Eros and Magic :: Warren Rochelle on 'The Called'

With his new novel The Called, fantasy writer Warren Rochelle explores religion, politics, and sexuality in ways that depart daringly from the conventional--and venture into the magical.

The Called is the sequel to Rochell's 2008 novel Harvest of Changelings, in which the author outlined a mythological universe of faeries, demons, and human beings caught in a struggle that transcended three parallel realities. The dark realm of the evil Fomorii is a used-up, dying cosmos; the Fomorii see Earth as a viable place to live (and humans as a good supply of slaves and food). The world of Faerie, by contrast, is a place of light and magic--literally: the rules of nature in Faerie involve spells, special powers such as flight or shape-shifting, and supernatural beings straight out of Celtic lore (as well as a bunch of other mythological traditions).

In Rochelle's novels, Earth itself is not the Earth with which we are familiar. Harvest of Changelings is set in the early 1990s, and the events of the novel bring about a crisis when it becomes widely known that magic actually exists.

More upsetting is the revelation that there are part-Faerie people among the general population, due to centuries of cross-universe mating. In the first book, four part-fey children living in North Carolina--Malachi, Jeff, Russell, and Hazel--discover their true origins, and realize that they are meant to live together in a four-member group marriage, or "tetrad." The tetrad is a common family structure in Faerie, because magical beings there derive their powers from the four elements. Only when a tetrad has four members, each associated with one of the elements, is a family unit complete.

It's easy to read into the books a gay subtext; they weave characters with innate differences in affect and sexuality into their story lines about good confronting evil, and present family structures that are completely natural to some, but extremely alarming to others. The religious and social backlash that Rochelle explores in The Called mirrors our deepest dreads about where the media- and faith-driven culture war threatens to take our country. Not inconsequentially, in the first book the characters are exposed to the heartbreak of abandonment, loss of parental love, and even sexual and physical abuse that gay kids often face--and those same themes are magnified on a wide-spread social and political scale as the characters reach adulthood. The religious and legal attacks magicals suffer in the books are not at all different in kind or motive from the attacks that gays endure.

In The Called, Rochelle jumps ahead two decades, to the year 2012. The prophesied end of time is coming, and whether that means that Earth--and, eventually, Faerie--will fall to the ravening Fomorii, or whether it means that human consciousness will be transformed, is an open question. In any event, as the story recommences, human nature remains lamentably unadvanced. The revelation of "magicals" among the "mundanes" has sparked a holy war, with religious zealots pushing for a bloody ethnic cleansing to rid the world of Faerie folk. The pastors behind this call for bloodshed call the violence they propose "Weeding the Garden," and cast the mass murder it involves in a light of righteousness.

Needless to say, the Fomorii are behind the impending ethnic cleansing--and also behind the military coup that triggers the second American Civil War, which entails months of vicious fighting, with innocents being slain and American cities bombed by their own armed forces. Just before the onset of the war, Malachi is captured; Hazel and the children are forced to flee; and Russell and Jeff, living in Faerie (and aging much more slowly) realize, through the empathic link of their tetrad, that they have to return to Earth to fight the Fomorii once again.

Warren Rochelle chatted with EDGE via email about the sources he referenced for his sprawling canvas of magic and myth, and about how his fantasy resonates with contemporary America.

EDGE: The Called has got a pretty detailed mythological fabric that you've worked out, involving Greek and Roman traditions along with American Indian and, of course, Irish myths. Have all these elements come together by themselves in your mind to form the great mythic backdrop, or were you creating intricate diagrams to work it all out?

Warren Rochelle: I'd say both. While writing both books, Harvest and The Called, I did a lot of reading and studying, including such scholars of myth as Joseph Campbell, and, of course, the actual myths themselves: the Greek and Roman and the Celtic (mostly the Irish versions), some Norse (not so much of those), and the Cherokee. As Campbell (and other comparative mythologists) points out in The Hero with A Thousand Faces there seems to be common threads in mythologies all over the world: parallel stories, recurring themes and metaphors and characters, such as the Hero and the Quest or the Hero's Journey, such archetypes as the Wise Old Man and the Crone, animal helpers, the creation, fall and loss, sacrifice and redemption, the world as numinous, gods interacting with mortals, and so on. The Hero and the Quest myth, or the Monomyth as James Joyce named it, is found in cultures all over the world.

