The Book, Cat, & Cat Book Lovers Almanac

of historical trivia regarding books, cats, and other animals. Actually this blog has evolved so that it is described better as a blog about cats in history and culture. And we take as a theme the advice of Aldous Huxley: If you want to be a writer, get some cats. Don't forget to see the archived articles linked at the bottom of the page.

October 17, 2016

October 17, 1934

Alan Garner (October 17, 1934) is a writer who blends fantasy and modern life in a manner his fellow writers highly value. According to his gblurb, "Alan Garner was born in Congleton, Cheshire, in 1934 and grew up in Alderly Edge, where his father's family had lived for more than three hundred years. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School and at Magdelen College, Oxford, after which he began writing his first novel, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, at the age of twenty-two."

Strandloper, 1996
Thursbitch, 2003
Boneland, 2012

are just some recent titles.

The Voice That Thunders, (1997) collects essays and autobiographical pieces. In one chapter Garner discusses his idea of engrams, which is not connected with scientology's. His example of an engram is

.... distressing experiences.... associated
[for instance] with the squashing of a cat on the road. That event will hurt us more than ...[previous instances of such a sight ] because it will be drawing on the hurt of all the cats that are being held in a memory bank in inner time. To continue the previous analogy [the stars in the night sky are actually from different times though they look like one time frame]: the cats are a constellation of pain.


If Neil Gaiman and Philip Pullman are to be believed, we want to learn more about Alan Garner.

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