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The Greenwitch and the Grey King's Annoying Tool
26 Plays14 days ago
Delve into the books The Greenwitch and The Grey King with us, as we continue with Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series. What is the Greenwitch and how does one moment save the world? What is the Grey King's favorite weapon and how do we keep from attracting his notice? Find out in this episode and learn the answer to last week's Discworld Delight. Get your helmets and dribbled candles ready to guess this week's quote!
- The blog version of this episode will be posted at Maryckehoe.com/mythic-mirror
- To receive Mary's free book, signup at maryckehoe.com
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Transcript
Introduction to The Mythic Mirror Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
In all the run around in the Green Witch, what was the one moment that saved them all? What is the Grey King's favorite weapon and what is high magic?
00:00:20
Speaker
Welcome to The Mythic Mirror, a podcast for fans of myth and fantasy who want to live a magical, fulfilling life. I'm your host, Mary C. Kehoe. And I'm your co-host, Carolina
Plot and Themes of 'The Green Witch'
00:00:31
Speaker
Carter. And today we are talking about Susan Cooper's books, The Green Witch and The Grey King. Carolina, do you want to tell us a little bit about The Green Witch?
00:00:41
Speaker
Yes. So in the Grieve Witch, we start off with the Drew children and Will, who we remember from The Dark is Rising, traveling to Treswick um because the chalice that they have found has been stolen.
00:00:55
Speaker
And dun done they know that, yes, dun, dun, dun. And that the dark has it and they're using it and they don't know for what or for why. And so they have to Figure it out.
00:01:08
Speaker
Figure it out. They got figure it out, Mary. These are characters that we skipped. ah We skipped the first book of this series. On accident. Yeah. We went straight for the good one. Yeah. i like the I like the books about with Will as the main character a little better than the other kids.
00:01:27
Speaker
Yeah. It's because he's an old one. Yeah. I think that's you're an old one. No. No.
00:01:34
Speaker
I wish. So the one of the first things that stood out to me in this book is, let me ask you, because this is that this is the answer to our first question of the episode. What is the one moment in the Green Witch that saves them all?
00:01:51
Speaker
Is it the perilous wish? I'm so excited because I wrote that in my notes. We didn't even talk about this before. We even talk about it. Yes. So I thought it was all the kids running around doing all these things. You have Will and Merriman, you know, going to the the deep, deep into the ocean to talk to Tethys, the the ruler of the ocean world.
00:02:14
Speaker
And, you know, all that crazy stuff going on. And yet the one moment that in the end is the thing that saves them and gets the, don't know, the key. Yeah, the the secret back from the Green Witch is that perilous wish. So the women of the village create this wood woven statue of the green witch, which is just like chris somewhat humanoid looking, you know, it's a huge head and arms sticking out and then the body.
00:02:46
Speaker
And it is scary to her. It's just, you know, this huge thing in the dark as the sun's just started to rise, the women take all night to create it.
00:02:59
Speaker
And she can feel power coming from it and is scared of the amount of power that this thing holds and is, you know, trying to figure out what, like, how does this thing have power? And and it very much felt like an it and a force. Old magic, older than time. Right, right.
00:03:19
Speaker
Yeah. And when she goes up to make a wish, first she is scared and doesn't want to, and then, you know, she does. And instead of continuing to be scared, instead of wishing for their own mission and an adventure or something else for herself, she wishes for the Green Witch to be happy.
00:03:39
Speaker
Which is considered a perilous wish because who knows what's gonna make her happy. Maybe she wants to destroy the earth. Maybe that would make her happy. Maybe she wants, I have no idea. You don't know.
00:03:50
Speaker
That's why. And I think that what sets the perilous wish up earlier in the book is they talk about when they get to Tressawik that they don't know what shape the dark is going to take and that they're watching and they're listening. which is much different than your usual fantasy book where you're charging off to slay the dragon, trying to overpower your enemy. It's much different to try and listen for them.
