History Literature / Boneland

* AngstySurvivingTwin: Colin.

** Possibly as a way of reminding us things should never be taken entirely seriously, to alert us to the [[TheTrickster Cosmic Joker]] being [[GreatGazoo active]], there is an allusion to a very-well known song about mental stability by Music/{{Genesis}}. Garner also writes from British, specifically English, folklore and traditional themes.

* TheUntwist: The early suspicion that all this is happening inside the head of Colin Whisterfield and has no external objective reality. Then there's an apparent [[TheReveal reveal]] that casts doubt on this. This leads to an apparent UnReveal that contradicts the reveal but points in a subtly different direction to the original [[TheUntwist Un twist]]. And then back to a higher twist of the spiral again with something not unlike another [[TheReveal Reveal]]... or is it? Is it all just a MatryoshkaObject in Colin's head after all?

* {{Lobotomy}}: Colin is threatened with electro-convulsive therapy and "sectioning", ie this being done to him without his consent, is also mentioned. Indeed, the [[TheUnTwist enigmatic eight opening lines of the novel]] describe somebody being anaesthetised prior to an operation. [[note]] Local anesthetic is injected into the scalp prior to application of electro-convulsive therapy (ECT)[[/note]]

* TheUnTwist: The early suspicion that all this is happening inside the head of Colin Whisterfield and has no external objective reality. Then there's an apparent [[TheReveal reveal]] that casts doubt on this. This leads to an apparent UnReveal that contradicts the reveal but points in a subtly different direction to the original [[TheUnTwist Un twist]]. And then back to a higher twist of the spiral again with something not unlike another [[TheReveal Reveal]]... or is it? Is it all just a MatryoshkaObject in Colin's head after all?

* GrowingWithTheAudience: In a big way. The original two fantasy novels in the early [[TheSixties nineteen-sixties]] were aimed at a readership of 12 or above. [[CreatorBacklash The fact he didn't like the books very much]] meant it took him a long time to get around to writing a concluding sequel, ''Boneland''. Fifty years, to be precise. ''Boneland'' is as far away as you can possibly get from the certainties and the linear plot of ''Literature/TheMoonOfGomrath''. The book has a dark, grey, quality to it and follows one of the child-characters from the earlier books into adulthood. Colin, the heroic child who entered Faerie at age twelve, is bewildered, disillusioned, on the brink of the male menopause, and fighting mental health issues. He is, quite literally, wondering where the Magic went to. It isn't difficult to suspect Garner is writing an ironic postscript for all those children who devoured the magic of ''Brisingamen'' and ''Gomrath''. And then grew up into adults, thinking back to the magical excitement of reading Garner's adventures as kids, and who today....

* TheUnTwist; the early suspicion that all this is happening inside the head of Colin Whisterfield and has no external objective reality. Then there's an apparent [[TheReveal Reveal]] that casts doubt on this. This leads to an apparent UnReveal that contradicts the Reveal but points in a subtly different direction to the original [[TheUnTwist Un Twist]]. And then back to a higher twist of the spiral again with something not unlike another [[TheReveal Reveal]]... or is it? Is it all just a MatryoshkaObject in Colin's head after all?

* MeaningfulName: Colin is the modern version of the Irish hero's name ''[[Literature/TainBoCuailnge Cú Chulainn]]''. He invokes the Grey Wolf as a nature spirit. [[note]]or else the Watcher invokes ''Colin'' to come to ''him'' as the Grey Wolf...[[/note]]

* InnocenceLost: Colin Whisterfield in the multi-level, multi-ambiguous, ever-shifting ''Bonelands''. Is he - in reality - a survivor of child sex abuse? Whose trauma was then compounded when his sister drowned accidentally? That his memories of dealing with an evil witch in a primal fight against evil , abducted to her by her dwarf servant, are really of sexual trauma.

Professor Colin Whisterfield is a brilliant academic and polymath, described as a high-functioning Aspergers case. He spends his days at Jodrell Bank, using the radio telescope (officially) to study constellation M45 for its scientific interest. Unofficially, he is using it for a completely unorthodox purpose he professionally needs to keep secret. There are grave doubts as to his sanity and he is on serious medication for psychiatric purposes. Running out of ideas, his doctor refers him to a gifted but seriously maverick psychiatrist. She has it in her favour that she is also a genius psychotherapist.

