Heroes and Villains

Angela Carter's 1969 novel, while difficult to find in the United States, is an important work in her oeuvre: it marked her willingness to be hampered less by the demands of realism (the bounds of which she had pushed in her previous novels given their obsessive interest in fantasy) and to give full rein to her interest in the fantastic. In many ways, this short novel is a reworking of the basic story of her previous and better-known work THE MAGIC TOYSHOP, where a young girl is violently transported from the home of her upbringing to a savage and dreamlike realm dominated by a vicious patriarchal enchanter figure, except here we are now more firmly in the genre of fantasy fiction: her Marianne lives in a concrete-constructed world of the Professors and Soldiers, the last bulwark of civilization after a great nuclear war, and she is carried away by a "barbarian" named Jewel to the jungles that now infest Great Britain. (At the point of Marianne's transition, Carter's prose becomes much less sterile and assumes the richer and more dense qualities readers more often associate with her work.) Although the rogue professor living among and dominating the barbarians is an opponent for Marianne, her more complex antagonism is with Jewel, who becomes first her friend, then her rapist, and finally her husband. It might well be that the discomfiting relations of power and sex between the two characters, which are quite difficult to fit into current contemporary paradigms of relations between the sexes, is why this novel is not better known among Carter's work. (The nothing title, which Carter took from the famous Beach Boys song, is also likely a reason.) But it's a rich and fascinating fiction, and deserves to be read.

An emotional, intense story that takes place after a world wide holocaust. Do not expect to be uplifted. At the same time, expect deeply moving moments. There are tragedies and a love story, shows of courage, and complete foolishness. In other words this is a book about humanity and all its failings set in a time when the basic challenges of survival highlight both the basest and most courageous human qualities. I will read this book again because the writing is so expressive, so eloquent, and, I will definitely be reading other works by Angela Carter.

Reading this book is like being covered with dead leaves and undergoing a personal process of transformation into the most potently fertile mulch, if this can be done as poetry and with vitality and supernatural grace.

This novel combines one of my favourite authors (Carter) with one of my favourite novelistic settings (apocalyptic). Carter herself was recorded as saying that this was her first truly gothic novel (although it came after The Magic Toyshop which many readers would describe as Gothic). It combines a unique heroine who seems almost sociopathic in her inability to feel for others, who is born into a privileged community of "professors" and lives in a white tower, before, growing bored with her existence, she sets out through an evil forest and falls into the hands of the ostensible "villains", raiders who live in almost savage tribes. As you can see from this description, this has all the normal elements of a Carter's wonderful writing, with its utilisation of fairy tale tropes to make critical social commentary. As you might have guessed, as the heroine wanders the landscape, it becomes increasingly hard to tell who are the heroes and who are the villains in this post-apocalyptic landscape. This is a quirky and unusual take on the end of days, and definitely worth a look.

I had to read this book for class and can’t say I enjoyed it. The entire thing felt like a My Immortal Twilight Fever Dream. Carter’s word choice is basic and many of her descriptions feel out of place. The writing itself tries to break the mold, but instead results in a feeling of underwhelming basicness. Often times the book has been called “compelling” and this is true, as I continued reading only to figure out why anyone is behaving in the way they are.This of course does not even touch on the inherent sexism, racism, and ableism in the text. Carter follows in the tradition of science fiction behaving in a sphere for the white male gaze. I was hoping a woman would have a unique perspective on science fiction and gender roles. Instead, I was granted a girl who maybe falls in love with her rapist and definitely rapes a 13-year-old boy the texts codes as being possibly autistic.Do yourself a favor and read Octavia Butler instead.

A slightly odd book and not quite the same level as Night at the Circus, Wise Children, or The Bloody Chamber. I kept half-expecting for the protagonist Marianne to fight against her circumstances like in The Bloody Chamber, but it didn't really happen. It's also worth mentioning the story involves rape and male to female violence, these are told in a strangely unemotional way. I'm not sure I quite understood what the author was trying to say.

I have loved this book since i first read it at university. Like all Angela Carter it is terse, tense and unexpected. This version does have rather thin pages and small print.

yeah thought it was really good. A lot to think about. I think some readers do not like this kind of storytelling; but for me good writing is about something more than the naturalism that bogs down the imaginations of alot of British writers. Must read again because there is alot to take in if you're not as advanced a reader as you'd like to be