00:04:15
Speaker
um And then also there's a very feminine aspect in the sense of that Jane goes to the weaving of the Green Witch. It's a women-only event. no outsiders, it's very rare that Jane gets to go.
00:04:27
Speaker
um And there's just that softer, more empathetic side so that when the Green Witch is created, she looks on her and even though she is afraid, her wish is, that just bubbles up, is that she wishes wishes she could be happy.
00:04:44
Speaker
um And the other part that I liked in that section was there's, you know, young girls just being silly and wishing for silly things. And the woman sitting next to Jane says, no harm comes to the foolish.
00:04:58
Speaker
And I'm processing in real time as we speak why I like that so much, but I think it's because There are so many magic systems that you don't want to unwittingly enter into.
00:05:14
Speaker
And I think people tend to accidentally do that. They don't really understand the rituals that they're doing. um And maybe it brought me comfort to know that that if you don't know better, then it's not going to hurt you.
00:05:29
Speaker
So they figure out that the dark is coming in the form of this artist. And then as the book continues, they realize that he's working on his ah on his own. He's going outside the bounds of what his masters had asked him to do. So that is good in a sense that he's to be able to call upon his that his dark lords to to help him.
00:05:56
Speaker
but he's he's a wild card right now. And he's come he's come in the form of an artist. So toward the end of the book, when Will and Merriman, so the two old ones go, that's when they go to try to ah intercept the Green Witch and get to Tethys in the the very deepest, darkest part of the ocean before the Green Witch enters her realm and and is lost to them because the Green Witch has this cipher um that will help them to translate the chalice. So there's two things going on. They're trying to get the chalice back
00:06:32
Speaker
from the guy from the dark and also this, this cypher, the, the, the part that I just was started to what, come on um is they've gone to Tethys and are talking to her and trying to make a deal. And then the kids are with the other old one, the sea captain, and they're keeping an eye on the artist, the the bad guy, and they see him painting and they already know that he uh,
00:07:02
Speaker
the chalice, and they know that he's trying to get the cipher. he He knows he has a certain amount of time and he's not being watched by his masters. So this is the moment where he would act. And all he's doing is sitting at the harbor painting. So they just keep watching him painting and they're like trying to figure out why and is it a diversion and what's happening? But they never leave the house. They're watching him through a a spyglass. and And so they just keep watching him.
00:07:31
Speaker
And to me, I'm thinking, okay, you know he's the bad guy and he's painting. So clearly you don't want him to be painting. If he wants to do it, you don't want him to do it. So, you know, have the kids go down to the harbor with the dog and knock over the painting, do something.
00:07:46
Speaker
And I know that for the for the story... The author needs to have that painting get done because he's using it to call the Green Witch to him.
00:07:57
Speaker
And that brings us to the the culmination of the book. But I think there is a way she could have had them actively try to stop him and fail. It would be more satisfying to me than them just, yeah look what is he doing? Well, now it's dark and he's still painting. Maybe we should check this out.
00:08:15
Speaker
I know why she needs it to culminate in that is because I think it shows the direct opposition of Jane's wish where he does try to strong arm and threaten the Green Witch and that backfires him to his death.
00:08:29
Speaker
I think. Yeah, as soon as we got past that waiting part, I was back in. It definitely shows so clearly he is trying to control this wild magic and he gets warned by the Green Witch and by the old ones when they show up that you you this isn't going to work. You can't. Yes, you were able to call the Green Witch to you, but that's it.
00:08:53
Speaker
You can't force this wild magic to do anything. And and even though he was warned multiple times, he still pushes through and is just, yeah, absolutely trying to completely command and control something that is totally wild.
00:09:09
Speaker
I just really liked that for this. I think it helped me understand the wild old magic more that it was set somewhat in the ocean because it's very much like the ocean where anyone can get in it.
