story. The defining characteristic of this genre is its juxtaposition and proximity with the real world as we know it. This closeness with the real world inspires both imaginative escape and comparison. On one hand, you see the unlimited possibilities of magic - both its glories and complications. However, magical realism constantly brings the readers to the normal life as we know it - we know there are aspects of life that are either ignorant of magic or inaccessible to it. While this sounds dissatisfying and limiting, it is usually used as a tool to highlight the perils of uncontrollable power and unknown domains. A good magical realism will keep the readers meandering through their current version of life and the magical world it creates and exposes. This intersection makes magic feel more accessible. It also brings an appreciation in life of all the substitutes we have of magic. One thing which specially stands out to me in these magical stories is the acknowledgement of the finiteness of human knowledge and experience. Kind of linked to the saying "any sufficiently advanced technology appears like magic" (Arthur C. Clarke said it I think?). There are many things which seem, if not impossible, outside the realm of experience or witnessing in our small, finite lives. Like a person 100 years ago will be surprised by today's handheld powerful computers, we will be surprised by a glimpse of the future which might exist beyond speculation. There may be things which science fiction can't speculate. Magical realism, by fictionalizing the existence of worlds whose rules are unknown and unimaginable to us, let's us reconcile to our human limitations. We can't know everything - and that is okay.
In this book, it is also intersected with the mythical history and political dynamics of England during that period. Many magical realist books leverage the well-known myths of various cultures and build their stories with their bare-bones - Neil Gaiman is the well-known sandman of this art. Susanna Clarke uses the medieval myth of Faerie kingdom that is well known in England - a kingdom of non-human creatures that exists meshed with the English lands. The inhabitants of Faerie are appropriate called fairies and magic is first nature to them. All the accomplished magicians in this story are known to have interacted with these fairies and leveraged their knowledge to practice magic outside Faerie in the human world. The symbolic keystone - which connects these two worlds - is the Raven-King, John Uskglass who as a human was raised in Faerie and eventually becomes the King in the North of Faerie. It shows a liminality of human knowledge and beyond. Faerie is nowhere distant - the roads to Faerie are accessible through England. One needs to be worthy to survive and master the unknown. The knowledge and its possessors crossover from their worlds and realities - their magic is the tool that connects them and makes this passage possible. The magic controls “the trees, the hills, the sunlight, water, birds, earth and stones”. If you think about it, magic is manipulating the current world through knowledge which goes beyond the world in which it is practiced. If its knowledge and workings become known in the real world, it will cease to become magic and get reduced to science.
Susanna Clarke has kept this long story really captivating with other side-characters and their interactions equally interesting. A good magical realism needs a wild, unrestrained imaginations of magical elements, forces and artefacts. There are malevolent fairies, English politicians and generals, manipulative high society, pitiful performing magicians and enchanted humans. There are castles of Lost-Hope and boxes the color of heartache. It is very gothic in its style at times with vivid, surreal visuals. It is perfectly balanced with humorous and chuckle-worthy situational comedies. Finally, there are themes of knowledge and its control through the two archetypes of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Mr. Norrell is your classic and cautiously orthodox knowledge expert - he is proficient but self-centered. He stands for autocratic control of knowledge - strict rules and authority of how to evolve and share knowledge. By keeping a tight, small club and tyrannical gatekeeping, you maintain exclusivity and power over those who depend on you. Strange on the other hand is all about democratic, open access to knowledge. He is the more liberal and modern about how to shed all the conventionalities of orthodoxy. He wants to take the glory of the past and reinvent it into something universally accessible which empowers everybody to evolve the knowledge repository together. It is a brilliant narrative of how these two opposing ideological forces come together and apart in the story.
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell are two English magicians who are trying to revive the long lost magic in England in the cusp of 19th century. This is placed very creatively and interestingly around the pinnacle period of Napoleon's invasion. They come together as teacher-pupil and drift apart upon intellectual and philosophical disagreement. Their journeys are connected and directed by the footprints and mystery of John Uskglass - the Raven-King - who is believed to be the first proper magician of England.