* TwoLinesDifferentTimes: Colin and the Watcher are playing out the same issues of loss and trauma, in much the same geological place but separated by up to half a million years in time. Both are struggling to work out what is happening to them according to their conditioning and cultural preconceptions. Garner even hints that {{Recursion}} is happening and they are somehow [[MeanwhileInTheFuture directly linked]]. [[MatryoshkaObject Matryoshka Objects]] in each other's minds linked by {{Recursion}}?

* GenreShift: the emphasis moves from outright fantasy to a more nuanced psychological drama with overtones of science fiction.

* MeanwhileInTheFuture: Colin and the Watcher are playing out the same issues of loss and trauma, in much the same geological place but separated by up to half a million years in time. Both are struggling to work out what is happening to them according to their conditioning and cultural preconceptions. Garner even hints that {{Recursion}} is happening and they are somehow directly linked. [[MatryoshkaObject Matryoshka Objects]] in each other's minds linked by {{Recursion}}?

** As {{Homage}} to one who fished in the same stream and also lived in the tradition of the English storyteller, giving old stories new slants, there is a blatant reference to Creator/TerryPratchett's ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel of things beginning in stone eggs, ''Discworld/{{Thud}}'' Garner even represents the noise of flint-knapping as "''Tak, Tak, Tak, Tak, Tak...''"

* MeaningfulName: Colin is the modern version of the Irish hero's name ''[[Literature/TainBoCuailnge CuChullain]]''. He invokes the Grey Wolf as a nature spirit. [[note]]or else the Watcher invokes ''Colin'' to come to ''him'' as the Grey Wolf...[[/note]]

* MeaningfulName: Colin is the modern version of the Irish hero's name ''CuChullain''. He invokes the Grey Wolf as a nature spirit. [[note]]or else the Watcher invokes ''Colin'' to come to ''him'' as the Grey Wolf...[[/note]]

** Possibly as a way of reminding us things should never be taken entirely seriously, to alert us to the [[{{Trickster}} Cosmic Joker]] being [[GreatGazoo active]], there is an allusion to a very-well known song about mental stability by Music/{{Genesis}}. Garner also writes from British, specifically English, folklore and traditional themes.

* BrokenMasquerade: one interpretation (among many) of the ambiguous and multilayered story is that Colin Whisterfield was blessed with LaserGuidedAmnesia as an act of mercy by Cadellin and the Lady, after walking in the magic otherworld and fighting in its battles. This was necessary to preserve the secret of the Sleepers and the peoples of Magic from an ever-encroaching human peril, as well as to protect his own sanity. If this is true, there would also be a need to cover for the (ambiguous) destiny of his sister [[TheNameless Susan]], thought dead by by the human world, although [[NeverFoundTheBody no body was ever found]]. But in adulthood, memories and flashbacks and bad dreams are surfacing; it becomes clear the amnesia is not total.

* FranchiseZombie: After ''Literature/TheWeirdstoneOfBrisingamen'' and ''Literature/TheMoonOfGomrath'', Garner went on to write a long list of books he considered had far more literary merit and worth, and if he didn't actually ''hate'' his first two published works, he certainly disdained them. He was certainly annoyed with fans of the first two books who demanded and asked and pleaded for more involving the characters of Colin and Susan (the child protagonists). He made his deep dislike of the books, their premis, and their characters, very clear indeed by taking fifty years to write ''Boneland'', the ''very'' long-awaited sucessor to ''Brisingamen'' and ''Gomrath''. In this book Colin has grown up into an over-educated depressive and borderline sociopath with mental health issues, and Susan apparently drowned herself one night when chasing after elves in the starlight. ''Boneland'' is pessimistic, chilly, dark and noir and bleak - with none of the magic or optimism of the books it succeeds. Colin may die on a hospital operating table after ECT for his mental health problems (the book is ambiguous on this). Garner very emphatically answered the fans' request for more by providing ''exactly'' the opposite to what they wanted, and by killing off the beloved lead characters. And a lot of the supporting cast.

