Inspirations
As inspirations for the Chronicles of Amber go, a compelling argument can be made for the 1946 novel The Dark World by Henry Kuttner (and most likely his wife, C. L. Moore, an unusually symbiotic collaborator). Zelazny himself is quoted as saying:
| “ | ...the Kuttner story which most impressed me in those most impressionable days was his short novel The Dark World. I returned to it time and time, reading it over and over again, drawn by its colorful, semi-mythic characters and strong action. ...looking back, Kuttner and Moore—and, specifically, The Dark World—were doubtless a general influence on my development as a writer. As for their specific influences—particularly on my Amber series—I never thought about it until Jane Lindskold started digging around and began pointing things out to me. | ” |
Reading the Kuttner (and Moore) novel, readers are bound to find similarities in theme and in specific instances: some character names are common to both works, and they share the fantasy literary device of moving a present day, realistic character from the familiar world into a fantastical, alternate reality world, exposing the character to this shift as the reader experiences it.
Zelazny openly admitted that the series was inspired by Philip José Farmer's World of Tiers series, specifically the concepts of an immensely powerful family in a deadly rivalry over the fate of multiple universes.
Given Zelazny's academic interest in the Medieval European period, it is not a stretch to see a possible influence in Henry Adams' 1905 work Mont Saint-Michel and Chartres, wherein he discusses the building of Chartres Cathedral, and the tidal-islet of Mont Saint-Michel, on the Normandy coast of France. However, these possible influences are not supported by Zelazny's own commentary about the origins of the Pattern. He indicated that he loosely based the Pattern in part on the Tree of Life or Sephiroth of Kaballah, and preferred to allow the reader to imagine what the actual Pattern looked like.
More generally, the series draws from many mythological sources as inspirations, especially Celtic (see Tír na nÓg), Norse mythology, and Arthurian legend. Zelazny cited Jessie L. Weston's 1921 book From Ritual to Romance as a key influence: it examined the pagan and Christian roots of the legends of King Arthur, the Wasteland myths, and the Holy Grail. For example, the Celtic Wasteland myth ties the barrenness of a land to a curse that a hero must lift; Corwin's curse is in part responsible for the Black Road.
Philosophical texts have influenced the series as well: many similarities exist between Amber and Plato's Republic (see the Allegory of the cave) and the classical problems of metaphysics, virtuality, solipsism, logic, possible worlds, probability, doubles and essences are also repeatedly reflected on.
Sometimes the references made by Zelazny could be considered foreshadowing, if one knows the reference. One such is the character Ganelon, whose name is taken from the Matter of France: specifically, it is the name of the man whose moniker is more often "Ganelon the Traitor". This suggests that the name is chosen because of Ganelon purposefully losing a battle to spite Corwin. In the Song of Roland, Ganelon is also the stepfather of the main hero, Roland; and on the last page of The Hand of Oberon, Zelazny's Ganelon is revealed as Oberon in disguise.
Read more about this topic: The Chronicles Of Amber
Famous quotes containing the word inspirations:
“We must learn the language of facts. The most wonderful inspirations die with their subject, if he has no hand to paint them to the senses.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“My dream is that as the years go by and the world knows more and more of America, it ... will turn to America for those moral inspirations that lie at the basis of all freedom ... that America will come into the full light of the day when all shall know that she puts human rights above all other rights, and that her flag is the flag not only of America but of humanity.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)