As you can guess by the intro, this is a work of magical realism, and a very fine, entertaining and engrossingly crafted story. The defining characteristic of this genre is its juxtaposition and proximity with the real world as we know it. This closeness with the real world inspires both imaginative escape and comparison. On one hand, you see the unlimited possibilities of magic - both its glories and complications. However, magical realism constantly brings the readers to the normal life as we know it - we know there are aspects of life that are either ignorant of magic or inaccessible to it. While this sounds dissatisfying and limiting, it is usually used as a tool to highlight the perils of uncontrollable power and unknown domains. A good magical realism will keep the readers meandering through their current version of life and the magical world it creates and exposes. This intersection makes magic feel more accessible. It also brings an appreciation in life of all the substitutes we have of magic. One thing which specially stands out to me in these magical stories is the acknowledgement of the finiteness of human knowledge and experience. Kind of linked to the saying "any sufficiently advanced technology appears like magic" (Arthur C. Clarke said it I think?). There are many things which seem, if not impossible, outside the realm of experience or witnessing in our small, finite lives. Like a person 100 years ago will be surprised by today's handheld powerful computers, we will be surprised by a glimpse of the future which might exist beyond speculation. There may be things which science fiction can't speculate. Magical realism, by fictionalizing the existence of worlds whose rules are unknown and unimaginable to us, let's us reconcile to our human limitations. We can't know everything - and that is okay.
In this book, it is also intersected with the mythical history and political dynamics of England during that period. Many magical realist books leverage the well-known myths of various cultures and build their stories with their bare-bones - Neil Gaiman is the well-known sandman of this art. Susanna Clarke uses the medieval myth of Faerie kingdom that is well known in England - a kingdom of non-human creatures that exists meshed with the English lands. The inhabitants of Faerie are appropriate called fairies and magic is first nature to them. All the accomplished magicians in this story are known to have interacted with these fairies and leveraged their knowledge to practice magic outside Faerie in the human world. The symbolic keystone - which connects these two worlds - is the Raven-King, John Uskglass who as a human was raised in Faerie and eventually becomes the King in the North of Faerie. It shows a liminality of human knowledge and beyond. Faerie is nowhere distant - the roads to Faerie are accessible through England. One needs to be worthy to survive and master the unknown. The knowledge and its possessors crossover from their worlds and realities - their magic is the tool that connects them and makes this passage possible. The magic controls “the trees, the hills, the sunlight, water, birds, earth and stones”. If you think about it, magic is manipulating the current world through knowledge which goes beyond the world in which it is practiced. If its knowledge and workings become known in the real world, it will cease to become magic and get reduced to science.
Susanna Clarke has kept this long story really captivating with other side-characters and their interactions equally interesting. A good magical realism needs a wild, unrestrained imaginations of magical elements, forces and artefacts. There are malevolent fairies, English politicians and generals, manipulative high society, pitiful performing magicians and enchanted humans. There are castles of Lost-Hope and boxes the color of heartache. It is very gothic in its style at times with vivid, surreal visuals. It is perfectly balanced with humorous and chuckle-worthy situational comedies. Finally, there are themes of knowledge and its control through the two archetypes of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Mr. Norrell is your classic and cautiously orthodox knowledge expert - he is proficient but self-centered. He stands for autocratic control of knowledge - strict rules and authority of how to evolve and share knowledge. By keeping a tight, small club and tyrannical gatekeeping, you maintain exclusivity and power over those who depend on you. Strange on the other hand is all about democratic, open access to knowledge. He is the more liberal and modern about how to shed all the conventionalities of orthodoxy. He wants to take the glory of the past and reinvent it into something universally accessible which empowers everybody to evolve the knowledge repository together. It is a brilliant narrative of how these two opposing ideological forces come together and apart in the story.