Fairy tales, which seem to be descended from myth, bring along magic as part of attempts to explain the mysteries. So, this common mythic field, as it were, let me bring the Greek and the Roman and the Cherokee and the Celtic (and some Mayan) into the same universe of Faerie, which has been leaking into ours on a regular basis. The idea of the leaking of light and the creation of mythic space seemed to fit all this. Also, this common mythic field--yes, I know, very Jungian--meant the stories could be seen as retellings and reinterpretations by a particular people for a particular people, yet have something in common with each other. Here are the stories the Cherokee tell--with common elements with other mythologies--yet elements distinctive to the Cherokee. The story of the Nunneh� attempting to save the Cherokee from the Trail of Tears--and taking those who would back through a door in the mountains--sounds like a fairy tale to me, the door a portal to Faerie.

I also had the idea that the Faerie elders, the Tuatha de Danaan, would be myth-makers as well: they created the Greco-Roman characters, such as the centaurs and the pans, the tree and water-numina, and the mers and the rest. They paid for this act of hubris with the Great Revolt and the destruction of Atlantis, and then the Long War with the Fomorii, for whose creation they are also indirectly responsible.

Before I started The Called I went back to Harvest as my source, as it were: what had I created or borrowed, what had I put in place, what rules of how the universes worked had I set up?

I also wanted in some way to make homage to Tolkien and Lewis.

So, things came together by themselves and there were diagrams and lists and notes as well.

EDGE: The first book, Harvest of Changelings, was, as I recall, focused mostly on Malachi. The Called seems to focus more on Russell. Will there be two more books to tell stories more from Hazel and Jeff's points of view?

Warren Rochelle: When I wrote Harvest I hadn't yet imagined The Called. But I found when I finished Harvest that there was more story to be told. People asked me if there was going to be a sequel and I found the sequel gaining a weight of its own. As I wrote The Called I realized, and sort of my surprise, that the novel was a lot about Russell, as Harvest had been about Malachi. Characters often seem to have wills of their own. Another way of looking at the two novels is that Harvest is about Air, and The Called, Fire. This second way does give me a little more latitude for the third to be about Water, and not just about Jeff.

Anyway, what I have come up with so far is the third book, which is still somewhat nebulous at this point, is another quest for both Russell and Jeff to find their mothers and demand answers. More than once Russell said in The Called that he wanted to know why she left him, and why she chose to take his little brother, Adam, with her. Jeff, not so much, but he deserves some answers, too. And, this seems to be about Water to me. I have only written the beginning of the first scene, which takes place on December 25, 2012, in the Elizabethan Gardens on Roanoke Island (where the Roanoke Gate is). I know Russell and Jeff are going to go looking for their mothers and I know where their journey will end (I have to know where a story ends before I can start it). I want the structure this story to be something akin to the Irish imramha, or tales of a hero's journey by sea to the Otherworld, which involved stops and adventures at odd islands. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, by C.S. Lewis, was modeled on the imramha: different islands and adventures, and the journey and the ship and its passengers being what tied things together. This is a way of exploring the brave new world that comes into being at the end of The Called.

Jeff and Russell, who still have a lot of healing to do, I think, are my two favorite characters, by the way.

As for Hazel, I tried to give her more sections in The Called, but she does have her own story, too. But an Earth book is a little farther away.

EDGE Are you thinking about Hazel's book in terms of general ideas right now, or do you have a fairly detailed plan? And are sequels possible beyond Book 4?

Warren Rochelle: Just general ideas right now, and a sequel beyond Book 4? I don't know yet about that. I have a story about a gay werewolf that will probably be demanding attention, and I am hoping The Golden Boy, a novel based on a 2003 short story in [the SF/Fantasy anthology] The Silver Gryphon, will get picked up. It might have a sequel, too.

