Poughkeepsie

[bunn]

I was reminded of 'From Elfland to Poughkeepsie', an essay by Le Guin about writing fantasy (it's in The Language of the Night, and I've just checked, there is a version of it online if you google).  This made me ramble.  I assume, from context, that Poughkeepsie (I have deliberately not looked it up) is a very dull and prosaic place in the USA.   But for me, it's a place that I have only ever  come across, so far as I am aware, in the context of that one essay. 

Poughkeepsie: 
weird looking sort of name, no idea what it means
Quite long, not sure how to pronounce it
Looks a bit Scottish maybe, with that 'sie' on the end?
Associations: Elfland. have vague idea it's in Virginia, which name I associate with Elizabeth I and dashing explorers in ruffs.  (Edit: apparently this is incorrect. Oh well, all the best legends are vague on geography)

Elfland:
Name that I've grown up with in many different contexts
has an obvious meaning
easy to pronounce
Associations: Hollow Hills, hill forts, misfortune, 'elf arrows', Tolkien,  Kipling and the Dymchurch Flit, Tam lin, as many traditional stories as you can shake a stick at.

From where I'm standing, one of those names has strange 'other' associations, and I'm not sure it's Elfland...

I wonder if there is a British equivalent of Poughkeepsie.  Slough, maybe?  Except Slough always reminds me of the Slough of Despond in John Bunyan, which is *very* fantasy.  Swindon has the Magic Roundabout.   Leicester?  Leicestershire (home of the King Edward potato!) is *awfully* prosaic, but it is hiding a Roman caester in it's name, which is suggests hidden depths.

I suppose when you are trying to make things sound strange and other, it's always going to matter where you are standing at the time.  Hence, presumably, the hilarious-in-Britain 'High Lord Kevin' and of course poor Jack Vance's memorable 'Servants of the Wankh' which *still* makes me smile.  High Lord Kevin indeed.

Comments

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I think that Basingstoke loses any credit that Basing House might have given it by putting up great big "Welcome to Basingstoke: home of Winterthur Life Insurance" signs at the railway station. If that's the only thing a town can think of the boast about, then it's really in trouble. (Or else trying to distract attention from the fact that it's really a mystical portal to fairyland.)

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I used to work for Colonial Life, which was taken over by Winterthur Life. Then I worked for AXA, which had taken over Winterthur Life.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I thought you'd never been to Basingstoke???

I've never been there either, but Wikipedia suggests that it is the 'outlying, western settlement of Basa's people'.

It certainly has a Poughkeepsie-like reputation.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Many a time have I been on a train that has passed through Basingstoke, but it has never emitted a siren call sufficiently strong for me to disembark and explore its wonders.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I suppose the other question is, are there places in the world where the name Basingstoke sounds strange and exotic? I guess there must be.

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

I'm reminded of the Space 1999 episode where an alien world is called Luton, on the grounds that producer Fred Freiberger saw the name while driving on the M1 and thought it seemed implacably otherworldly.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Thinking on, growing up in South Wales, Merthyr Tydfil 'armpit of the universe' was our local Poughkeepsie. I bet there are people who think Merthyr sounds impossibly romantic.

OMG. People now go on holiday to Merthyr. It is a Destination, rather than a desperate little town inhabited by desperation and despair. http://www.visitmerthyr.co.uk/

Coo. How times change.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

To be fair, that only proves that Merthyr Tydfil wants people to visit it, not that they actually do. Although it does seem to be a town that's rising rapidly in the world. According to Wikipedia, between 2006 and 2007 it went from being the third worst place to live in Britain to only being the fifth worst.

Why is the armpit of the universe worse than anything else? I can think of worse places. The nostril of the universe, perhaps, or its bum crack.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

It at least suggests some commitment to the idea that tourists could come and go without being robbed, burnt or eaten...

Nostril wouldn't be too bad. At least there would be a view, and a breeze. Bum crack - I see your point.