00:09:21
Speaker
It might kill you. It might not. You might love it, it but it doesn't it doesn't care if you love it or hate it. that might That doesn't factor into its decision to kill you or not.
00:09:33
Speaker
Yeah, I thought it was interesting that they definitely made Tethys' realm very scary. i think there's an element of beauty to the wild magic that doesn't quite... come across in this book as much just because you're meeting Tethys in the deep where there's, there is no compassion, at which I guess is that's that her point is that it's, that it is this completely neutral force.
00:10:00
Speaker
Fearsome and neutral. Yeah. But then i would think that if it is completely neutral, then you would have the equal amount of, okay, you have this, scary huge squid coming at you to scare you off and you have the the fish of the deep you know that are just creepy in real life and in the book yeah what are those ones with the Yeah, with the light.
00:10:23
Speaker
And so you have those and you see those in the book. And I would think that wild magic would comp encompass all of wilderness. So you would also have those absolutely beautiful things as well. so it would have been cool to see that. I know The Green Witch is a very short book, so no room for that.
00:10:42
Speaker
And The Green Witch, because it was just created, does have the kind of mentality of a child. and, you know, is going to its mother, the Tethys, and and it has this one secret. It's like a child, and yet it's a child that has been around for so long. It's an ancient child. Yeah, which is a little scary, because it's something that has centuries and thousands of years to build up this, not bitterness, but...
00:11:17
Speaker
awareness of being used by mankind. They just create me every year to sacrifice me, you know, before it would have been an animal. Now it's this me in this form and they just do it to have a good year, have fish come in. So there's that level of anticipate. Is that the word I'm looking for? I think this happened last episode. I don't know. I don't know.
00:11:43
Speaker
Anticipation. Yeah. It's not quite to the level of hostility, but it's very much, I don't care about you. I have this secret and it is my own. And it is the one thing that makes me happy. And I could care less if it burns the world down, but I'm keeping it. And...
00:12:02
Speaker
because she asked, she was the one thing that broke that script. It was like what we were talking about last time about the story you tell yourself. So that is the story that this this green witch, this being is living out every year.
00:12:16
Speaker
And then she breaks it. She's the only one who has done something solely for the Green Witch that isn't going to give anything back to her. So because of that one moment at the end, the Green Witch gives up its secret.
00:12:31
Speaker
And I really liked how... She, as the Green Witch is is disappearing and being drawn to Tethys and leaving the realm of humans, Jane's calling out saying, you know, I'll give you something else. And so then the last scene of the book is her on the shore and she's about to throw something, her silver bracelet into the ocean and Will stops her.
00:12:54
Speaker
And you think, oh no, come on, like give the Green Witch something And he stops her only to give her something that will survive in the water and not get tarnished. And it'll be more precious looking for the Green Witch.
00:13:08
Speaker
Yeah, I love that part. All right. So now before we move on to the Grey King, it is time for our Discworld Delight.
00:13:21
Speaker
So for last week's Discworld Delight, many people, many people on TikTok. Did anyone guess on YouTube? No is the short answer. All right. Well, TikTok, you guessed correctly. It is the Lords and Ladies.
00:13:38
Speaker
And many of you guessed the exact moment. I was impressed. All right. I tried to be a little bit more difficult for this one. She eyed him carefully as he chewed his fried egg.
00:13:51
Speaker
no that's not where I wanted Hold on.
00:13:55
Speaker
That's not it. Please let that be it. Here we go. That's it. Fried egg. Go. All right. This is is the quote. After a while, as she watched him crack open a sausage, he said,
00:14:18
Speaker
All right, let's try this again. You're making me laugh. Sorry. Does it really say cracked open a sausage? up it just does. It does. You got to remember, this is a Discworld sausage, an Ankh-Morpork sausage.
00:14:32
Speaker
And now I've given you a hint. After a while, as she watched him crack open a sausage, he said, do we have any books on chivalry, dear? That's it. What book is that from?
