Stories of growth

A few years ago, I took part in a study group devoted to archetypes and how the psyche narrates our own lives. You know, life is just another story. I remember we had some very rewarding discussions, and a couple of the books that we used stood out as sources of a profoundly new way of looking at our own development as human beings. They were "Goddesses in Everywoman: A New Psychology of Women" and "Gods in Everyman: A New Psychology of Men's Lives and Loves", by Jean Shinoda Bolen, a psychiatrist with a jungian perspective.

These books are a crash course in how archetypal psychology works, and when you know it, you begin to see archetypes everywhere in classic stories. Recently there was a discussion on the Guardian website about how many adaptions to film we need of Jane Austen and Brontë novels. The reason we never tire of these stories are, of course, that characters like Heathcliff, Cathy, Jane Eyre, Elisabeth Bennett and all her family, Mr Darcy, and all the rest of them, are modern archetypes. We may not naturally relate to the gods and godesses of the old Greek mythology, but there will always be inventions of more up-to-date versions of the same archetypes. That´s what we need literature for, among other things.

This book I have read now, is Bolen´s "Goddesses in Older Women: Archetypes in Women over Fifty". Ok, I didn´t read it very thoroughly. I leafed throught in one evening. Not that it´s not a good book, but it felt like I had read most of it before. And perhaps I´m not old enough to identify with crones, I don´t know... Yet.

I can warmly recommend Jean Shinoda Bolen to anyone who feels an urge to understand their own psyche a bit better. In times of confusion, transition, or both, she can be a great companion to someone who has inclinations towards psychology and storytelling and a wish for a more informed and controlled personal growth.

The Smallest Public Library I have ever seen

St Mary´s Library in Hughtown, Isles of Scilly.

Mary Russell saves the world from Men in Black

Long time no blogging. Yeah, it´s been a bit busy for a while, with a close relative in and out of hospital and needing a bit of support in the day to day chores, like making dinner and such. I have been focused on needs other than my own and that´s probably a good thing once in a while. If nothing else, I´m glad I´m relatively healthy! However, it slows my reading.

Another thing that has slowed my pace (of blogging, at least) is my decision to re-read "The Language of Bees" by Laurie R King, a book that I have already read and written about. (And, I can see now, I misspelled my heroin´s name all through the post. Oh well, bygones.) Of course, I had a different experience reading it now, when I know Mary Russell, her Holmes, where they came from and how they got to where they are now. And a year on, really one does not remember all the sides to a detective story plot. Not even one by Laurie R King.

I then proceeded with "The God of the Hive". Which continues directly where "The Language of Bees" ended. Russell and Holmes have split up after successfully stopping a mad Reverend carrying out his plan for world domination. They are still wanted by the police and have a few other concerns that I really can´t give away. Holmes ends up abroad due to circumstances beyond his control, and Russell finds herself deeply embedded in a forrest in the Lake District with a motley crew of companions. They both find themselves hunted down and almost caught by "men in black". Is the mad Reverend still alive and kicking? And how powerful is he? Or is someone much more powerful behind him, someone with much greater, and much more realistic ambitions for world domination? And what is happening to Mycroft Holmes?

At the Sherlock Holmes Museum in London.

There were bits about this novel that I loved. Russell has the opportunity to get more acquainted with the ways of airtravel and I find these parts quite interesting. I also love some of the new characters and I hope very much to see more of them in books yet unwritten. One of them should really have a series of her own, I think she is made for adventure (look away if you don´t want to know - it´s Holmes´ granddaughter Estelle, a half-chinese infant prodigy with perfect pitch). There are also bits I´m a bit disappointed with. You don´t really get who the villain in this drama is. There is at least one thread in the storyline that leads nowhere, perhaps it´s there to give us a scare, I don´t know. And a conflict between two of the main characters seems a bit contrived. Perhaps it´s just me.

All in all, it starts like a Russell&Holmes case, and ends like a James Bond adventure. And why not. King has been looking for inspiration in all kinds of literary places, with great results.

I now have one book left in the series to read, and that is "The Pirate King". I shall save it for Christmas, I think. I need a break from Mary Russell just now, I feel. Moderation in all things is best.

Up In the Air

I´d like to share one of our adventures from our trip to Cornwall. We wanted to see the Isles of Scilly very much, but with only one day to spare and a journey by boat being 2 hours and 40 minutes long, we opted for a morning flight and an afternoon cruise. The flight only took 15 minutes and none of us had ever sat in such a small aircraft before.

The very small aircraft that took us to Scilly.

Checking in.

If I look somewhat bereaved it´s because my handbag has just been taken from me, and I have no pockets for anything, not even a handkerchief or my pocketbook. After taking our bags, they weighed us, to make sure the plane would be properly balanced.

Entering the plane.

We were eight passengers and one pilot. A few of the ladies were a bit nervous, and perhaps some of the men too. There were lots of giggles and holding hands...

The landing strip was grass.

It felt a bit crowded.

Crossing paths with a barge.

Almost there.

Some other craft at the Scilly airfield, and Hughtown in the background.

(All the photos above were taken by my husband.)

