{"id":3255,"date":"2010-11-15T23:17:29","date_gmt":"2010-11-16T04:17:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=3255"},"modified":"2018-08-05T20:34:59","modified_gmt":"2018-08-06T00:34:59","slug":"the-sensual-fantasies-of-thomas-burnett-swann","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=3255","title":{"rendered":"The Sensual Fantasies of Thomas Burnett Swann"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Back in 1987, I read Thomas Bur\u00adnett Swan\u00adn\u2019s Day of the Mino\u00adtaur<\/em>, and enjoyed it, but did not fol\u00adlow through with any more of his books until recent weeks. Now, read\u00ading four more of his nov\u00adels gives me a bet\u00adter appre\u00adci\u00ada\u00adtion of this odd fan\u00adta\u00adsy writer, who descends more from the Pre-Raphaelites, Lord Dun\u00adsany, and James Branch Cabell than the more usu\u00adal fan\u00adta\u00adsist\u2019s pat\u00adri\u00admo\u00adny of Tolkien and Howard.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thomas Bur\u00adnett Swann lived from 1928 until a youth\u00adful death from can\u00adcer in 1976. In the few years before his death, he wrote a series of inter\u00adcon\u00adnect\u00aded fan\u00adtasies set in \u201chis\u00adtoric\u201d peri\u00adods \u2014 the ancient Mediter\u00adranean and Mid\u00addle East \u2014 but only if you imag\u00adine that the mytho\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal crea\u00adtures of those civ\u00adi\u00adliza\u00adtions actu\u00adal\u00adly exist\u00aded in them. The satyrs, dryads, mino\u00adtaurs, and oth\u00ader mytho\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal crea\u00adtures are always pre\u00adsent\u00aded in a psy\u00adcho\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly, if not phys\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly real\u00adis\u00adtic way. His cen\u00adtaurs, like the kin\u00adnaras<\/em> in the Mahab\u00adhara\u00adta,<\/em> are treat\u00aded in a mat\u00adter-of-fact way that makes you for\u00adget they are impos\u00adsi\u00adble. You expect one to trot by you as you are read\u00ading one of the books.<\/span><\/p>\n

Four of the five I\u2019ve read are set in this fan\u00adta\u00adsy-antiq\u00adui\u00adty. The book that does not quite fit in is The Goat With\u00adout Horns<\/em>, which is set in the 19th cen\u00adtu\u00adry, and is nar\u00adrat\u00aded by a dol\u00adphin. It amus\u00ading\u00adly spoofs many con\u00adven\u00adtions of Vic\u00adto\u00adri\u00adan fiction. <\/span><\/p>\n

All the books bathe in a pleas\u00adant sen\u00adsu\u00adal\u00adi\u00adty, and are nev\u00ader far from a sex\u00adu\u00adal tease. They were pub\u00adlished by DAW<\/span> Books, direct\u00aded at the sub-cul\u00adtur\u00adal mar\u00adket of sci\u00adence fic\u00adtion and fan\u00adta\u00adsy read\u00aders, an audi\u00adence which was then (and per\u00adhaps remains) noto\u00adri\u00adous for its infan\u00adtile sex\u00adu\u00adal atti\u00adtudes. They did not fit into the zeit\u00adgeist, although a small minor\u00adi\u00adty of read\u00aders took to them. All the books hint\u00aded at some sort of pan-sex\u00adu\u00adal\u00adi\u00adty, but when DAW<\/span> brought out How Are the Mighty Fall\u00aden <\/em>in 1974, with it\u2019s overt (gasp!) homo\u00adsex\u00adu\u00adal\u00adi\u00adty, edi\u00adtor Don\u00adald Woll\u00adheim had to fight to get the dis\u00adtrib\u00adu\u00adtor to han\u00addle it, and genre review\u00aders went into homo\u00adpho\u00adbic pan\u00adic. Yet, it\u2019s re-telling of the bib\u00adli\u00adcal sto\u00adry of David and Jonathan is charm\u00ading, intel\u00adli\u00adgent, and poetic. <\/span><\/p>\n

5830. (Thomas Bur\u00adnett Swann) Day of the Minotaur<\/span>
\n19240. (Thomas Bur\u00adnett Swann) The Minikins of Yam<\/span>
\n19248. (Thomas Bur\u00adnett Swann) Cry Sil\u00adver Bells<\/span>
\n19284. (Thomas Bur\u00adnett Swann) How Are the Mighty Fallen<\/span>
\n19289. (Thomas Bur\u00adnett Swann) The Goat With\u00adout Horns<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in 1987, I read Thomas Bur\u00adnett Swan\u00adn\u2019s Day of the Mino\u00adtaur, and enjoyed it, but did not fol\u00adlow through with any more of his books until recent weeks. Now, read\u00ading four more of his nov\u00adels gives me a bet\u00adter appreciation \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[946,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-b-reading","category-bq-reading-2010"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3255"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7745,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3255\/revisions\/7745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}