00:14:46
Speaker
We are back in with the Grey King. Okay, so the Grey King, we find Will. He is a bit of a convalescent. He's been sick for a long time, and he goes to Wales to recover, to have some R&R.
00:15:03
Speaker
And hed of course, does not get any of that. Instead, he is sent to find the golden harp that will wake the sleepers and gain some ground for the light.
00:15:14
Speaker
So this is what the cipher on the chalice, the message
Exploring 'The Grey King'
00:15:18
Speaker
on the chalice that the cipher from the Green Witch, they figured out was this message about how to, it was kind of the prophecy of how the harp was going to be found and how to wake the sleepers.
00:15:33
Speaker
So his fever, he actually forgot what he should never, ever forget, which was this the words to this prophecy. So in the beginning, he's in Wales knowing that he's forgotten something, and slowly different things unfold.
00:15:48
Speaker
in the environment start to click and he starts to remember lines and then the whole thing comes flooding back. So I loved this book. I felt, I like this one more than The Green Witch.
00:15:59
Speaker
It's about the same size. It's a short book, but a lot happens. And he, it's a whole new cast of characters in Wales. And there's people who you already start to feel have this depth. I really like it when you have mortals who already know about some of this stuff. that heat the The man who works on his uncle's farm, who is working with the sheep all day and up in the hills and in the mountains of Wales, he figures out who Will is and talks to him about it and it helps him.
00:16:38
Speaker
And I just love that you have these wise, good-loving characters who aren't anything other than human. and And it juxtaposes so well with, in this book, you meet the neighbor of the farmer, of the uncle, is horrible, a horrible human being. And that gets, that his own horribleness gets played upon throughout this book.
00:17:08
Speaker
And so having having such a good example of human goodness and human evil and how it naturally works for the light and naturally works for the dark.
00:17:19
Speaker
Yeah. And how it seems that the light does like to use what I would quote as ordinary people. which reminded me of Lord of the Rings and Gandalf putting his faith in the hobbits and just that the ordinary goodness of mankind to carry the torch forward, I think is very important. And and then on the flip side, the dark using, i would, I don't know, I'd call them corrupted human beings, like people who just angry, petty,
00:17:53
Speaker
awful people. It's just easy to kind of push them in a direction that's going to cause chaos. That brings us to the question of what is the Grey King's favorite weapon? The Grey King is the dark one that Will has to face in this book, and he turns out to be one of the most powerful dark lords there is And they don't really know a lot about him because he's always stayed in his mountain vastness in Wales. And now Will is having to go up against him and realizing how powerful he is. And this is the first solo mission for Will. he's having to face this this intense power by himself.
00:18:36
Speaker
He's facing someone whose favorite weapon is mankind's own shadow self. He's he's continually working through other people. And he even tries to work through ah Will's friend, you know, who in the prophecy is going to help him, the you know, the young boy Bran, the raven boy, who later you find out is not just a normal Welsh boy,
00:19:04
Speaker
you He even tries to work against you know work into and into his mind and create this division and hatred for will. And fortunately, Raeann figures it out, but this is where it comes to like what you were saying of using the dark, using these corrupted minds and...
00:19:27
Speaker
It's interesting because when the Grey King talks about the neighbor, talks about the the mean guy, he... he is speaking in such derisive language. He thinks so little of this human. He says he's not even one of us. He's just something they use because it's easy to use. Whereas, you know, the light can depend upon, without ever having to talk to, just depend upon the goodness of people. Back in The Green Witch, Merriman doesn't tell
00:19:58
Speaker
Jane what to do. And he doesn't exactly know what's going to happen in the making of the Green Witch, but he knows it's important. And he knows Jane is good. He knows Jane is good. So he knows that if Jane gets put into the that position for whatever powerful thing that's going to happen there, she will make a difference. And he trusts that. Yeah, and it ah i what I found hard to read about and also interesting, I think you put it as shadow self.