Gay Themes

EDGE: There's a deep vein of gay subtext running through your books. Harvest of Changelings addressed the physical, emotional, and sexual abuse that gay kids often face from the adults in their lives who are supposed to protect them, but who reject and victimize them. In The Called, those same issues play out across a wider canvas--society itself, including the church and the military, are now abusing the adult versions of the characters you have created. Are these books meant as a commentary on the anti-gay aspect of the culture wars?

Warren Rochelle: Yes, there is a deep vein of gay subtext running through my books--although in The Called it felt less "sub" and more text, as I was much more deliberate about adding in the gay elements, such as the relationship between Russell and Jeff, Father Jamey's sexuality, and Reese's tortured coming out, the tetrad's bisexual behavior, the fluid sexuality of the fairies... Harvest [by contrast] sort of surprised me, as the original draft was written during my own time in the closet.

While the story has to come first, with any commentary being secondary (and therefore more powerful, I would argue), yes, I was trying to make a point about our culture and its anti-gay elements. My alternate reality is rooted in the real world, in this American culture of ours, which is still quite homophobic and sometimes dangerous for GLBT people, so as my characters go on their adventure, they cannot help but run into anti-gay prejudice.

EDGE: In that context, how do you view the recent spate of media stories centered on the suicides of gay teens who were subjected to bullying and harassment?

Warren Rochelle: I find these stories heartbreaking and tragic, and they make me angry, too. Where did the bullies learn that to harass gay teens is somehow OK? That is, I realize, something of a naive statement: they get that message as a part of the culture they are in.

As I write this, I find myself remembering how I felt after the disastrous end to my first relationship with another man, in my early 20s. I was still in the closet then and in denial ("we were just experimenting"), and I remember wishing fervently that I could just somehow cut out that part of myself and [thinking that] if I could, I would be so much better off.

EDGE: The two books advance the idea of a group marriage consisting of one each of the classical elements: an Earth, an Air, a Fire, and a Water. And these elemental combinations can enjoy any gender configuration, which is a wonderful thing. In the new book, two of the characters are in their 30s while the other two are still in their late teens because of the time they have spent in Fairy, where time passes more slowly. This seems likely to cause a bit of controversy, but it also allows you to explore questions of maturity and the conflicts that differing levels of maturity can cause in a relationship. Did you have any reservations about writing a story in which marriage partners have such large age differences--especially given that three of the four characters in the marriage are men?

Warren Rochelle: No, I didn't have any reservations about writing a story in which marriage partners have such large age differences. Doing so, for me, was necessary for the story. Hazel and Malachi have always been the most mature of the four--then, Jeff, then Russell (who grows up a lot). Hazel and Malachi, who become parents, have the extra maturity that comes from that as well. [In The Called,] Hazel is forced into a leadership role: Malachi is in prison, and Russell and Jeff turn out to be still adolescents. She resists the mothering role that Russell tries to demand from her, with the resulting fireworks. Russell and Jeff needed to be younger and stay younger longer and heal from their abusive childhoods--a luxury we don't get in real life. They do begin to catch up in maturity once they return to this universe, albeit slowly.

All of this allows for, as you said, an exploration of questions of maturity and the conflicts of differing levels of maturity. Russell needs to act out adolescent power struggles as he figures out his identity and power. This puts him into conflict with Malachi once the latter is set free and Russell and Hazel have always butted heads--which is part of how they love each other. Jeff is interesting in that he defers some of his own growth to look after and protect Russell, and he has been the mediator and caretaker from the beginning. This catches up with him, especially after he is injured and has to have Russell's help, which he has a hard time accepting.

I hadn't consciously thought of the differing ages and maturities that one sometimes finds in gay relationships (and straight, too, of course), but that such things can be and are worked out. Love isn't enough by itself, but it is the place from which to start, the context in which to work out such issue.

EDGE: When we catch up with our characters, it's the year 2012--and history is vastly different over the last two decades than in our "true" reality. What went into the process as you extrapolated and moved forward two decades for The Called, to create a world based on ours but deeply affected by the revelation that magical beings from other universes exist?

