Fantasy Author Charles De Lint Essay, Research Paper

When most people think of fantasy, images of fairies, unicorns, dragons, and other fantastical creatures set in a “Camelot” type world comes to mind. Most would not think of these extraordinary creatures living in modern times. The fantasy author Charles de Lint is among many present-day authors that has broken the mold of what fantasy should be. He has taken fantasy-related elements and placed them in a modern day setting. He uses these extraordinary creatures and events as metaphors for the deeper understanding of what his main characters represent and whom they are inside. His message is a common one that can be found in all his books and short stories. It says that people should not deny what is inside them. Carol Porter notes in the article De Lint Author of Magic that “His protagonists are tested over and over again to prove their mettle against evil forces and learn about themselves and their strengths in the process…De Lint is making the point that through suffering, people can and will become stronger and better individuals as they discover unforeseen and undiscovered aspects of themselves”. Some of the works in which you will find this message are in the novels Someplace to be Flying and Memory and Dreams, as well as in the short story collection titled The Ivory and the Horn.

Charles de Lint was born in the Netherlands. He moved with his family to Canada only three months later. He confessed to Clinton Somerton in the article Charles de Lint takes readers Someplace to be Flying that he never planned to be a writer growing up. “For a long, long time, I was just going to be a musician” he said. Music does, in fact, play a large role in almost all his work. Along with his love for music, de Lint also “developed a large affinity to reading books” at a very young age. “He particularly enjoyed books on mythology and folk tales, which included Celtic folklore”(Somerton). It is no wonder that when he did begin to write that his work was highly influenced by all three types of literature. De Lint is connected with the creation of the “Urban Fantasy” genre. However, he actually started out writing in the traditional fantasy style. It was only when his wife, Mary Ann, suggested it to him that he began to set his fairy filled stories in a modern day setting. All of his characters are extremely developed and he has also created the fictional city of Newford that has become the popular setting for many of his novels and short stories. He told Somerton also that “The main thrust of my work is contemporary – taking place in a contemporary setting – involving ordinary people and how their lives are changed or not changed by some kind of extraordinary occurrence.”

One of de Lint’s most recent novels is titled Someplace to be Flying. It takes place in modern times and in de Lint’s city of Newford. This book has many elements of Native American mythology within it. It is based on the idea that the world, and everything within it, was created by “animal people”, also called the “first people”. These animal people are the fantastical creatures found in Someplace to be Flying. The otherwise ordinary main characters are Hank and Lily. Hank is a gypsy cab driver who lives as a squatter in the abandoned tombs of Newford. Lily, in contrary to Hank, is an uptown freelance photographer. The story follows their meeting, relationship, and newfound connection to this mythological world of animal people that lies beneath the ‘real’ world. Clinton Somerton writes that “Someplace to be Flying takes readers on a fantastic journey by tapping into deeply rooted and shared human mythologies, and making them vital and accessibly again.” He also writes that “Someplace to be Flying…links the hope of self-discovery to a heightened awareness of the world’s possibilities, while bridging the sheer membrane between the mundane and the ethereal.”

Shared and bridges are important words connected to the metaphor of the animal people in relation to Hank and Lily. It is the connection between the two characters that their meeting with the animal people represents. They discover that they are a part of each other. On a larger level, this is saying how everyone and everything is a part of each other in some way. When they first meet they are strangers who think that the only thing they have in common is the discovery of the animal people. They only see the differences between them and don’t truly believe that there could be anything between them. Just as they see the animal people as fantasy and begin doubt their existence. But as the book goes on they find more and more connection between them until they realize that they are a part of one another and the world. The animal people representing the link.

Memory and Dreams presents a much more obvious metaphor behind its fantastical creatures. De Lint uses the creatures and events in relation to the main character to represent creation. He also, as Jayme Lynn Blaschke points out, “confronts head on the harsh realities of denial, abusive relationships, suicide, and ultimately, responsibility for one’s own actions.” Readers follow the life of Isabelle Copley, a talented artist who discovers her ability to create life through her paintings. She is taught to create numena by a master artist named Vincent Rushkin. Numena are the creatures brought to life through the paintings. They are immortal, cannot bleed, and can look like anything imaginable. They are also strongly connected to whomever it is that brought them over from whence they came and do not remember where they were before they were brought over. Throughout her relationship with Vincent Rushkin, Isabelle faces physical and mental abuse. She also goes through trust issues. When her best friend commits suicide and a fire destroys almost all her numena painting, which kills the numena themselves, Isabelle turns away from her them. She isolates herself from the world and paints only abstractly. It is not until ten years pass and she receives a long overdue letter from her best friend, written before her death, that she has to return to face the consequences of her past.