The final book in a trilogy by Creator/AlanGarner, ‘'Boneland’' concludes the story that began over fifty years ago in ''Literature/TheWeirdstoneOfBrisingamen'' and continued in ''Literature/TheMoonOfGomrath''.

Professor Colin Whisterfield is a brilliant academic and polymath, described as a high-functioning Aspergers case. He spends his days at Jodrell Bank, using the radio telescope (officially) to study constellation M45 for its scientific interest. Unofficially, he is using it for a completely unorthodox purpose he professionally needs to keep secret. There are grave doubts as to his sanity and he is on serious medication for psychiatric purposes. Running out of ideas, his doctor refers him to a gifted but seriously maverick psychiatrist. She has it in her favour that she is also a genius psychotherapist.

At the same time, and in another time, the Watcher cuts the rock and dances, to keep the sky above the earth and the stars flying.

* AmbiguouslyHuman: [[spoiler: As the story develops, Meg, Bert and the unseen Fay become stranger and odder]]
* AngstySurvivingTwin: Colin.
* AuthorTract: Alan Garner is known to loathe the ongoing "gentrification" of Alderley Edge by the rich and tasteless, which elsewhere he has deplored as sucking out the magic and character from a town he loves and still lives nearby to. In comparing the "old" Alderley Edge from the new, and the change that has taken place in the fifty years between the books, he is surprisingly restrained, voicing his feelings through incidental asides spoken by Colin (who cannot bear going anywhere near the farmhouse he grew up in, now it has been sold on and "gentrified" and is no longer a working farm. Garner is known to feel the same way about the former working farm that inspired the Mossocks' Highmost Redmanhey.)

* [[CallBack Call Backs]]: The book is peppered with references and allusions to people, places, events and conversations in the first two books: often presented in the sort of hazy, distorted, dream-like way in which an adult will recall conversations and people from a childhood around thirty years prior to the "present day".

* [[OurOrcsAreDifferent Our non-human but humanoid races are different]] The ''svart-alfar'', called into being for the novel ''Literature/TheWeirdstoneOfBrisingamen''. The name literally means ''dark Elves'', but the underground creatures have far more in common with Orcs or Goblins. In the sucessor novel ''Literature/TheMoonOfGomrath'', the place of evil footsoldier is taken by the ''bodachs'' from far Albany: these are a more lizard-like sort of goblin, still humanoid and intelligent enough to forge metal and organise as war-bands. The concluding novel in the trilogy, ''Literature/{{Boneland}}'', pays {{Homage}} to a well-founded theory that as newer sub-species of the human race arose, the predecessor races they co-existed with, and then suceeded over, inevitably became the goblins, dwarves and Elves of our legend. The Watcher is clearly of a different sub-species to the Homo Sapiens/Cro-Magnons who rescue him. Did the Cro-Magnons consider the Watcher and others of his kin to be cavern-dwelling dwarfs and goblins? Indeed, are the "svart-alfar" dawn humans who went deep underground, and whose evolution took a different direction?
* OutlivingOnesOffspring: Gowther and Bess Mossock, who, inferentially, suffered trauma and grief, especially at Susan's presumed death. They went to their own deaths five or six years later feeling a sense of grief and failure that they failed in a duty to their adopted children, and to the dead Whisterfield parents, who in their time had been loved and cherished in the same way (Bess Mossock had been nanny to Colin and Susan's mother). It is inferred that they did not recover from the loss of Susan, and keenly felt the psychological damage to Colin.

* TheUnTwist; the early suspicion that all this is happening inside the head of Colin Whisterfield and has no external objective reality. Then there's an apparent [[TheReveal Reveal]] that casts doubt on this. This leads to an apparent UnReveal that contradicts the Reveal but points in a subtly different direction to the original [[TheUnTwist Un Twist]]. And then back to a higher twist of the spiral again with something not unlike another [[TheReveal Reveal]]... or is it? Is it all just a MatryoshkaObject in Colin's head after all?

-->''But at my back in a cold blast I hear''
-->''The rattle of the bones''
TheWasteLand, by Creator/TSEliot

** ''Boneland'' is also an echo of TheWasteLand of Creator/TSEliot, a place of broken dreams and dissillusionment.