LMST 345_Topic: Mythic Fiction and Contemporary Urban Fantasy _The Ocean at the End of the Lane By Neil Gaiman

LMST 345
Topic: Mythic Fiction and Contemporary Urban Fantasy
Read:The Ocean at the End of the Lane

 Ocean at The End of the Lane is written as recounted 30 years later by the protagonist, when he finds memories resurfacing when visiting his childhood home for a funeral. In the novel, Neil Gaiman combines certain elements from traditional myths like fairies and strange lands, with his own ideas and “inventions” in order to develop a dynamic plot for the story. As this technique gradually introduced, the narrative begins to seem almost like episodes due to the fact that as one quirk comes to an end, a new one emerges and is introduced with a whole new set of problems.

Setting the tone early on Gaiman’s influences are clear, the narrator state “I liked myths. They weren’t adult stories and they weren’t children’s stories. They were better than that. They just were.” (p. 53)  Known for excavating myths and reconfiguring them for his own interpretations. Despite more evident themes, the book’s primary theme is about childhood. The narrator comes across to the reader as a pretty introverted kid, who seeks haven from reality in his imagination, expressing all of the fear and wonder of his childhood adventures.  An important element of the  “creation mythology” utilized in the reading is the idea of manifestation through verbalization or speaking something into existence. A quote from the book, “I have dreamed of that song, of the strange words to that simple rhyme-song, and on several occasions, I understood what she was saying, in my dreams. In those dreams I spoke that language too, the first language, and I had dominion over the nature of all that was real. In my dream, it was the tongue of what is, and anything spoken in it becomes real because nothing said in that language can be a lie. It is the most basic building block of everything. In my dreams I have used that language to heal the sick and to fly; once I dreamed I kept a perfect little bed-and-breakfast by the seaside, and to everyone who came to stay with me I would say, in that tongue, “Be Whole,” and they would become whole, not be broken people, not any longer, because I had spoken the language of shaping.” (p. 43)

Another important symbol in the novel is the symbol of the ocean as it resurfaces throughout most of the book.  In the novel, the ocean represents a source of divine power and “cosmic consciousness”. There is a passage where the narrator talks about being submerged in the ocean, and to further develop the concept- Gaiman introduces other symbols such as the egg and the rose symbolizing the birth of the universe and the rose representing the continual unfolding of reality. “The second thing I thought was that I knew everything, Lettie Hempstock’s ocean flowed inside me, and it filled the entire universe, from Egg to Rose. I knew that. I knew what Egg was–where the universe began, to the sound of uncreated voices singing in the void–and I knew where Rose was–the particular crinkling of space on space into dimensions that fold like origami and blossom like strange orchids, and which mark the last good time before the eventual end of everything and the next Big Bang, which would be, I knew now, nothing of the kind.” (p. 143)