Hey all,
I don't think I'll have much room in my paper to discuss this, but I was wondering what everyone thought about the fairies' ties with magicians?
The first time the gentleman speaks to Norrell, he offers advice and all the information he could want, but once spurned he decides he hates English magicians. The gentleman seems to have a lot of personal power in that he can travel long distances, knows where objects of power are, has lots of information, apparently good ties to the unnamed forces responsible for the Darkness, and other abilities, yet he seems deathly afraid of Jonathan. Moreover for all of the gentleman's powers, he always has to come when summoned even if he doesn't show himself. Which then brings up the question of why the gentleman is the only fairy ever summoned despite the existence of other fairies?
As a side note, what do you think happened to Stephan Black? The book mentions in a footnote that there have been many fairy rulers that were human before as faeries don't like to govern. Does he remain human or does his position now give him fairy-like powers?
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See, here's another reason the magical system of JS&MN bugged me to no end. The faeries just didn't make sense within the context of human bibliomagik. Are there TWO systems of magic in this world, then? The fey and the mortal? And if so, how can they overlap so much? How is the Raven King so inundated with Fey magic and still the 'Author' of the English landscape? Renee, you have my utmost respect for endeavoring to tackle this Gordian knot.
Also, I suspected that Stephen Black shared the fate of the Raven King, since they shared so much anyway- the unnamed slave growing enigmatic and quirky in the faerie realm.
Perhaps humans have some innate powerful magical ability that fairies lack. In the Discworld books, it is the power of human belief that creates the fantastical. Perhaps the fairy are more tied to our realm than we thought. You notice the gentleman got mad AFTER Norrell refused his offer to teach him everything in return for giving him all the credit. Maybe he wants belief as much for power as his ego.
Since the gentleman has acquired a lot of power from other sources he is able to grab these summons from his fellows so he can have a chance to acquire this power of belief. That could explain why nobody else appeared. He only appeared to Strange I think on accident the first time. He hated him and was making fun of him then Strange surprised him by drinking the cat lady juice.
I actually always felt like it was the faeries who were all born with a sort of wild magic and that only very few humans were born with an innate skill to do magic of a lesser, more refined sort. That's just the view lots of books seem to take. At least these faeries weren't 3 inches high and fluttering around a garden of roses!
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