There are many important issues confronted in this book, including abusive relationships and suicide. Yet, aside from these obvious elements, the idea of not denying what is inside oneself can be found again. The numena represent many things to Isabelle. Some of the more important are love, the child inside her, and the adult in her. Collectively, however, the numena represent Isabelles desire to create and her extreme love for painting. As she learns to create the numena she is actually discovering more and more that her place in the world is in front of an easel with a paintbrush in hand. When she looses her creations and her best friend looser her desire to live, Isabelle falls into isolation and although she is still painting it is not the love she found while painting numena. Now with the knowledge that there is always a possibility to loose that which she creates. She discovers in the end that nothing is guaranteed in her life and finally comes to terms with that which is inertly hers and embraces the painting that has always been her one true love.

Aside from his magical novels, Charles de Lint has also a large number of short story collections. Among the collections published are The Ivory and the Horn. Richard Dansky writes in his review of the book that “The characters of the stories presented here are the usual de Lint hodgepodge of race, gender, preference and species – ghosts and other critters share space with bike messengers, editors, and social workers and the like, more less easily…Charles de Lint allows his characters to believe, or at least to avoid disbelief, and the result is a world that is more subtly magical and more welcoming to characters and reader alike.” The Ivory and the Horn includes fifteen short stories that all take place within the city of Newford. They include popular well know de Lint characters, like Jilly Coppercorn, and introduce new characters. Some of the stories interlace with each other, but most are self-reliant tales of urban-fantasy.

“Mr. Truepenny’s Book Emporium and Gallery” was first published by Cheap Street in 1992. It is the story of Shophie and her all to real daydreams. It is written in the first person perspective with Sophie as the narrator. Story begins with Sophie relaying a small history of how Mr.Truepenny was actually much like an invisible friend. She daydreamed him up along with his Book Emporium and Gallery when she was a young girl and didn’t have many friends. As she got older and began to make friends and, for lack of a better term, have a life, she stopped going to Mr. Truepenny’s store. Then one day a small girl who Sophie had never before met came up to her and cried, “You’re the woman!…You’re the woman who’s evicting Mr.Truepenny.”(de Lint 39). This event reawakened Sophie’s memory of Mr.Truepenny and his store. It also suggested that it was real if others could visit it. This idea being the extraordinary event of “Mr. Truepenny’s Book Emporium and Gallery”. Sophie revisits her daydream place where Mr.Truepenny tells her that when she stops believing in its existence it goes away. All this is very symbolic and can be seen as representing childhood. Mr.Truepenny and his store are a metaphor for the child-like innocence that adults loose as they grow older. The message of this tale is for Sophie not to deny or forget about the child that still lives inside her.

Another short story found in The Ivory and the Horn is titled “The Forest is Crying”. It first appeared in The Earth Strikes Back in 1994. This tale follows the life of social worker Chris Dennison. He is ready to give up on his work when another of his kids dies. Unable to decide he goes from bar to bar until he is unable to stand and collapses outside. A strange woman helps him home and nurses him back to health. When he asks who she is she simply replies, “I just wanted to see what you were like when you were my age.”(de Lint 50). She leaves her address and phone number. The next day when he tries to call the number, it is disconnected. He drives to the address and finds it to be a slum apartment building. A woman answers the door and when he asks for the strange helper, whose name is Debra, a small girl who looks as though she has been beaten comes to the door. He immediately follows his social worker instincts and rescues the little girl and her mother from the abusive father that had been abusing them. When he thinks back and realizes what has happened the words Debra said to him come back to mind. “I just wanted to see what you were like when you were my age.” This is unmistakably the fantastical event of this story. The message is clear as well. Chris was trying to deny he calling in life, the drive that kept him going today, because he could not see all the good that he was doing. He was only looking at his losses. In the end, he could not deny that which was a part of him.

Charles de Lint has proved himself a master of urban-fantasy. He uses a combination of elements to appeal to his audience. The common message that can be found within the metaphors of his fantastical creatures and events is sometimes very clear and sometimes a little deeper within the stories. The metaphor for these fantastical creatures can be paired up with issues. This style is found in both Memory and Dreams and someplace to be Flying. It can also be used to hold together the plot of shorter stories found within the pages of The Ivory and the Horn. The characters in “Mr.Truepenny’s Book Emporium and Gallery” and “The Forest is Crying” need nothing more than to discover the parts of themselves that was in danger of being lost. De Lint is able to use the same metaphor for his magical creatures in very different and unique stories. He is truly a master of the urban-fantasy.

Work Cited

Blaschke, Jayme Lynn. “Charles de Lint, Memory & Dreams.”Kinrowan. n. pag. 21 April, 1999

Dansky, Richard. “Charles de Lint, The Ivory and the Horn” Kinrowan. n. pag. 3 May 1999

De Lint, Charles. The Ivory and the Horn. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 1995.

De Lint, Charles. Memory and Dreams. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 1995.

De Lint, Charles. Someplace to be Flying. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 1998.

Porter, Carol. “De Lint Author of Magic.” Dazzler;s Digital Domicile. n. pag. 21 April, 1999

Somerton, Clinton Cyril. “Charles de Lint takes readers Somplace to be Flying.” 1998. n. pag. 21 April,

1999