Red Shift (novel)
First edition cover, showing the folly tower on Mow Cop.
|
|
| Author | Alan Garner |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy Novel |
| Publisher | Collins |
|
Publication date
|
17 September 1973 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 160 pp (hardback edition) |
| ISBN | (hardback edition) |
| OCLC | 806005 |
| LC Class | PZ7.G18417 Re3 |
Red Shift is a 1973 fantasy novel by Alan Garner. It spans over a thousand years but one geographical area: Southern Cheshire, England. Garner evokes the essence of place, allowing his characters to echo each other through time, as if their destinies may be predefined by the soil on which they walk. These are themes explored more tangibly in his earlier work The Owl Service, but brought here to maturity in a weave of rapid, impressionistic dialogue.
It is set in three intertwined time periods: Roman Britain, the siege of Barthomley Church during the English Civil War, and a caravan site near the M6 in the modern day.
This is primarily a novel about adolescent despair, but one that uses devices of fantasy such as having events at different times in history influencing each other. It is said to be inspired by the legend of Tam Lin, where a man or boy kidnapped by fairies is rescued by his true love. The author said that a piece of graffiti seen at a railway station, "Not really now not any more" became the focus of the novel's mood. It forms the last line of the story.
The title of the novel arises from the mind of the teenage character Tom. He talks of astronomy, cosmology and other subjects he is learning. He declares that he is too "blue", i.e. sad, and needs a "red shift". Since the cosmological red shift results from galaxies moving away from each other, this may be a metaphor for his need to get away from his current life.
There are multiple occurrences of the colour red in the story. After killing many in Barthomley, Macey's skin is painted red by the tribal girl, using dye from alder bark. This marks him as a "redman", one who has killed, possibly one who has done so under the influence of a god. It is also an ancient symbol of rebirth. In Civil War Barthomley, the stone axe-head is wrapped in a petticoat which has been dyed with alder. A petticoat can also be called a "shift". In modern-day Barthomley Tom notices some red colour on the Rector's undergarment – again a "shift".
...
Wikipedia