Silverlock by John Myers Myers

[hitmouse]

Crossposted from November 2015: what are you reading

Just finished Silverlock (1949) by John Myers Myers. Terrific. Light, funny, learned, and very clever. Pretty obscure these days. It should get more love.
A cynical and depressed MBA from Wisconsin is shipwrecked on "The Commonwealth" and has a series of picaresque adventures in the company of Golias, who is alternately Taliesin/Orpheus. This is an allegorical journey analogous to Pilgrim's Progress, but a lot more fun. During the trip he comes across a number of literary/mythical figures including Beowulf, Robin Hood, Faust, The Green Knight, Prometheus, Don Quixote, The mob from the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, Job, and Moby Dick and the Ancient Mariner.

 

[BAYLOR]

Classic stuff.

I loved the all the predicaments that Shandon Silverlock kept getting into.

I wish John Myers Myers had written a sequel to it.

 

[BAYLOR]

At one time this book was widely read.

 

[The DeadMan]

Classic stuff.

I loved the all the predicaments that Shandon Silverlock kept getting into.

I wish John Myers Myers had written a sequel to it.

He did write a sequel. It is called The Moon's Fire-Eating Daughter. Unfortunately it is almost unreadable.

 

[BAYLOR]

He did write a sequel. It is called The Moon's Fire-Eating Daughter. Unfortunately it is almost unreadable.

I didn't know that.

 

[Lew Rockwell Fan]

He did write a sequel. It is called The Moon's Fire-Eating Daughter. Unfortunately it is almost unreadable.

I can't agree at all. That is a very good book. A little more surreal than Silverlock, that's all.

Readers of Silverlock should be forewarned though, that it isn't a sequel to the surface story of Silverlock. It's a sequel to one of Silverlock's deeper layers.

WARNING ! What follows MIGHT be considered a MILD spoiler of both books, so I'll put in some space if you don't want to read it.
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Silverlock, in essence, is about a man who starts out as a fellow who reads only for strictly utilitarian purposes, discovers literature, falls in love with it, and forms the aspiration to become a writer. In that aspiration he fails. It is still a very upbeat book and Shandon is both better off and a better man at the end of it. If that doesn't sound familiar to you, read it again, and pay careful attention starting with the trial in Hell. The trial is THE pivotal scene of the book, and everything should be understood in terms of what is said and what happens there. I would say more, but it is more fun to discover it all for yourself. There is more there than what I've pointed at. I didn't catch it all the first or even the second time I read it either.

Daughter is about a man who STARTS off where Silverlock ended up, a lover of literature who never created any. Now, inspired by a woman, he sets off on his quest to become a writer and it is implied that he WILL succeed. Like Silverlock, I'd call the tone joyous triumpalism. It is a BIT harder to see perhaps, but if you understood Silverlock, it shouldn't be too hard.

 

[The DeadMan]

I can't agree at all. That is a very good book. A little more surreal than Silverlock, that's all.

Readers of Silverlock should be forewarned though, that it isn't a sequel to the surface story of Silverlock. It's a sequel to one of Silverlock's deeper layers.

WARNING ! What follows MIGHT be considered a MILD spoiler of both books, so I'll put in some space if you don't want to read it.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.


Silverlock, in essence, is about a man who starts out as a fellow who reads only for strictly utilitarian purposes, discovers literature, falls in love with it, and forms the aspiration to become a writer. In that aspiration he fails. It is still a very upbeat book and Shandon is both better off and a better man at the end of it. If that doesn't sound familiar to you, read it again, and pay careful attention starting with the trial in Hell. The trial is THE pivotal scene of the book, and everything should be understood in terms of what is said and what happens there. I would say more, but it is more fun to discover it all for yourself. There is more there than what I've pointed at. I didn't catch it all the first or even the second time I read it either.

Daughter is about a man who STARTS off where Silverlock ended up, a lover of literature who never created any. Now, inspired by a woman, he sets off on his quest to become a writer and it is implied that he WILL succeed. Like Silverlock, I'd call the tone joyous triumpalism. It is a BIT harder to see perhaps, but if you understood Silverlock, it shouldn't be too hard.

Perhaps I will read it again. It has been many years since I last tried to read it. Also I like to re-read Silverlock every few years. I seem to notice something that I missed every time I re-read it.

 

[2DaveWixon]

At one time this book was widely read.

