Phosphor in Dreamland (American Literature (Dalkey Archive)) [Paperback]

Rikki Ducornet (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1995 | Series: American Literature (Dalkey Archive)

Winner of the Critic's Choice Award of 1995

Wildly comic, erotic, and perverse, Rikki Ducornet's dazzling novel, Phosphor in Dreamland, explores the relationship between power and madness, nature and its exploitation, pornography and art, innocence and depravity. Set on the imaginary Caribbean island of Birdland, the novel takes the form of a series of letters from a current resident to an old friend describing the island's 17th-century history that brings together the violent Inquisition, the thoughtless extinction of the island's exotic fauna, and the amorous story of the deformed artist-philosopher-inventor Phosphor and his impassioned, obsessional love for the beautiful Extravaganza.

The Jade Cabinet, Ducornet's previous novel (a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award), was described by one reviewer as "Jane Austen meets Angela Carter via Lewis Carroll." Phosphor in Dreamland can be described as Jonathan Swift meets Angela Carter via Jorge Luis Borges. This is Ducornet at her magical best.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Although Ducornet's Tetralogy of Elements ended in 1993 with the NBCC nominee The Jade Cabinet, her wondrous new novel might represent the most unpredictable property of all: light. In letters to a friend, the lonely narrator describes the fantastical history of his native Birdland. In the mid-17th century, a clubfooted, cross-eyed baby was abandoned on the doorstep of the island's unsavory and unique prelate, Fogginus. Nicknamed Phosphor for his fancied luminosity, the child spends much of his youth locked away in his guardian's sea trunk, where he re-discovers the camera obscura, gradually embellishing its images with a third dimension and permanence. Together with Fogginus and his patron, Fango Fantasma, a particularly noxious local grandee, Phosphor sets out to document Birdland both in images (through which Fantasma believes he will possess the island) and in an epic poem about his homeland. Phosphor in Dreamland is filled with wry references to Swift (a scholarly double biography titled A Swift and Phosphorous Eye is alluded to), and like that satirist's, Ducornet's humor is sly and sharp. Unlike Swift, though, she also conveys a tender melancholy: for the last of the aboriginal loplops, a giant bird tended by an arboreal barber, and for Birdland's past, which is preserved only by Phosphor's invention. "Thanks to this wonderful machine, a city that exists no more, a world still even to sublimity, is contained as if by magic on flat pieces of glass."
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In Ducornet's (The Jade Cabinet, LJ 2/1/93) fifth novel, Australia meets Birdland (an imaginary Caribbean island), the 20th century intersects with the 17th, and magical realism confronts a lit-crit parody of famed satirist Jonathan Swift. This engaging novel, although extremely well written, lacks the tension and plot-driven engine that will keep you awake all night. But for those interested in a more playful pace, it details the invention of the ocularscope (an early forerunner of the camera) and the brutal slaying of the last loplop on earth, a bird that begged for mercy in an almost human-sounding voice. While moving from brilliant fantasy to brilliant fantasy?my favorite is the arboreal barbershop?this novel's prose comes alive with images. Judging from her skill with language displayed here, it's obvious that Ducornet is also a poet. The characters?Se?or Fantasma; his strongman, Yahoo Clay; the professor, Tardanza; the boy-child, Pulco; the poet, Phosphor; and his bride, Extravaganza?represent archetypes. "If Fantasma was cursed with anxiety, Yahoo Clay was damned with rage." This is an adventure tale?the exploration of Birdland?and also a love story: Phosphor and Extravaganza, newly married, share their dreams each morning upon awakening. Indeed, the whole book is an inquiry into the nature of dreaming. And, as Professor Tardanza wisely acknowledges, "Dreams are the key to the human soul." Recommended for larger fiction collections.?Doris Lynch, Bloomington P.L., Ind.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 165 pages
• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press; 1st edition (October 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1564780848
• ISBN-13: 978-1564780843
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,063,433 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a great literary exercise, March 4, 2003

By 

Leonor Acosta (san fernando, cadiz Spain) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Phosphor in Dreamland (American Literature (Dalkey Archive)) (Paperback)

This novel by Rikki Ducornet's is a wonderful play of plenty of literary techniques and relevant themes that are present in her first novels in an embrionic form. Phosphor in Dreamland is the narration of an allegorical voyage from civilization to the natural world in which Ducornet is capable to introduce such important topics as the search for a poetic language to understand the universe, the need to embrace love and sensuality to fulfill the human being's destiny, the necessary overcoming of the past to reach a better future, etc. Phosphor in Dreamland is a marvelous parable about how to recover the communication between man/woman and nature.

5.0 out of 5 stars Sensual Mysticism in an Imaginary Birdland, September 26, 2011

By 

J M McDermott (Benbrook, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Phosphor in Dreamland (American Literature (Dalkey Archive)) (Paperback)

Recently, it has come to my attention that many speculative fiction readers are unaware of the marvelous prose stylings of Rikki Ducornet. I know I've mentioned this fabulous author a couple times on my blog, and while out and about. I know her work is beginning to appear in anthologies edited by "genre" editors, like Jeff VanderMeer's CheekyFrawg eBook Imprint. But, for many in genre circles, she's an unknown.

How unfortunate for us.

Phosphor in Dreamland is a book about an artist and inventor. It is also a book about the human relationship to the world of the sublime. It is also a book about the extinction of the native people and cultures facing the brunt of colonialist arrogance. It is also a book about beautiful imagery, and grotesque characters behaving badly and strangely.

There's a bird in this book. This should come as no surprise on the island of Birdland where this book is set. However, what makes this island a "Birdland" is that there is a native bird, reminiscent of the dodo, but one famous for how human it seems when it is begging for its life. This peaceful bird rummages for shellfish and lives in harmony with its native surroundings. Humans have, even before the arrival of colonial expansion, killed the bird for its beak alone. The hunted creature begs and begs, and all for nothing. The colonial settlers does not help the extinct bird. The last of the Auk is killed in this book, and it is a harrowing thing to read.

I mention grotesque. the main thrust of the narrative is the discovery of a kind of photography by a young artist, poet, and inventor -- the Phosphor of the title -- who is taken in by a local rich man that sees in this invention an opportunity to own the whole island, photograph everything in it, and make images of beauty, lust, and possession of everything around him. How colonial of him, no? The artist and dreamer is appropriated by this wealthy maniac and led on an expedition into the wild heart of the island, with a spiritual adviser in tow that is so lost in his hideous pontifications that it is all that holds his soul and skin together. There's more, of course.

I read this book a few weeks ago. I have considered many things to say about it here. I have landed upon this: What is magical is often taken for granted, and what is factual is often misrepresented as magical, and what is beautiful is often taken as a sign of human weakness and frailty, and what is a human failing is often taken as a sign of an individual's strength or prowess. The best thing we can do about all of this is to make love.

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FABULOUS BOOK!, April 9, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Phosphor in Dreamland (American Literature (Dalkey Archive)) (Paperback)

This is the most intriguing novel I have ever read. I was mesmerized for days. I hope to read additional works written by Rikki Ducornett. My highest recommendation to ALL FOLKS!