Mervyn Peake and Gormenghast

[heydaralon]

Mervyn Peake was an English author who wrote a trilogy (would have been a quadrilogy) about a fictional place called Gormenghast. It employs many Gothic elements, but it is hard to classify what literary category his work falls under. Like many fantasy novelists, he is a world-builder, but his distinction between good and evil is far more blurred than Tolkien's. Peake's series could also be classified as a bildungsroman, as it is about the formative years of Titus, the 77th Earl of Groan.


The trilogy is largely set in the kingdom of Gormenghast, which is a decrepit and stratified society that is very hierachical and Medieval. The castle of Gormenghast is falling apart, and has many labyrinthine passages that have long been forgotten. Likewise, every character in the book, be it a cook, Earl (king's) aid, or librarian know their place, and their lives consist of meticulous and repetitive rituals. The kingdom has been around so long, that no one knows the signifigance of the rituals or why they are still performed, but they do not question their duties. The two characters who revolt against this status quo are Titus, the hero of the story, and Steerpike, a kitchen boy who uses his cunning and manipulation in an attempt to upend the established order. Titus also grows to hate the established order, and at the end of the second book after a series of violent deaths and the loss of those he cares about most, he runs away from Gormenghast, reneging on his duties and leaving his old life behind.

In the final book, Titus stumbles across a world outside of Gormenghast. To his surpise, the world he encounters outside his castle is completely unknown to him, and it is modern. The modern world is not dissimilar to our own. It has wealthy elites who go to cocktail parties, and a massive underclass of homeless people living in a series of tunnels beneath the city's river. It has scientists who invent things that help facilitate the gulags or holocaust, and they create weapons that are extraordinarily powerful. This modern society has been convulsed by rapid social change, and a revolution that sent many of its inhabitants to prison camps where sexual favors were exchanged for food. Titus sees factories, which seem to be researching and producing terrifying Frankenstein-style experiments. Throughout this book, Titus longs more than anything to return home, and spends the entire third novel trying to navigate his way back to his castle. After more tragedies occur, he finally manages to find his way back Gormenghast, but decides not to enter the castle, but rather to explore in another direction, and try to find a new world.

To me, the Gormenghast trilogy is extremely important, because it uses literary techniques to explore the conflict between traditionalism and a longing for change. Titus experienced a sort of cold indifference in his childhood from all he encountered in his life. Everyone simply accepted their duty, and did not hope for anything better or different. They did not define themselves as individuals, but rather by their roles in the castle's community, and the duties that accompanied this. They expected Titus to fulfill his duty, to keep the system intact, but Titus was repulsed by this. He did not want his life plotted out for him in this way. Likewise, Steerpike the kitchen boy, wanted to destroy the boring society, and did so by murdering various people and assuming their positions, raising his status in the castle. In terms of contemporary life, Steerpike represents a Lenin or Robespierre, whereas Titus represents a sort of angsty youth rebelling against his parents' values. Even though they hated one another, and eventually fought to the death, Titus and Steerpike wanted the same thing.

Peake showed the reader what change was in reality. Titus encountered a society diametrically opposed to his own, but the familiar problems did not disappear. Instead of feudal apathy, he encountered modern apathy. A floor scubber in Gormenghast might not live an exciting life, but he also did not have to live in a sewer beneath a metropolis either, where the entire population ignored his existence. Before Steerpike, Titus' castle did not go through the violent upheavals that characterized the modern world he found. The technology, floating orbs (which almost remind me of drones) and lasers, did not fundamentally make modern man morally superior to the Gormenghast kingdom. Rather, it allowed the channel their negative impulses into even more destructive technology.

Titus' identity crisis is at its most severe when he is away from his home. He is psychologically tortured by the fact that he cannot fully remember who he was or where he was from. Yet the familar surroundings he yearned for were the very thing that drove him to want to leave in the first place. To me, this defines what it feels like to be alive in the modern age. We all want progress (which can mean vastly different things, depending on our beliefs), but at the same time, we want a return to what we are familiar with. We want a return to a simpler society, because our own has been changing at a rapid rate. All the while, those who initiate the change insist to us that social, political, and economic improvement are just around the corner. In the future, they claim, we will be happier, richer, safer, and more unified. The futurists have signed a check with insufficient funds, and the modern world is a result. We have more power than ever before, yet all the persistent problems of the past have remained with us, both in the outside world, and in our own minds. I think wanting a full return to the past is like wanting to return to the Garden of Eden. It cannot and will not happen. But at the same time, a sort of longing for the future, simply because it will be different than the past, is another kind of unrealistic and dangerous thinking. I think Peake's books capture this chimerical desire in all of us quite well. I would encourage everyone on here to read them if you have the time.

[heydaralon]

Peake started a fourth book, called Titus Awakes. He died before it could be completed. His wife took the manuscript and finished it as best she could. I have not gotten around to reading it yet, but it makes me sad that Peake's full vision was not realized.

[Hastur]

The entire BBC series from 2000 is on YouTube.



It's OK. I think it covers the first two books.

The good news is that Neil Gaiman and Akiva Goldsman are working on a new adaptation.
https://deadline.com/2018/04/neil-gaima ... 202356738/

[heydaralon]

The entire BBC series from 2000 is on YouTube.



It's OK. I think it covers the first two books.

The good news is that Neil Gaiman and Akiva Goldsman are working on a new adaptation.
https://deadline.com/2018/04/neil-gaima ... 202356738/

I tried watching the series man, and it didn't translate well from ink to screen. The series covers Titus Groan and Gormenghast, the first 2 books, but not the third. I may give it another chance. Didn't know it was free on youtube. Good catch!

Also, Neil Gaiman is pretty bad imo. I think he was the guy who wrote American gods, which was basically a SJW packed America bashing piece of propaganda. I have very very low expectations. Sometimes, I read something, and I hope it never gets adapted into a show. There is an immense charm in the prose of certain authors, that cannot be replicated on screen. Even the visuals for the BBC show look nothing like Peake's illustrations. They are crude in his books, and not fully realized, but to me they enhance the story for that very reason. Gormenghast feels like a phantom kingdom, where time and space are immaterial. Its description makes it seem ethereal and the pictures bring this home.