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My grandmother died when I was young. Mostly, my memories of her are of her being sick and in a wheelchair. However, my absolute earliest memory of her was when she was sitting at her loom. To a four year old, a loom is a fascinating device (and one that should not be touched by grubby hands). It's gigantic and full of strings and things. When your grandmother sits at it, it whistles and hums, and string magically turns into blankets.
As an adult, weaving is fascinating, but from a very different perspective. It is a linear process, where you stack the threads up and form an image or pattern over time. Embroidery, by contrast, leaps around as the artist can choose the colour, location, and type of stitch. Weavers are somewhat more limited in their possible techniques. This limitation makes tapestries all the more impressive, as unlike embroidery, a weaver must hold the entire design in their mind as they work. If something must be changed, the work must be unraveled to the point of change and then re-woven.
Whether the pictures are formed through embroidery or weaving, the eye appreciates them the same way as painting, photography and other image-based art. The challenge of the artist is that the viewer will never "see" the piece in the same way as the artist. The artist can guide the viewer's eye through a combination of colour, placement, and contrast. In painting and embroidery, the artist can also use variations in texture. However, the artist has no direct control over the viewer.
Interestingly, the written world is the exact opposite. The author has the freedom to write in whatever order they choose. They can write parts of the story out of order. They can unravel parts of the plot and change things as they go with complete impunity. However, the reader must (generally) appreciate the work in a linear fashion. Thus, the writer has the combination of freedom over the work combined with control over the reader.
This is what makes The Tower at Stony Wood all the more interesting. When I started reading it, it was a confusing story about two men and their respective attachments and driving forces (family, girlfriend, honor and freedom, to be precise). It's a story about a mother and her daughter and how the magic they deny themselves traps them in their lives. It's also a story about Fate.
It's hard to read. The perspective shifts from character to character and the personal pronouns are incredibly difficult to follow. It's even harder because the magic happens "behind the scenes" leaving the reader utterly befuddled as to what is real and what is not as people transform into other people, embroidery transforms into that which it depicts, memories change and retroactively alter the plot.
It turns out, in the end, that Patricia McKillip wrote a book that must be read in the same way that one weaves a tapestry. By the end, and only at the end, do you understand why everything had to happen in exactly the same way it did. You understand why she picked the threads that she did, why the characters are placed where they are, and why the Fates are commonly depicted with a loom.
When I've read the Greek myths, I always envision Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos standing in a dark cave... but with my grandmother's loom. When I think of Patricia McKillip, I envision her sitting at an old fashioned writing desk... in the same room that my grandmother's loom used to be.
Much like a watching your grandmother weave a blanket, you don't fully appreciate this book while you're in the process... you appreciate it once you're done and you look at it and think "Wow".
As an adult, weaving is fascinating, but from a very different perspective. It is a linear process, where you stack the threads up and form an image or pattern over time. Embroidery, by contrast, leaps around as the artist can choose the colour, location, and type of stitch. Weavers are somewhat more limited in their possible techniques. This limitation makes tapestries all the more impressive, as unlike embroidery, a weaver must hold the entire design in their mind as they work. If something must be changed, the work must be unraveled to the point of change and then re-woven.
Whether the pictures are formed through embroidery or weaving, the eye appreciates them the same way as painting, photography and other image-based art. The challenge of the artist is that the viewer will never "see" the piece in the same way as the artist. The artist can guide the viewer's eye through a combination of colour, placement, and contrast. In painting and embroidery, the artist can also use variations in texture. However, the artist has no direct control over the viewer.
Interestingly, the written world is the exact opposite. The author has the freedom to write in whatever order they choose. They can write parts of the story out of order. They can unravel parts of the plot and change things as they go with complete impunity. However, the reader must (generally) appreciate the work in a linear fashion. Thus, the writer has the combination of freedom over the work combined with control over the reader.
This is what makes The Tower at Stony Wood all the more interesting. When I started reading it, it was a confusing story about two men and their respective attachments and driving forces (family, girlfriend, honor and freedom, to be precise). It's a story about a mother and her daughter and how the magic they deny themselves traps them in their lives. It's also a story about Fate.
It's hard to read. The perspective shifts from character to character and the personal pronouns are incredibly difficult to follow. It's even harder because the magic happens "behind the scenes" leaving the reader utterly befuddled as to what is real and what is not as people transform into other people, embroidery transforms into that which it depicts, memories change and retroactively alter the plot.
It turns out, in the end, that Patricia McKillip wrote a book that must be read in the same way that one weaves a tapestry. By the end, and only at the end, do you understand why everything had to happen in exactly the same way it did. You understand why she picked the threads that she did, why the characters are placed where they are, and why the Fates are commonly depicted with a loom.
When I've read the Greek myths, I always envision Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos standing in a dark cave... but with my grandmother's loom. When I think of Patricia McKillip, I envision her sitting at an old fashioned writing desk... in the same room that my grandmother's loom used to be.
Much like a watching your grandmother weave a blanket, you don't fully appreciate this book while you're in the process... you appreciate it once you're done and you look at it and think "Wow".
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