00:20:27
Speaker
What I noticed a lot was sort of the integration of grief and loss and how Bran handles it, how Bran's adopted father handles it, and how the neighbor handles it.
00:20:39
Speaker
um The neighbor obviously has just let it become this pestilence in him that has rotted him from the inside out. Bran struggles and then ultimately, I think, integrates it into himself in a way that fortifies him.
00:20:55
Speaker
And his father is, um or his adopted father, it's quite a bit sadder. I feel like he tries to wash his grief away with penance.
00:21:07
Speaker
And so it was very interesting to see those different ways of grief integration represented and how How it really matters how you handle that.
00:21:21
Speaker
Yeah, I really like that. I hadn't thought about it in those terms. And that's, it's very, it's an in-depth way of looking at it. And I really like that. And before we move on to why we see Bran have to deal with grief,
00:21:37
Speaker
I just want to bring up one of the powerful moments i really liked was in this moment when the neighbor is just losing it. He's waving around a gun and and freaking out and just letting this rage take over him.
00:21:55
Speaker
And Will is looking at him and he sees how... He just sees the the whole of him. He sees this really flawed human, but still a human.
00:22:09
Speaker
And he sees how close he is to attracting the Grey King with his his letting this rage. And I like what you said, of like the pestilence and the corruption. Letting this inside of him take hold so strongly will attract the notice of the Grey King. And then he will be used by the Grey King and...
00:22:31
Speaker
Will doesn't wish that upon anyone, that fate. And so he's looking at this person who, as a reader, you're like, oh, God, I hate this guy. And and Will's looking at him with just compassion and just willing him to pull back before before the Grey King notices him.
00:22:52
Speaker
i think that brings me to my next point which is that this book also faces head-on the sort of moral absolutism that you find between the dark and the light there's a character that says at the let's see he says at the center of the light is a cold white flame that doesn't that almost like the old magic just like doesn't care what it has to do to win it's going to win and he compares it to the dark saying that at the center of the dark is a vast void of darkness and chaos but that they are almost mirrors of each other in that they both want what they want and they're somewhat unconcerned with the lives of mortals in this epic timeless battle and I wanted to know your thoughts on that
00:23:41
Speaker
I really liked Will's answer because it wasn't so much about that the old ones don't care about each human.
00:23:52
Speaker
it was that they are in, they're in a fight to the death. They're in a fight for their very life, for the very life of all humans all the time. So they can't afford to care about the littler things of, you know, ah someone's feelings in a single moment and, and how,
00:24:15
Speaker
he wishes he could, he says, I, you know, I too wish that it would sit easier inside me to, to pick the person over the principal, to pick that moment of, of compassion for this one person in an uncomfortable moment rather than having to push past that even if it hurts their feelings too. You know, because it's, if if I take my focus off of the main battle and help this one person move through this hard realization or, you know, soften the blow of what's going on,
00:24:55
Speaker
you know, thousands of others may suffer because I've taken my eye off of the battle. And so it it's like one of those things there, it's true and not true where it is this fire that is to a certain extent, impersonal, but it's the impersonal good where it's not going to do anything.
00:25:15
Speaker
It's yes, it's going to do what ah what it takes to to win, but it's going to do what it takes to win within the bounds of light. It's not going to create chaos. It's not going to do something that is of the dark in order to create something of the light.
00:25:30
Speaker
So it might be impersonal to the point of to humans looking cruel, but it's it's not going to be the the corruption of the dark.
00:25:43
Speaker
Good answer. Thanks. One thing I will say that I don't like that the light does, which doesn't happen in The Grey King, but it does happen in The Green Witch, is making humans forget. And the kids already know that the...
00:26:00
Speaker
that, you know, Merriman and now they're they're getting, at least Jane is starting to think, so there's something up with Will, that they're of the light and that means they' that something's different about them. So they already have some idea of of the light and the dark and then that that means, you know, it's not quite like a normal human.
