World of Wonders (The Deptford Trilogy, #3)
by
by
Wayne Johnston (Introduction)
Canadian Gothic: The Uses of Illusion
If the first part of the Deptford Trilogy, Fifth Business, explores the bare facts of rural Canada on the turn to a more civilized and ethnicly diverse culture; and if the second part, The Manticore, suggests the fundamental ideas that shape these facts; then this third part, World of Wonders, provides the parallel universe of feeling that is the substrate of both facts and ideas. World of Wonders retells the previous stories, filling in the missing material necessary to understand the comprehensive illusion that Davies has created.
Is there a definable boundary between fictional, or for that matter everyday, illusion and the truth? Illusion demands extreme attention to detail in order to work. If truth is in the detail, then illusion is at least a kind of truth, a truth of feeling perhaps rather than a truth of facts or ideas. It is a truth about what we want to be true. Not all illusion therefore qualifies as truthful. Truthful illusion must be willed by both the illusionist and those who experience him. This is what makes illusion an art form rather than a lie. The highest expression of this art form is theatre, a place where feeling expressed and feeling perceived meet to create an illusory but authentic world.
World of Wonders is about the art of theatrical illusion and how it is produced. It takes an incredible amount of experience as well as talent to touch the unexpressed desires of an audience. Dexterity, timing, memory, and courage are the minimal skills involved. But these personal skills are only a foundation. Theatrical illusion requires sharply honed coordination among a cast that includes at least as many in back of the stage as in front of it. Creating truthful illusion therefore is a social, even a managerial, task of dense complexity.
What is sought by an audience to illusion is wonder, the feeling that there is living mystery in the most mundane of things. Wonder is a spiritual state, an awareness of the transcendent, most thoroughly investigated by the Austrian-American theologian Peter Berger. Berger's book, The Social Construction of Reality, touches precisely the same themes as Wonders of the World: the nature of reality, the feeling of truth, the desire for the 'beyond'. Oswald Spengler called this the Magian World View; Max Weber called it Enchantment. Berger's death earlier this year emphasizes for me both the importance of these themes as well as their datedness in today's Trumpian loss of culture, including its banal degradation of religion.
Davies knows how to keep his fictional illusion about the creation of illusion going at just the right pace. He knows the details that are essential to its credibility. And he knows from experience how his audience will react. In the final section of World of Wonders, Davies has his symbolic protagonists from each of the three books in bed together arguing the merits of facts, ideas and feelings. He is, in short, a master of illusion and its truthfulness, a literally wonderful writer.
If the first part of the Deptford Trilogy, Fifth Business, explores the bare facts of rural Canada on the turn to a more civilized and ethnicly diverse culture; and if the second part, The Manticore, suggests the fundamental ideas that shape these facts; then this third part, World of Wonders, provides the parallel universe of feeling that is the substrate of both facts and ideas. World of Wonders retells the previous stories, filling in the missing material necessary to understand the comprehensive illusion that Davies has created.
Is there a definable boundary between fictional, or for that matter everyday, illusion and the truth? Illusion demands extreme attention to detail in order to work. If truth is in the detail, then illusion is at least a kind of truth, a truth of feeling perhaps rather than a truth of facts or ideas. It is a truth about what we want to be true. Not all illusion therefore qualifies as truthful. Truthful illusion must be willed by both the illusionist and those who experience him. This is what makes illusion an art form rather than a lie. The highest expression of this art form is theatre, a place where feeling expressed and feeling perceived meet to create an illusory but authentic world.
World of Wonders is about the art of theatrical illusion and how it is produced. It takes an incredible amount of experience as well as talent to touch the unexpressed desires of an audience. Dexterity, timing, memory, and courage are the minimal skills involved. But these personal skills are only a foundation. Theatrical illusion requires sharply honed coordination among a cast that includes at least as many in back of the stage as in front of it. Creating truthful illusion therefore is a social, even a managerial, task of dense complexity.
What is sought by an audience to illusion is wonder, the feeling that there is living mystery in the most mundane of things. Wonder is a spiritual state, an awareness of the transcendent, most thoroughly investigated by the Austrian-American theologian Peter Berger. Berger's book, The Social Construction of Reality, touches precisely the same themes as Wonders of the World: the nature of reality, the feeling of truth, the desire for the 'beyond'. Oswald Spengler called this the Magian World View; Max Weber called it Enchantment. Berger's death earlier this year emphasizes for me both the importance of these themes as well as their datedness in today's Trumpian loss of culture, including its banal degradation of religion.
Davies knows how to keep his fictional illusion about the creation of illusion going at just the right pace. He knows the details that are essential to its credibility. And he knows from experience how his audience will react. In the final section of World of Wonders, Davies has his symbolic protagonists from each of the three books in bed together arguing the merits of facts, ideas and feelings. He is, in short, a master of illusion and its truthfulness, a literally wonderful writer.
posted by The Mind of BlackOxford @ July 18, 2017
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