Bristol and other mythical cities
Aug. 8th, 2019 10:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustAlmost five years ago, I went to a conference in Newcastle about the wonderful and much-missed Diana Wynne Jones. Now I have come to another, this time, appropriately, in Bristol. I tried to persuade durham_rambler to accompany me - not to the conference, but to Bristol, to be a tourist and visit family. He wasn't tempted, so I am here alone. It's an unfamiliar experience. I tried to remember if I have ever stayed in a hotel on my own before, and it took me some time to decide that I had (in Versailles, as an undergraduate, at the beginning of my year abroad). Ridiculous, at my age, to see this as any sort of adventure, but...
Ahead of the conference, I have been reading Diana Wynne Jones, of course, enthusiastically rather than methodically. I'm currently in the middle of The Magicians of Caprona, and stumbled over something I hadn't noticed before, and which set me thinking aboutsteepholm's taxonomy of places, identifiable and other, in DWJ's novels. Caprona is a fictional Italian city - and since it is dominated by two rival families, both alike in dignity, it isn't too far from Verona. But the river that flows through Caprona is the Voltava - and since my first reading of The Magicians of Caprona, I have visited Prague, and learned that the river which flows through that city is the Vltava. This was disconcerting. There's a scene early in the book in which Tonino wanders despondently through the city and finds himself in the Piazza Nuova, the New Square, gazing across the bridge at the Ducal Palace; in Prague, it's the Old Town Square that leads to the Charles Bridge - and isn't there a castle on the other side? Was the author amusing herself by overlaying her Italian city onto the Czech capital?
Probably not. The internet supplies an interview in which Diana reveals all:
Another good theory ruined! It is indeed the Vltava, but the connection is musical, not geographical. Which is interesting in itself: the book tries to pretend that magic can be performed by words, by writing spells on slips of paper. But at the same time, what it shows you is magic being worked through music, the power of the angel's song even when a trivial spell is put to the tune, the almost orchestral description of the street battle...
But enough of this. I was late getting to my hotel: since I've also been rereading Deep Secret, I wasn't entirely surprised that the Bristol of my map didn't exactly match the Bristolia all around me (or vice versa)), and that my room is round more corners from the lift than seems fair. But now I'm ready for bed.
durham_rambler to accompany me - not to the conference, but to Bristol, to be a tourist and visit family. He wasn't tempted, so I am here alone. It's an unfamiliar experience. I tried to remember if I have ever stayed in a hotel on my own before, and it took me some time to decide that I had (in Versailles, as an undergraduate, at the beginning of my year abroad). Ridiculous, at my age, to see this as any sort of adventure, but...Ahead of the conference, I have been reading Diana Wynne Jones, of course, enthusiastically rather than methodically. I'm currently in the middle of The Magicians of Caprona, and stumbled over something I hadn't noticed before, and which set me thinking about
steepholm's taxonomy of places, identifiable and other, in DWJ's novels. Caprona is a fictional Italian city - and since it is dominated by two rival families, both alike in dignity, it isn't too far from Verona. But the river that flows through Caprona is the Voltava - and since my first reading of The Magicians of Caprona, I have visited Prague, and learned that the river which flows through that city is the Vltava. This was disconcerting. There's a scene early in the book in which Tonino wanders despondently through the city and finds himself in the Piazza Nuova, the New Square, gazing across the bridge at the Ducal Palace; in Prague, it's the Old Town Square that leads to the Charles Bridge - and isn't there a castle on the other side? Was the author amusing herself by overlaying her Italian city onto the Czech capital?Probably not. The internet supplies an interview in which Diana reveals all:
...it was my husband who acquired a new record, and it was one that I'd only heard a little of before and that was "Ma Vlast", was it Janaççk? It means "My Country", and he was Czech. Anyway, it’s a beautiful, beautiful suite, each movement is about certain aspects of his country, and one is about… this is why I called the river that, actually, in Caprona... is about the river Voltava. It’s a beautiful, beautiful piece of river music, and when the river swells and becomes itself a river, and therefore itself, it has this wonderful tune, and it's a tune, I thought, "My God, why has nobody put words to it?" This was the origin, the need for words. That's how the book came about.
Another good theory ruined! It is indeed the Vltava, but the connection is musical, not geographical. Which is interesting in itself: the book tries to pretend that magic can be performed by words, by writing spells on slips of paper. But at the same time, what it shows you is magic being worked through music, the power of the angel's song even when a trivial spell is put to the tune, the almost orchestral description of the street battle...
But enough of this. I was late getting to my hotel: since I've also been rereading Deep Secret, I wasn't entirely surprised that the Bristol of my map didn't exactly match the Bristolia all around me (or vice versa)), and that my room is round more corners from the lift than seems fair. But now I'm ready for bed.
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Date: 2019-08-24 03:03 pm (UTC)Anyway, thanks for tracking down the varied origins of Caprona. Since you don't go further into the music, I'm not sure if you know: the suite "Ma Vlast" that Diana was thinking of is by Bedřich Smetana, and the piece on the river is usually known by the river's German name, Die Moldau (or as The Moldau in English). It should be easy to find under that title; it's one of the best-known short works in all of classical music. I know which tune Diana is speaking of: it's a beautiful one that erupts in the strings as the river widens out. Delightful to know that it inspired her.
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Date: 2019-08-25 10:50 am (UTC)Thanks for this - in fact, I knew of 'Ma Vlast', but not much more than that, since I have a tin ear for classical music!
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Date: 2019-08-25 10:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-08-25 07:51 pm (UTC)