00:26:21
Speaker
But then when they see Will and Merriman jump off the cliff to go into the ocean to face Tethys, and go through all that, the other old one makes them forget and just has them think that, you know, Will and Merriman are searching somewhere else for the for the chalice. And it happens in The Dark is Rising 2. Will makes his brother Paul forget.
00:26:46
Speaker
And though I think that that is easier for both the old ones and the humans, and it's more comfortable and it allows Will to maintain a normal, you know, brother relationship with Paul and, you know, the the kids can rest easy in their understanding of their great uncle, Mary, it doesn't allow for growth. You know, what would the struggle of of having to understand that old ones exist and this battle is real and that whole thing, what would that do to the person? You know, yes, Paul and Will's relationship as brothers would be strained as he's coping with this, that, you know, his 11 year old brother is, is an ancient being, but, but who would he become? Who, who, and what could he become with that understanding? Yeah.
00:27:45
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. That doesn't, it doesn't sit right. I understand it, but it doesn't sit right. In real life, I don't think they make them forget. I don't know though. Do you ever have a dream and you wake up and you like, you know, it's really important and you just like, you forget it so quickly and you can't help it.
00:28:06
Speaker
Yeah, so actually that comes up later. The sea captain says something to the kids in the Green Witch saying, and we don't have to make you forget your own minds will do it for you.
00:28:17
Speaker
So she has that in there, and I think that is way more... it makes a lot, it's so much more sense to me. It's that it's our own fallibility as mortals, you know, that we tend to forget something that makes us feel uncomfortable or that we don't understand rather than the light making us forget.
00:28:36
Speaker
It makes sense to me because there, I have a experience in my life where someone close to me had a near death experience. And when they first recounted their experience to me, they said that they had seen an angel.
00:28:51
Speaker
And that an angel had been there to help them. And then the second time, it was like less about it. And then a couple weeks later when he was telling the story, he said, i didn't even pray when I was that sick. i didn't It didn't even cross my mind. So it was interesting to see that as like time went on this thing that seemed so important and so real right after the fact, even weeks later, it was like, didn't have any memory of It's a powerful point.
00:29:18
Speaker
The brain's a weird thing. Yeah. Yeah. Which brings up that they have that in the Children of Green Notebooks with the adults, you know, the the otherworldly things or thisworldly things, but kind of magical beings don't need to hide. They just hold still. And the adult brain turns it into, oh, I'm looking at a barn. and I'm looking at a tree. Yeah. Fantasy it tells us the truth. Yeah, I think so.
00:29:45
Speaker
And then towards the end of the book, it made annoyingly so much sense to me that the thing that was ultimately stopping Will was not ah the Grey King. It was not the magic. It was just this annoying, angry man who's just a fanatic.
00:30:05
Speaker
e for chasing him down for his own made-up story in his head of like the wrongs that have been done to him and that it wasn't and that he's just in his way um and then it becomes more of a magic situation because the gray king uses him but that's just felt very real and very annoying to be like You have no idea what's at stake. You're just an annoying neighbor. Yeah, it has nothing to do with what's actually at stake.
00:30:38
Speaker
When the Grey King takes him over and uses him, not because he thinks he's a powerful tool, but because it will it gives the Grey King a level of security that will...
00:30:50
Speaker
could destroy this neighbor. He doesn't want to. and he try you know And he doesn't. but he could kill him. Even if he did, it wouldn't destroy the great king. So it was more out of like a cowardly self-preservation tactic rather than, oh, this is a powerful ally.
00:31:09
Speaker
Which is also annoying. Carolina. Yes. Why did Bran grieve and why is it that neither one of us will probably read this book again for quite some time?
00:31:22
Speaker
Okay. Major spoiler alert. If going to read this book, just stop listening now. The neighbor kills Bran's dog because he thinks that his dog is killing his sheep. And it's not. It's the Milgrin, which Milgrin, Milgrin, which are these mystical foxes that have magicked themselves to look like Bran's dog.
