Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising, II

Ok, after the bath I mentioned in my last post, I finished the last two chapters of The Dark is Rising, by Susan Cooper. I've read this book several times, and I am impressed by several things here. First, this seems to diverge from much fantasy in that a number of domestic scenes are interspersed throughout. And there's something cozily comforting, reassuring really, about the reversion to domestic life. Second, I think that what makes this novel truly masterful, among other things, is Cooper's drawing on pre-Christian, folk religion of the British Isles. This is true, I would say, of the entire series. But she draws on folk religion in a really interesting way, a way that is very different from what we see in Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. As my students observed, Christianity is treated very differently in Cooper's novel than how C.S. Lewis particularly treats Christianity. While never denying the validity of Christianity, Cooper suggests that there's some larger force at work, something that both transcends Christianity and other "religions" yet enfolds them at the same time. While I personally do not necessarily agree with Cooper's religious perspective here, I do find it interesting, specifically in that it is a departure from the writing of Tolkien and Lewis, who have so much defined this fascinating sub-genre of fantasy for YAs (that is, young adults) with which Cooper works. Finally, I find this particular work interesting because it really is about Will Stanton's coming of age; as one student K. pointed out, it's really your typical bildungsroman novel. (Bildungsroman is simply the fancy, literary term for a coming-of-age story, but I was quite impressed that K. remembered the term from a previous class. (SIDE NOTE: One thing I love about my job is that I tend to get many of the same students taking a variety of classes from me. I enjoy working with the same students for longer than just a semester, and we often develop rewarding, interesting relationships. I suppose this is one reason to stay at CSC.) Anyhow, Will's coming of age quest so closely matches what mythologist Joseph Campbell calls the "monomyth" or the "heroic quest." If you are really interested, Wikipedia has useful information on Campbell and the monomyth. T.S. has pointed out to me that the Walker here is an interesting character, and he is. He seems to illustrate this important difference between the forces of good and of evil, here called the Light and the Dark. Specifically, the Light "uses" the Walker, yet cares for him, even allows him redemption when he's betrayed the Light. The Dark, however, simply discards the Walker once he has served their purposes. T.S. also brings to my attention that the Old Ones, the servants of the Light, form a community in a way that the servants of the Dark do not. The Old Ones are never Mavericks, working on their own; rather, they must rely on one another. I have to say that I'm indebted to T. for these useful observations. (T. I don't know if you'll read this or not, but if you do, know that you've helped me think about this book in a new way!) I don't know--I guess that I've just thoroughly enjoyed this novel and wanted to say more about it. I am looking forward to further discussing it in class with my students tomorrow morning.