Sunday, 10 August 2014

Random Thoughts - the moon in fiction

Aside from storms, the moon has a very strong place in expressing moods and building anticipation in literature. In my primary school readings the set poetry pieces were The Moon by Robert Lewis Stevenson, and Silver by Water de La Mare.

Tonight, the episode of the perigee moon, one of two times per year when the moon is closest to the earth in its orbit, the following books come to mind:

Such as I Have by Garfield Ellis, the night when Headley takes the love of his life, Pam, who is deathly ill, to the only place where he believes she can receive healing.

My book Bad Girls In School has a life changing event that happens to middle school Tajeeka by night in the main street in Mavis Bank.

The thrilling and scary events of The Cat Woman and the Spinning Wheel as told by Diane Browne happened at night, but through the illustrator, it also happened on the night of a full moon.

Orchids of Jamaica by Gloudon and Tobisch recall the Brassavola Cordata (Lady of the Night) and her fragrance that enticed the very first orchid collectors to prize this plant.

No Boy Like Amanda by Hope Barnett has a scene where eager primary school girl Amanda, once again, upsets her brothers when her father agrees that she join them on a moonlight crab hunt.

Voices Under the Window by John Hearne has a terrifying scene at night, where disenchanted people roam the streets looking for trouble, but I cannot remember right now if the moon was out or not.

In Anthony Winkler's Painted Canoe, the fisherman Zachariah deliberately goes out at night, alone with only his faith for company.

Jamaicans have a role for the moon indeed in writing.