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Peak Peake Piques Perplexity

Krepostnoi

Krepostnoi

Increasingly disenchanted
Joined
Jul 9, 2012
Messages
4,324
It has been observed that this august site is inexplicably lacking a thread devoted to the singular yet multi-faceted talent that was Mervyn Peake. Let us remedy that shortcoming forthwith, then, for long before Yann Martel had his stories of tigers afloat Mr Peake had his tale of the life of Pye. His illustrations are instantly recognisable, although you will have to find someone with less of a cloth ear than mine for verse to sing of his poetry... His magnum opus, of course, is the Gormenghast trilogy - I use the term advisedly: is anyone on record as having managed to get to the end of Titus Awakes? Just what is Dr Prunesquallor's first name? Why was he so taken with the word lambent? And just what was the terrible disease that caused this magnificent man to spend the last decade or so of his life cruelly wasting away, bereft of the ability to draw or write?

As exhibit one in the incomprehensible undervaluation of his contributions, consider this article in the Guardian on the behind-the-scenes crisis in the Palace of Westminster. Arcane rituals abound, no single individual (save, apparently, two locksmiths) knows the entire geography of the place, and yet we read the following:
ahistorical acultural phillistines said:
Recently, when historian Lord Hennessy, a crossbench peer, was showing me around what he inevitably called “Hogwarts”...
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Clearly Gormenghast is the metaphor ne plus ultra, rather than that arriviste magical establishment, and yet soi-disant historians fail to find le mot juste. Pardon my French (and other Mediterranean languages, unwonted dead or alive), but I am somewhat angry at this blindspot. Assist me, dear fellow Forteans, in setting the record straight and restoring this man's rightful status as national treasure. What does he mean to you?
 
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I love his artworks but have always found the prose impossible.

He spent some time as an invalid in Southport's Promenade Hospital. My tonsils and adenoids ended up there! :hapdan:
 
JamesWhitehead said:
I love his artworks but have always found the prose impossible.
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I have a copy of Titus Groan and got about a third of the way through, put it down and never picked it back up. It's not the easiest of reads if I'm honest, even if 'technically' good.
 
Krepostnoi said:
... And just what was the terrible disease that caused this magnificent man to spend the last decade or so of his life cruelly wasting away, bereft of the ability to draw or write?
...
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This 2003 retrospective analysis:

Dementia With Lewy Bodies and the Neurobehavioral Decline of Mervyn Peake
Demetrios J. Sahlas, MD, MSc
Arch Neurol. 2003;60(6):889-892. doi:10.1001/archneur.60.6.889

... argues that Peake's medical history represents one of the earliest demonstrable cases of Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB).

... His exceptional career was prematurely ended by a neurodegenerative illness variously ascribed to Alzheimer disease, Parkinson disease, or postencephalitic parkinsonism. However, a detailed review of biographical accounts produces substantial evidence in support of a probable diagnosis of dementia with Lewy bodies, a clinical entity remaining undiagnosed outside specialty dementia clinics.
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SOURCE (Full Article): https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaneurology/fullarticle/784261
 
EnolaGaia said:
This 2003 retrospective analysis:

Dementia With Lewy Bodies and the Neurobehavioral Decline of Mervyn Peake
Demetrios J. Sahlas, MD, MSc
Arch Neurol. 2003;60(6):889-892. doi:10.1001/archneur.60.6.889

... argues that Peake's medical history represents one of the earliest demonstrable cases of Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB).



SOURCE (Full Article): https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaneurology/fullarticle/784261
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Fascinating, albeit terribly depressing. Thank you.
GNC said:
I find the first two Gormenghast books incredibly atmospheric and richly written, though the third falters badly. Such a strange work.
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He was of course well in the grip of his illness by the time he was trying to write the third volume.
 
I've read the Gormenghast trilogy (the first 3 books, as packaged in the 1960's / 1970's) twice. On my recommendation my late brother (whose specialty was folklore / literature) followed suit, and he became so enthralled with Peake's works that he collected everything available in print and shared it all with me during the 1970's. There was a time when he and I could - and would - spontaneously recite the professors' invocation ('Hold fast ...') when circumstances rendered it relevant. I even contemplated including a parting recitation of this invocation for my remarks at his graveside, but didn't follow through because it would have seemed too obscure or oblique a tribute for everyone but myself.

