Some Kind of Fairy Tale (40 page)

“No idea.”

“What did he want?”

“I just stepped outside to make a phone call. I’m standing here and he asks if he can have some of the blossom. He says he’s taken a fancy to some of the cherry blossom. He asks me if he can get his ladder out and go up and cut some of the branches, so I said, ‘Well how much do you want?’ And he laughs and says, ‘Oh just a little bit.’ And I’m just about to say I didn’t see why not; I mean, there’s plenty of it, right?”

“Right.”

“Then he looked up and saw you. You scared him away, Dad.”

The pair stood together under the laden cherry, gazing down the road, even though the white van had long gone.

“Zoe.”

“Yes, Dad?”

“If he comes around again …”

“Tell him he can’t have the blossom.”

“Right.”

Zoe grabbed her father and planted a spontaneous kiss on his cheek. But she glanced again down the road before going back inside.

All writing is an aggregate construction. This story has numerous antecedents, but the slippery nature of its truth is testified by the number of times it can mutate. Meanwhile my intention in prefacing the chapters with quotations is not to lay claim to parity of any kind but to hint at just some of those writers—living and dead—whose work champions the fusion of Realism and the Fantastic.

A number of astonishing and accomplished writers and musicians gave me personal permission to preface chapters with their wonderful words: Antonia S. Byatt pointed the way for me in inspirational work that erases the line between fantasy and a psyche in distress; John Clute, whose remarks about Shakespeare I quote, is a literary critic whose work is like food for the starving; writer and musician Charles de Lint has an encyclopedic knowledge of folklore and uses it so elegantly to blend classical fantasy literature and mainstream fiction; Ursula Le Guin, possibly the wisest woman on the planet, writes fantasy that leaves you in no doubt that you are reading about “this” world; Kate Rusby, “the Barnsley Nightingale,” allowed me to quote her lyrics from the song “Sweet Bride,” itself a beautiful new rendering of an old tale; I am very grateful for Siri Randem’s extensive knowledge of Nordic folk music and folk tale and for her translation from the Norwegian of
Liti Kjerst;
Marina Warner, the presiding genius in any discussion of the cultural significance of folk tales and fairy tales, is plain magnificent; and Teri Windling, whose extensive and heroic work with
The Journal of Mythic Arts
and The Endicott Studio has done so much to honor mythic artists past and present. I stand in awe before all of these thinkers and writers. I recommend anything written by them
and I thank them for their generous permission to quote. A fuller reference to the work and influence of these inspirational creators can be found on my website:
www.grahamjoyce.net
.

Angela Carter is another mighty influence, and the quote from
The Bloody Chamber
is reproduced by permission of the Estate of Angela Carter c/o Rogers, Coleridge & White Ltd. Even if Bruno Bettelheim ultimately surfaced as one of Chaucer’s
Limitours
, his
The Uses of Enchantment
laid a trail in thinking about fairy tales, and I’m grateful to Thames & Hudson for permission to quote. Likewise to Carcanet for permission to quote from Robert Graves’s poem “I’d Love to Be a Fairy’s Child.” Permission to quote from W. H. Auden’s “Afterword to the Golden Key” comes from Curtis Brown Ltd. The Joseph Campbell quote from
The Hero with a Thousand Faces
comes by permission of the Joseph Campbell Foundation.

I didn’t quote but would also like to acknowledge the fine work of folklorist Anna Franklin and the splendid insights of critic and academic Gary K. Wolfe. All other permissions have been applied for.

I’m lucky to get terrific professional support and advice from both my agent Doug Stewart at Sterling Lord and my editor Jason Kaufman at Doubleday, and I’m very grateful for it. Finally, my love and gratitude to my wife, Suzanne, who is also my first reader and full-time
consigliere
, and to my children, Ella and Joe, who put me in my place.

Also by Graham Joyce

The Silent Land
How to Make Friends with Demons
The Limits of Enchantment
Partial Eclipse and Other Stories
The Facts of Life
Smoking Poppy
Indigo
The Stormwatcher
The Tooth Fairy
Requiem
House of Lost Dreams
Dark Sister
Dreamside