anna wrote:....I don't understand your first point that paganism was/still is a 'way of life' religion/philosophy. Do you mean that because of that, it cannot be created or enhanced by fantasy literature? I do agree with Harvey on that point, because the Discworld has quite a lot of elements in common with paganism, for example magic, witches and wizards, the fact that DW is inhabited by multiple races and the use of Faerie. Also, I believe that Pratchett encourages people to see the world as something that's enchanted and alive. I've only read one book that features the Witches (I am definately not as much of an expert as you all are, please correct me if I'm wrong), Wyrd Sisters, and I did get the idea that Pratchett encourages us to see our environment as something that is alive, and not just as objects. Harvey sees in this a hint of animism and an incentive to "listen" to the world around us. What do you think? Can pagans use (fantasy)literature as a source for constructing their own religion, also in a practical sense?
That 'was/is' thing is mainly to do with neo-paganism and wicca and even goth/steam punk culture in contemporary western and pacific rim society.
Wikipedia has a v.g. article on contemporary pagan beliefs, which is not necessarily a religious thing, but has taken on quite an ecumenical path as I see there is such a thing as Jewish Wicca and even 'Queer' Pagans, based on ancient and classical Mediterranean cultural roots (we did have two German members on here who were priestesses of Gaia/the Mother goddess but they haven't posted much recently). So, whether it's a social or ideological lifestyle we do have 'serious' paganism in general society, even if for some it's at best a kind of fashion statement or shallow self-expression mimicing spirituality.
I think Harvey is definitely right in his conclusion that Disworld has animism and elements of listening to the world around us. Lancre is 'alive' in Wyrd Sisters as the land mourns for it's true king when Verence I is murdered and I think in at least 2 books Unseen University is described as having an awareness of what happens within it, especially of course in the Library - the Librarian is arguably a kind of High Priest in his mastery of L-space and Keeper of the books too. As for the Witches themselves - the elder series of DW novels are worthy of exploration in their entirety, but specifically for your dissertation
Lords and Ladies and
Carpe Jugulam as they respectively tackle Elves and DW transitional vampirism (moving from classic behaviour to the less aggressive Black Ribboner kind), with CJ especially being of interest as it also features Mightily Oats an Omnian missionary whose vocation is to bring the 'monsters' of Uberwald (and Borogravia), including vampires of course, back into the fold, not necessarily of Om but into what passes for mainstream society in those parts.
A related book that may also be worth looking at in relation to Elves and Witches/Wizards in terms of 'lore' and spirituality is
The Folklore of the Discworld co-written by Terry with Dr. Jacqueline Simpson who's a renowned folklorist who's helped Terry with background material for the magical aspects of several of the main series, very specifically CJ in relation to folklore on magpies (Count Magpyr is the chief vampire) and also for the last in the 'new' witch series featuring Tiffany,
I Shall Wear Midnight with it's references for the Cunning Man and for rough music too.
And yes, I do think fantasy writing does effect modern pagans very much, especially with the rise of Harry Potter for witches/wizards alongside the 'real' world, but also the zombie apocalypse and Buffy fans too.
Also worth looking at if you want to explore the more cerebral side of things is to do a bit of research into
transpersonal psychology which deals with human spirituality and impacts on the fantasy life. It's not the same as parapsychology (the zener cards and telepathy etc) but it does address philosophic and quasi-religious activity. I recently took part in a research study with 17 other people for a thesis into the effects of 'absorbed reading' of fantasy literature and how it effected spiritual and mental health in terms of socialisation, life-lessons and healing, writing about experiences I'd had while reading books about Discworld and Middle Earth
anna wrote:JVQ wrote:Terry's writing may not overtly be about religion (aside from making fun of priests and gods for the hell of it)
I wonder, in his interviews he defines himself as a humanist and says he sees mankind as something divine, not God ("in my religion, the building of a telescope is the building of a cathedral"). People shouldn't believe in some creator, they
are the Creator. This is quite a statement and I wonder: do you recognize this in his books?
Most definitely.
The Science of the Discworld books and
The Last Continent look at aspects of creation and how a Creator might operate. Another link for you
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/audio/2 ... rdian-club - click on the MP3 download link, where he's talking to a journalist about science teaching and religion.
One of my own favourite quotes from Terry is
I'd rather be a rising ape than a falling angel
which perhaps says a lot about his world view that he's more or less confirmed has humanist leanings, but he also says that his morals are loosely formed around the mainstream social view of the Church of England upbringing that he had, on the basis that being nice to each other and not doing harm is the way to go. Also that you treat people as persons and not objects or things, which is very much a central theme in the Witch books where very little actual magic is done, but there is a lot of herbology and medicine and wise-woman activity that all works with Granny Weatherwax's main attribute of headology.
anna wrote:Again, thank you all for answering and I hope I'm not boring you too much with all my questions!
They're very interesting questions and the answers are widespread and both objective and subjective and very open to argument of the learned variety so it's fun to take part in the discussion!
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Oooooh!