00:31:49
Speaker
Um, and i don't know about all of you, but if a pet or an animal dies in a book, it's usually, I usually set it down and don't finish it. i usually don't ever read it again.
00:32:05
Speaker
Yeah. This book's good enough that I did. That you finished. I didn't remember anything from this book from the first time I read it. But then ah about a third of the way through, warning bells started going off in my mind and I had distant memories of, I don't think the dog makes it.
00:32:23
Speaker
And yeah, yeah i definitely, I skimmed over that part. I think you, allowed yourself to enter into that moment in the story and really feel it. Whereas I am like, Oh God, this is the moment skim, skim, skim. Okay. It happens. Move along.
00:32:40
Speaker
I can't go there. You know, which there's both ways of reading are valid. It was almost worse later on when he is revisiting and processing his grief and it talks about him thinking about when he was a puppy and teaching him how to herd the sheep and I'm going to make myself cry.
00:33:03
Speaker
and And that this dog wasn't, I mean, it would have been so tragic, any dog, but the fact that this one, this dog is part of the prophecy. He's the dog that sees the wind with the silver eyes and has helped them so much on the quest and is so smart and just is aware of every little thing, has saved them from the dark,
00:33:27
Speaker
multiple times. He showed Will the where the old way was and is such a character in it is in and of himself.
00:33:38
Speaker
He's Cavill, who is a distinct character. All to just get snuffed out by some idiot. Yeah.
00:33:49
Speaker
I had to put it down for a while. I was like, hi well, I'm going to go for a walk. Throw myself in the river. I didn't. Oh, good.
00:34:00
Speaker
So to to lighten it up a little, what else was your, can you tell us a little bit more about your experience of listening to this book? Well, I use the Libby app, shout out Libby app for my audio books.
00:34:14
Speaker
And so I only had like a day left to finish this book. And my husband wanted to go to the movies because they do $5 movie night on Tuesdays. And I cannot watch gory movies. We don't have to get into that, but I just can't do it.
00:34:29
Speaker
And so what I did is I brought my Bluetooth headphones because he didn't want to go to the movie alone. And I put them in and i put my hat on like over my eyes and they let me bring in a cup of tea. And I just listened to the book and sipped my tea in the movie theater sitting next to him while he watched the movie.
00:34:48
Speaker
I love that so much. I think I'll do it again. Yeah. I enjoyed it. That's hilarious. a way to go see movies with him that he wants to see that I do not want to see. And I don't have to see him.
00:35:00
Speaker
Oh, that ah God, I love that. And also one other thing, which you had started this call with, what soundbite will now be in your head forever from the first book, from The Dark is Rising?
00:35:18
Speaker
There is a theatrical version available on Spotify that finishes every chapter with the dark, the dark is rising.
00:35:32
Speaker
come I sing that a lot. Well, speaking of listening, would you like to give us some listener feedback? Absolutely. Absolutely.
00:35:44
Speaker
Sarah Kennedy 5082 says, criminally underrated book and series. Glad I found you. And C.S. Lewis said, someday you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.
00:35:56
Speaker
Nice. Is that talking about The Dark is Rising? Yes. Cool. Also talking about The Dark is Rising, Hawksby says, Love the Dark is Rising series. It's so cozy and so harsh and so entwined with nature. Old England, Wales. Would love to hear you chat about Ursula Le Guin books. Also, where are your teas? You need warmth and hydration for such intellectual deep diving. Thank you, Hawksby.
00:36:23
Speaker
We have our teas. And what are you drinking, Carolina? I'm having a nice Earl Grey. Very nice. Honey and milk. What are you having?
Personal Touch and Listener Engagement
00:36:33
Speaker
I am having hibiscus and rosehip with a dash of juniper that I found outside.
