Clarke's near constant use of mirrors is one of my favorite quirks in this novel. There's just something so suggestive about stepping into a reflective surface in order to enter a new realm. Alice Through the Looking Glass, anyone? Everything Alice encounters there is arguably a creation of her own imagination, and the mirror trope really brings this out. I mean, the doorway to the world she explores is a MIRROR...something that reflects your own image. I think that characters moving through mirrors are moving into themselves, their subconscious selves, if you will. Jonathan Strange does the exact same thing. He can only enter Fairy by entering his own image. Meaningful? Hmmm....
I know that the whole mirror-as-portal thing is prominent in lots of fantasy, but it seems like it shows up more in Victorian settings. Alice, the proper little Victorian girl...Jonathan, the pristine Victorian gentleman...Personally, I blame the repression of the period. There's no magic in the society, so you have to find it in yourself. You have to unlock your own personality! Search within! Fight the power!
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According to traditional Japanese culture, the symbol of the mirror appears to people in dreams when the theme of "The Truth" surfaces in the subconscious. A mirror shows things in no way but pure honesty; its reflection cannot be pretended. So could one argue that Magic in the novel lies within truth, or perhaps beyond it? Maybe a deeper look at the Fairy-lack-of-logic. They focus on the madness, not the logic we humans grasp for. I, too, REALLY liked the mirror motif Clarke lays out.
On a *completely* nerdy level, Strange's mirror-travel constantly reminded me of a science fiction show I adore above everything, Stargate. It involves inter-planetary travel via the use of a giant vertical pool of liquid... a mirror, if you will. Anyway, nerdy-time over. :)
I am reminded of the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan's identification of the "mirror stage" -- the point at which the toddler first recognizes herself in a mirror -- and all the ramifications that entails. Many literary critics have used Lacan's ideas to write about texts that make prominent use of mirrors (or of characters that are twins, or mirror reflections, or doppelgangers); someone should apply them to JS&MN, too.
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