Washington Irving
A community portal about Washington Irving with blogs, videos, and photos. According to Wikipedia.org: Washington Irving was an American author of the early 19th century. He is perhaps best known for his short stories, his most famous... [more]
A community portal about Washington Irving with blogs, videos, and photos. According to Wikipedia.org: Washington Irving was an American author of the early 19th century. He is perhaps best known for his short stories, his most famous being “ The Legend of Sleepy Hollow ” and “ Rip van Winkle ”, but he was a prolific writer of essays, biographies, and other forms as well. He and James Fenimore Cooper were the first American writers to earn acclaim in Europe, and Irving is said to have mentored authors such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Edgar Allan Poe. Irving was born in Manhattan. A lawyer, he was a member of the American diplomatic staff in Britain and in Spain. He spoke fluent Spanish, which served him well in his writings on that country, and he could read several other languages, including German and Dutch. He was a prolific essayist who wrote widely respected biographies of George Washington, Muhammad, and others, and he wrote a number of books on 15th century Spain dealing with subjects such as Columbus, the Moors, and the Alhambra. While in Europe as a young man, Irving dabbled in the theatre and even served as manager of the famed Globe for a period of time.
Urban Legends, Contemporary Fantasy, and Political Jokes
This morning two things appeared in Google Trends that more or less confused me. Among the top ten searches were Rip Van Winkle and Sleepy Hollow. These are two great tales of old, but frankly I couldn’t see how they were relevant at first. Sure Paula Abdul could have been pulling a either a Rip Van Winkle or a Sleepy Hollow head during the first round of idol this week. Alas neither seems to be the joke on hand.
Aside from the political jokes being made with both terms there is another pop culture reference in Irving’s legacy. In 1807 he was the first to affix the name Gotham to New York City. With the Dark Knight’s release so close at hand, Batman and His home town never being far from our minds, and New York City’s ties to the name Knickerbockers Washington Irving is still on our minds even if we don’t know it.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle both were accorded not only as popular literature at the time, but were what amounted to some of the first American Urban Fantasy stories. I usually deplore those big fat fantasy novels (BFF) that are so keenly read by my fellow nerds and geeks, but urban fantasy is a very different story, though they were my teenage wasteland (lyrics to Baba O’Riley). I have no love for sword swinging paladins or evil wizards phallic shaped towers, but a gun toting horny sidhe, a badass pixie, or werewolf living everyday normal lives by our sides is cool.
No matter how good this literature is, and how much of it is built on the urban legends around us, I fear that no writers today will have the lasting impact on our culture that Washington Irving has. In another two centuries we may well still be Watching Sleepy with its eye candy, and telling the story of Rip Van Winkle, but what of today’s stories will survive? I just don’t know.
If I could seal up a time castle of the best urban fantasy has to offer but only pick one author it would no doubt be Charles de Lint. He never misses a beat when it comes to incorporating traditionally fantastic elements of the Old and New World with the modern elements of our modern day lives. Somewhere in all the whimsy of that combination is always a story about people. From Novels like The Blue Girl to The Onion Girl to his collected short stories in many books such Dreams Underfoot or Waifs and Strays or Tapping the Dream Tree all take you places not so far from home especially when something in them really hits home.
Working on my own novel at the moment I haven’t had the chance to dig in to his latest works all published late last year or earlier this year. The time is coming though when I will relish setting aside several days from work, blogging and everything else and stuff my nose into Dingo, Little (Grrl)Lost, Promises to Keep, and Old Man Crow. I recommend you consider doing the same.
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