A Little Vacation Reading

I started with a Swedish, fresh novel come out this year, and after about page ten I was sooo bored. So I gave it up. I shall mention no names. Instead, I reached for my debit card and logged onto ebooks.com and downloaded the next two Mary Russell-mysteries. Actually, I have already read one, "The Language of Bees", it was the first one in the series I read, almost exactly one year ago. However, I want to read it again since it´s part one in a two-part mystery continuing with "The God of the Hive".

Not that I have come anywhere near either of them yet, it´s vacation after all and the weather is fine and we have other things to do (things that make pretty pictures, like the one below).

Pite River by Grundvattnet

What I have had time to read, though, is Laurie R King´s little e-novella, "Beekeeping for Beginners". It´s a quick, satisfying read, Holmes´s take on his and Russell´s first meeting and what followed. After "Looked Rooms", I had gotten used to Holmes´s point of view and it didn´t feel at all weird. And that´s all I can say, I think, without spoiling it for you.

Of course, without an e-book-reader, or a computer (but reading books on a hot and noisy computer sucks, in my opinion), this book will not be available to you. I suppose short stories must be much more economical to publish electronically. I wish all authors would publish electronically, but sadly, many still chose not to. And I have met some readers who are opposed (???) to e-books. Not that they have ever actually read one... I´m often asked if "the feeling" is the same. I really don´t get the question. Novels aren´t words on paper or screen, they are Worlds that come to nest inside my head.

Sherlock the dreamcatcher

The minute I got home, I buried myself in my sofa with my latest Russell&Holmes-mystery, "Locked Rooms" by Laurie R King. This time, by way of India ("The Game"), Japan and Hawaii, our couple arrives in San Francisco, Russell´s childhood home.

After her family´s death in an automobile accident that she barely survived, Russell still owns a couple of houses and has business interests in San Francisco, but she has been reluctant to return. Already on the boat she stops eating and becomes ridden by nightmares and Holmes feels that she is no longer herself. Clearly, this is a great trauma in Russell´s life and she dreads her home-coming.

While she submerges herself in grief and stumbles about in the debris of her past, Holmes starts an investigation into Russell´s dreams by himself, concealing this from Russell. He finds himself a couple of Irregulars, among them the future writer of detective stories, Dashiell Hammett. Now, I have only seen "The Maltese Falcon" and "The Thin Man" on screen, but that´s enough to realize that this book is probably littered with references to Hammett´s work.

Anyway, as per usual, I will not spoil anyone´s fun by telling you what happens, but it´s suspense all the way through. And for the first time in the series, King divides the narrative into the two perspectives of Russell and Holmes, something that didn´t feel entirely comfortable at first (to me, at least) but it´s made necessary by the story, really. And it works.

From the Sherlock Holmes Museum, visited a week ago, haha!

Best holiday ever

Not much reading done lately, I have been on holiday with my husband, to beautiful Cornwall. Of course I brought my entire electronic library, in case of bad weather, but we were incredibly lucky and during our two week stay, it only rained on us once. Once to make us wet, that is. There were a few more drops, and a bit cloudy and windy, but that is perfect weather for excursions. Umbrellas are worthless in Cornwall, I learned, and I had to emergency-buy a rainjacket (found a good one on sale for 9 pounds!). This jacket was also great to have on top of the open double-decker bus, the Cornwall Explorer 300 (yes, it sounds like a high tech gadget, doesn´t it?) that took us around to the places we wanted to see.

Some places we saw (a selection from the thousands (yes!) of pictures that we have):

Poldhu Cove, where Marconi sent his first radio signals in 1901, to Newfoundland.

Porthcurno, a great beach and...

... the worlds greatest hub of telegraph cables.

St Michael´s Mount, that becomes an island at high tide.

Fabulous Land´s End.

The incredible Minack Theatre, where they rehearsed Hamlet.

The Garrison Walk, on the Island of St Mary, Scilly.

Such a nice tradition with donated benches, and I like that I got the blackbird in the frame.

The scarf is for my sun rashes, and I managed to get burned THROUGH my shirt!

Leaving the Isles of Scilly.

 

The Cornish Alps - tips from the clay mines.

Pretty port of Charlestown, St Austell.

The fabulous Eden Project, St Austell.

The Steamtrain from Paignton to Kingswear, the British Riviera Line.

Kingswear from a boat on the river Dart (which means oak in cornish).

Exeter in the evening light.

A white horse on a mountainside, from the train to London.

We stayed in the most wonderful B&B imaginable, the Elmsdale, operated by our wonderful hosts Richard and Glynis Cliffe. We stayed two nights in London before we went home, at the SAS Radisson Portmann, and I tell you, we had nothing at the Portmann that we didn´t also have at the Elmsdale. And stepping out the front door, London is nothing to Penzance, a great little big town. A bit like Luleå, in some respects, being the entrance gate to a quirky land´s end. A bit eljest (=otherly), as we´d say up here.

And despite of the cloudy weather, I managed to get sun rashes and burns. One couple we shared a breakfast table with in St Austell, didn´t think we looked Swedish: Swedes are supposed to be blonde and very, very tan. We were just too pale.

If you go to England, I can really, wholeheartedly, recommend that you get out of London and go somewhere else. You´ll get more for your money and experience real Englishness, in a way that London just can´t offer. Penzance is one place I will definitely return to. I never did get to see the tin mines...