In this Book
- The Fixed Stars: Thirty-Seven Emblems for the Perilous Season
- Book
- 2010
- Published by: The University of Alabama Press
summary
A fable-like tale of a small community afflicted by a mysterious plague
Juxtaposing barbarity and whimsy, Brian Conn’s The Fixed Stars is a novel that has the tenor of a contemporary fable with nearly the same dreamlike logic.
At the novel’s heart are the John’s Day celebration and the interactions of a small community dealing with a mystery disease. Routinely citizens are quarantined and then reintegrated into society in rituals marked by a haunting brutality. The infected and the healthy alike are quarantined. In a culture that has retreated from urbanism into a more pastoral society, the woman who nurtures spiders and the man who spins hemp exist alongside the mass acceptance of sexual promiscuity. Conn delivers a compelling portrait of a calamitous era, one tormented by pestilence, disease, violence, and post–late capitalism. An unflinching look at a world impossible to situate in time, The Fixed Stars is mythic and darkly magical.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Cover Page
- p. 1
- Title Page
- pp. 2-5
- 1. The Ropemaker’s Daughter
- pp. 8-52
- 2. Ablution in Helical Structure
- pp. 53-82
- 3. The Green Door
- pp. 83-136
- 4. John’s Day
- pp. 137-202
- 5. The Snow Pageant
- pp. 203-284
- 6. Mercury
- pp. 285-311
Additional Information
ISBN
9781573668163
Related ISBN(s)
9781573661539
MARC Record
OCLC
712992792
Pages
311
Launched on MUSE
2014-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No
Copyright
2010