Thursday 25 August 2016

Circus Books

I have spent most of the summer in a park with several sets of Poi, two hula hoops and music playing. I've been watching you tube videos of Poi lessons and Hula lessons on you tube and have been doing some serious practising. I love the way both of these skills feel. Essentially I want to join a circus and am just working my way up to that. Cirque de Soleil eat your heart out.

It got me thinking about where this interest came from...There are a number of books that take place in a circus or involve a circus in some way. It's a mysterious and dangerous place, full of magic and the unusual, but everyone there can perform their elements flawlessly. In an Olympic year with all eyes on the gymnastics, the acrobats still hold our fascination (Or is it just me?).

It's an escapist theme. Run away with the circus and leave reality. but as my mum always told me, to run away, you have to have something that the circus wants. What will draw the crowds. In all of these books the characters are hunted and exploited for their uniqueness. Wings, hair, fantastic beasts, all of these books have something going on that takes the reader away from reality.

Circus elements are often used in dreamscapes, a magical escape with a touch of mania thrown in for a hint of the nightmare. What is our fascination with seeing the weird and wonderful as if it has been pulled from our own subconscious?

Here's a list of books that feature the circus, if you don't want to disappear with the circus just yet, escape with these books. Or try some circus skills in the park.


Nights At The Circus - Angela Carter

Water For Elephants - Sarah Gruen

Tipping The Velvet - Sarah Waters

The True and Splendid History of the Harristown Sisters - Michelle Lovric

The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern


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