Having set the background, here are some comments ...

The Gormenghast books were mis-marketed as a fantasy series analogous to the works of (e.g.) Eddison, Lewis, and Tolkien. This is why so many folks began reading them in the late 1960's / early 1970's. The fact that Peake's novels were something entirely different from those other writers' works explains why almost no one finished even the first volume. To this day, my brother and I remain the only personal acquaintances who managed to make it through the three volumes.

Gormenghast, IMHO, is as much an epic fantasy as, say, LoTR. However, its epic 'sweep' is played out within microcosms (the enclosed realm of Gormenghast's environs; the life of a boy) rather than the more macrocosmic scope of kingdoms and empires. Those other fantasies are collective and historical. Gormenghast is intensely personal and psychological.

Peake's novels remain the most widely known of his works. However, he was primarily a poet and an illustrator. This, I believe, is an important factor in trying to understand Peake. The poet and the illustrator are both challenged to condense / encapsulate their intended expressions into discrete and incisive form. Other fantasy novelists embellished their prose with bits of poesy and / or illustrations (the latter often allusive rather than graphical). Peake wrapped his poesy and illustrative effects with prose. Peake's often ponderous text is as much a component of the stage setting as a vehicle for the plot.

The seemingly interminable slog readers must endure to enter the first volume always struck me as a deliberate device to test one's resolve, in the same way that (e.g.) Gurdjieff often required his followers to perform endless nonsensical errands and maneuvers. This sort of resolve-testing is evident in another magnificently mind-blowing but never-completed work - Mount Analogue (by René Daumal, who was influenced by Gurdjieff).
 
I must admit there came a point early on in Gormenghast where I wasn't that bothered about the plot, I was just appreciating the language and descriptions, they're so fascinatingly grotesque.
 
GNC said:
I must admit there came a point early on in Gormenghast where I wasn't that bothered about the plot, I was just appreciating the language and descriptions, they're so fascinatingly grotesque.
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Agreed ... I found myself sometimes letting the prose carry me along on the strength of its descriptive precision and rich vocabulary. The characters' idiosyncrasies, oddities, and quirks were as crisply defined as those in Dickens' stories. Occasionally I would read passages out loud just to hear how the words flowed. Peake's background in poetry was quite evident.
 
Lovely dark Fuchisia, as I teenager I was hoping to find my own and came pretty close.

fuchsia.jpg
 
I too am a fan of Peake. "Titus Alone" is a struggle to get through, however it was worth it for the final paragraph/sentence which blew me away when I first read it.
I was also knew someone who had an original Peake artwork, a small painting of a woman in a hat. I enjoyed seeing that.
 

Lose yourself in the gothic majesty of Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast trilogy presented in this truly visionary edition from Folio. Introduced by master of modern fantasy Neil Gaiman, illustrated by the extraordinary Dave McKean and signed by both contributors, this is a startlingly original take on a cornerstone of speculative fiction. Award-winning illustrator Dave McKean provides the collection’s 142 original hand-drawn illustrations, as well as startling cover designs for each book and an exclusive art print of iconic villain Steerpike.
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https://www.foliosociety.com/gormenghast
 
I've vaguely met Dave McKean. I went to a talk by famous illustrators and someone asked me to take a photo of him with Dave. So I obliged, and took a couple of pics with his camera.
 
Trotting through the abbey at Mont St Michel it felt like Gormenghast. All that Hall of Bright Carvings stuff. I read the lot and in a way wished I hadn’t because it left a sort of stain on your thoughts.
 
I read the Gormenghast trilogy after reading an article by Michael Moorcock, who rates Mervyn Peake above Tolkien and CS Lewis, it takes a bit of effort to get into the books, but it's worth it...it'd be about 1973-74.

In 1999, I was at a presentation for a playwriting competition, where June Brown (Dot Cotton) was presenting the prizes. We were talking to her afterwards and she mentioned that she'd been filming something called "Gormenghast" for the BBC. I was quite enthusiastic about this, June's comment "The costumes are fabulous, darling, but I haven't the foggiest what it's about." (She played Nanny Slagg).
 
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