Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/17853
Title: Mining Gee: Salt, Gool, and The Limping Man
Contributor(s): Hale, Elizabeth  (author)orcid 
Publication Date: 2014
Handle Link: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/17853
Abstract: In 2007, Maurice Gee returned to fantasy writing for young readers with the first of a trilogy of novels set in a fully realised, unnamed world. In 'Salt' (2007), 'Gool' (2008) and 'The Limping Man' (2010), he also returned to the themes that have run through his novels for young readers, be they fantasy or realist novels. These themes centre on the division in human nature between good and evil, and are explored in the 'Salt' trilogy through a series of conflicts between good, communally-minded country dwellers who live in harmony with nature, and wicked, power and hierarchy-driven city-based institutions that exploit the people and the land. In each novel, a different kind of evil (corporate, governmental or religious) is overcome by pairs of young protagonists - teenage boys and girls - who use their complementary abilities for the good of the community. As they do so, they come of age, in the terms required of young adult fiction, whether fantasy or realism. They learn to control their impulses and powers, they reflect on the ethical implications of their actions, they find love and they find their place in the world. More than merely repeating preoccupying concerns, however, the 'Salt' trilogy mines Gee's own oeuvre, calling up, or recalling, familiar figures of good and evil and drawing together the concerns of both fantasy and realist approaches to fiction for young readers.
Publication Type: Book Chapter
Source of Publication: Maurice Gee: A Literary Companion: The Fiction for Young Readers, p. 83-99
Publisher: University of Otago Press
Place of Publication: Dunedin, New Zealand
ISBN: 9781877578847
Fields of Research (FoR) 2008: 200505 New Zealand Literature (excl Maori Literature)
Fields of Research (FoR) 2020: 470522 New Zealand literature (excl. Māori literature)
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2008: 950203 Languages and Literature
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2020: 130203 Literature
HERDC Category Description: B1 Chapter in a Scholarly Book
Publisher/associated links: http://trove.nla.gov.au/version/209240488
Editor: Editor(s): Elizabeth Hale
Appears in Collections:Book Chapter
School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences

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