00:36:44
Speaker
Really? Yeah. The wind had torn some branches off, so I took it and steeped it in with my tea. m Dal Cassian says in regards to our Hogfather episode, thank you for this interesting conversation. i would recommend the book The Master and His Emissary by Ian McGilchrist. It is a tome of a book, but wonderful in how it elucidates the nature of the conscious mind and the inner search for balance between fact and belief.
00:37:11
Speaker
Happy holidays. Nice. I'm excited for that. I haven't read it yet. i am too. I put it on our um on our future reading list. Yay. um are Speaking of our future reading list, we also have the question, will you be doing Sir Terry's Witches books? I read all his books as they came out and still do. I'm currently rereading Thief of Time. I like to have one of his books on the go while I'm reading other works. That is brilliant.
00:37:39
Speaker
I love that. Yes, we will be doing more Terry Pratchett and especially the witch books. Those are actually the first ones i read and are probably the ones I go back to the most.
00:37:50
Speaker
Yes. And to bring us to our next topic, ah Gurgle Blurgle 7345 says, My spark of the week has been deciding that Batman Returns is a Christmas movie and that I will treat it as such henceforth.
00:38:04
Speaker
Thank you for the pod. Ha ha ha. Oh, that's wonderful. Which I would like to add that I agree wholeheartedly. And usually I watch Die Hard as a Christmas movie every year because it is. It is. It is a Christmas movie. Which brings us to our spark of the week. Mary, what was your spark of the week?
00:38:23
Speaker
Well, my spark, it's a little odd, ah but it has to do with the subject of dogs. So I made my own dog food, which I've done many times before, but this is the first time I've done it since my oldest dog died.
00:38:39
Speaker
um it was nice to to get into it again and do something that had been on my list, but I'd been avoiding without really thinking about it.
00:38:51
Speaker
ah And I was just making it normally. And then it I just felt this lightness, which I hadn't expected. So it was an everyday sort of thing that just, I don't know, was a a point in the process of integrating my grief.
00:39:13
Speaker
And now... that I've made you cry. ah What is your spark of the week? Oh, you know what I guess i would say my spark of the week was finding the little life hack of listening to a cozy book on tape while accompanying someone I love to them a movie I don't want to see.
00:39:35
Speaker
like I'll have to try in that. And then it's funny because it also, it feels very illegal, but it's not. I paid for my movie. I still wanna see it.
00:39:47
Speaker
Yeah. You paid to sit in a dark room and listen to your book. Sitting next to someone you love and not being bothered. I love it. That's true. It was a good excuse just to sit and listen.
00:40:00
Speaker
Which I feel like we ah have to create those excuses more. I remember days like as a kid where you could just sit and listen to something or sit and read all day. Those those days don't come around so much anymore.
00:40:14
Speaker
Like when I stole the seventh Harry Potter book and hid so I could read it in one day and you didn't get a turn. Was that me? I didn't get a turn? You and Laura didn't get a turn because we got home and we had assigned time slots that each of us would get. And I got lucky and I got the first time slot and I hid and I didn't even come out to eat. And I read the whole thing in one day.
00:40:41
Speaker
That's funny. I suppose I ought to say I'm sorry. Well, thank you. Well, so then it took me, I didn't read it until later. i ah I needed to catch up. So I read the fifth, sixth, and seventh book all right in a row.
00:40:56
Speaker
Yeah. By the end, i didn't I couldn't cry anymore. There's nothing left. Yeah, I know. Thank you for visiting with us. You can find the blog version for this episode, including links to what we've talked about at maryckijo.com slash mythic dash mirror.
00:41:14
Speaker
And if you would like to dip into the world of my upcoming fantasy series, you can get a free book by signing up on my website, maryckijo.com.
00:41:25
Speaker
If you've enjoyed your time with us, give us a rating, follow us on your podcast app, or subscribe to our YouTube channel. We are so grateful to be spiraling through the universe with all of you. It's not always easy, but no good story ever is.