You are correct -- in fact, some years back, if I remember correctly, NESFA actually re-published it (i.e., the New England Science Fiction Association; they have a very active small press publishing program...).
Dave Wixon

 

[2DaveWixon]

I can't agree at all. That is a very good book. A little more surreal than Silverlock, that's all.

Readers of Silverlock should be forewarned though, that it isn't a sequel to the surface story of Silverlock. It's a sequel to one of Silverlock's deeper layers.

WARNING ! What follows MIGHT be considered a MILD spoiler of both books, so I'll put in some space if you don't want to read it.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.


Silverlock, in essence, is about a man who starts out as a fellow who reads only for strictly utilitarian purposes, discovers literature, falls in love with it, and forms the aspiration to become a writer. In that aspiration he fails. It is still a very upbeat book and Shandon is both better off and a better man at the end of it. If that doesn't sound familiar to you, read it again, and pay careful attention starting with the trial in Hell. The trial is THE pivotal scene of the book, and everything should be understood in terms of what is said and what happens there. I would say more, but it is more fun to discover it all for yourself. There is more there than what I've pointed at. I didn't catch it all the first or even the second time I read it either.

Daughter is about a man who STARTS off where Silverlock ended up, a lover of literature who never created any. Now, inspired by a woman, he sets off on his quest to become a writer and it is implied that he WILL succeed. Like Silverlock, I'd call the tone joyous triumpalism. It is a BIT harder to see perhaps, but if you understood Silverlock, it shouldn't be too hard.

For those not familiar with Myers, let me mention that SILVERLOCK and DAUGHTER were actually anomalies in his writing career; he was actually more heavily into Western (U.S.) history and historical novels -- and he was great at it! I heartily recommend (1) THE WILD YAZOO, a novel of the days when the western frontier was in Mississippi; and (2) DEATHS OF THE BRAVOS -- made up of a series of historical vignettes, one of which is a condensed form of the story of Hugh Glass, the 1820's frontiersman whose character Lorenzo DiCaprio recently won an Oscar for portraying (in THE REVENANT).

His books are very, very hard to find these days, I warn you!

Dave Wixon

 

[Lew Rockwell Fan]

Strongly concur ^. Darn, Dave. You've created competition for us at the used book shops. Meyers interest in Western Americana was natural, BTW. He was a prof at U of Arizona.

 

[BAYLOR]

Strongly concur ^. Darn, Dave. You've created competition for us at the used book shops. Meyers interest in Western Americana was natural, BTW. He was a prof at U of Arizona.

You might find James Branch Cabell to worth checking out . His book Jurgen in particular.

There is whole section of the forum dedicated to Cabell.

 

[2DaveWixon]

Strongly concur ^. Darn, Dave. You've created competition for us at the used book shops.

Well, I got mine... Good luck, the rest of you! (*snicker*)(not the candy bar...)

 

[BAYLOR]

This is a book that should be celebrated.

 

[2DaveWixon]

Get copies out for people to find and read...worry about celebrating it some other time!

(What brought this back to your mind after all these years, @BAYLOR ?)

 

[BAYLOR]

Get copies out for people to find and read...worry about celebrating it some other time!

(What brought this back to your mind after all these years, @BAYLOR ?)

You did.

Actually , I've been recommending this one quite a bit.

 

[BAYLOR]

If they ever did this as film the actors that die like to see play Shandon Silverlock , Hugh Grant.

 

[2DaveWixon]

when you said "the actors that die," did you mean "the actors I'd like to see..."? I think you're another victim of Autocorrect...?

 

[BAYLOR]

when you said "the actors that die," did you mean "the actors I'd like to see..."? I think you're another victim of Autocorrect...?

Yes , the damned autocorrector strikes again. What I meant was , the perfect actor to play Shandon Silverlock would be Hugh Grant. He looks and sounds how I imagine the the character would be . He's a terrific actors and could easily and convincingly play that role.

 

[2DaveWixon]

Too handsome to be believable, IMHO. That role needs someone...like me, for instance, when I was just a bit younger...

 

[Sargeant_Fox]

So I'm thinking of getting Silverlock; I see there's available two options: just the novel or, a bit pricier, an edition including the novel and something called the "Silverlock Companion". I have nothing against a good annotated edition of Phantastes or Lolita or Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. But is it worth a few extra bucks?