Warren Rochelle: I outlined the history of the world from 1991 to 2012 before I started The Called. I began by asking myself what would be the initial reaction to this revelation? Stunned disbelief and shock, followed by a very slow, evolving acceptance of this new world--and for some, this would be impossible, hence the Dazed [people who] retreated into catatonia following the Change in 1991. Some came out of it, some died, and some stayed inside their catatonia. These initial reactions were the stunned years. I figured during these years some would resist any more change, needing stability and permanence, and so President George H.W. Bush was re-elected in 1992, and Dan Quayle was elected President in 1996 and re-elected in 2000. I figured the Republicans would work hard to preserve the status quo.

However, as time passed a backlash, or a severe reaction of fear, replaced being stunned. This fear was fed and nurtured by the Fomorii, who sneak back into our universe in the late 1990's/early 2000's. Quayle is assassinated in 2001 (after getting the Energy Independence Act passed). Outside the US things get uglier and uglier. I never named Quayle's Vice President, but I figured he was some inconsequential Republican governor. Al Gore, whom I see as a peacemaker and mediator, is elected President in 2004. By then, the Ordinary Union has begun to rise to power and the right wing of the Republicans has split off and the Democratic-Republican Coalition has been formed. Americans were scared by the right's political activity. Gore is re-elected in 2008.

I made the magical rights movement, in which Hazel and Malachi get involved, parallel to the civil rights movement and the gay rights movement. For some this is equivalent, thanks to the changelings who didn't cross over or changed late, forming tetrads as social units. I made the religious and political right far more extreme than they really are, thinking again they would naturally react negatively to this change. The reality of magic would call their worldview into question.

The initial outline did change as I needed it to while the book was being written. I also considered current politics and how scared people can be of change as a basis for this alternate history outline.

EDGE: You certainly have a powerful imagination, and some of the scenes in The Called are horrific; others are so heartbreaking, and some are infuriating. All those emotions are possible only because the book's settings and characters seem so realistic. How unsettling was it to write such disturbing, moving material?

Warren Rochelle: Yes, it was sometimes unsettling to write such disturbing and moving material (that you described them in such a fashion means they worked!). It hurt when [Malachi's father] Ben was murdered so brutally [in the opening chapters of The Called], even though I knew from the beginning he wouldn't live. [Similarly,] I felt sorry for [a newly introduced character,] Reese: the outsider, his tortured coming out, his insanity, his doomed love for Joel. Incidentally, I didn't plan for him becoming the well-developed, with back story, character that he became. He was just supposed to be a guide [for the main characters as they move through the war-stricken state of North Carolina]. His grief and love and guilt for Joel (and Heide) were sometimes difficult to write.

I feel the disturbing material is essential to telling the truth about the characters, of the story. I went into my own reservoir of memory and experience and of those around me.

EDGE: Fantasy as a whole often explores the idea of magic in ways that are extreme or overt, but in everyday life it seems people subscribe in a sort of low-level, but pervasive way, to the idea of the magical. We talk about miracles taking place in our lives, or we subscribe to the idea of the hand of fate seeming to guide us, or even divine intervention. Where do you fall on such matters? Is some form of magic at work in the universe, and in our lives?

Warren Rochelle: I want to believe in such; I like to think so. Hmm, how do I put this? Life seems more than random or accidental. I mean, if you go here, you meet X--or, you turn left, and you meet Y--but [in actuality] you decide to turn left, to go here or there--and so did X and Y. Is that fate? I believe life has purpose and meaning, and that people come into our lives for a purpose. Our actions, our decisions, matter, to us and to the people in our lives who matter to us and to whom we matter, and their actions and decisions equally matter to us. I believe in God and consider myself a religious person, although I doubt those who are orthodox would think so. Does prayer have an effect on what happens? I think so--most of the time--but I have doubts from time to time. Is this belief in magic, or magical thinking? Maybe.

Another way to think of magic is through metaphor. Or another way to think of magic is as expression of the desire for purpose, for control, that one can find meaning and direction and one can shape meaning and direction, and that there is meaning and direction and purpose. Back to the original question: is some form of magic at work in the universe and in our lives? Yes, I think so, but defining what that magic is, is another matter.

The Called is published by Golden Gryphon Press. Publication Date: July 9, 2010. Pages: 320.Price: $24.95. Format: Hardcover First Edition. ISBN-13: 978-1-930-846-630