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Poet uses fairytale to look at modern world

Thursday, 10 July 2008

DUBLIN poet and author John McNamee has just written and published what he calls “a fairytale” which is part fantasy, but is also relevant to the real world around us today.
‘The King Of Feisham’ contains a high element of romance, as the thread of the plot is stitched together by a prince and a princess seeking a partner.
McNamee takes the traditional fairytale genre and then moulds it into something that is new and has relevance for his readers and the world they encounter day to day.
The story has a sub-plot featuring extraordinary, diverse, colourful and entertaining characters that in their own way are doing exactly the same thing.
The King Of Feisham is published in booklet form and according to McNamee; “if the stakes of love are high then the characters in this game of the heart have a huge burden of responsibility placed on them, eliciting a major response of commitment and struggle”.
“The fairytale form allows space within the context of fantasy and imagination for high performance,” he told Northside People.
“Central to the story is the human condition with all its horror, grief and tragedy, but always hope permeates the human heart and soul like a perfume to life the spirit.”
McNamee also uses music as a vehicle of transcendence through the description of ‘Feisham and his Uileann Pipes’ to create, as is the function of music, a small respite from all the disenchantment encountered in the world today.
McNamee says that the words of the French poet Jean Genet are true: “a good poet will never bring you down”.
“So it follows that a poetic fairytale has the same effect with the necessary talent, flair and commitment,” said McNamee.

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