| The following is a short list of known major bonsai references in fiction. |
| February 1970
"Slow Sculpture" by Theodore Sturgeon Galaxy Magazine,
|
This science fiction short story concerns a self-exiled scientist, a woman
seeking health and understanding, and one fifteen [sic] foot tall bonsai.
Part of Sturgeon's lifelong exploration of the theme of human love, this
tale includes some brief but insightful commentary on the art of bonsai
-- despite the size of the technically misnamed subject tree, which is
not further identified than as "a cypress or juniper."
Best line: "It is the slowest sculpture in the world, and there is, at times, doubt as to which is being sculpted, man or tree." (pg. 49) The story was subsequently voted Best Novelette of 1970 by the Science Fiction Writers of America. It has since been included in several anthologies. See Nebula Award Stories Six, edited by Clifford B. Simak (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc; 1971; pp. 1-28). Also excerpted in Bonsai Journal, ABS, Fall 1970, pp. 9, 13, and Bonsai, BCI, October 1976, pg. 265. |
| __________ | |
| 1983
The Bonsai Tree by Meira Chand (New Haven, CT: Ticknor & Fields. 228 pp.) |
This novel deals primarily with the conflict between traditional Japanese
society and the encroaching modern world, with interesting background on
the underside of the Land of the Rising Sun.
Bonsai is used as a metaphor for the traditional shaping/enculturation of the Japanese, particularly on pp. 226-228. |
| __________ | |
| 1985
The Eternal Spring of Mr. Ito by Sheila Garrigue (New York: Bradbury Press. 162 pp.) |
The fate of a 200-year-old bonsai tree is decided by a young girl and an
old Japanese Canadian gardener who resists being imprisoned in an internment
camp after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Young adult.
<Not yet reviewed. Suggested by Daniel Avrin in post to rec.arts.bonsai newsgroup, November 12, 1999> |
| __________ | |
| 1994
Dark Swan by Kathryn Lasky Knight (New York: St. Martin's Press. 214 pp. ISBN: 0-312-10961-X) |
A Calista Jacobs mystery.
"House-sitting while her own home is being remodeled, children's book illustrator and sometime amateur sleuth Calista Jacobs is hard at work on her next book, a retelling of the classic story The Emperor and the Nightingale. Serendipitously, her new Beacon Hill neighbor, Quintana "Queenie" Kingsley, cultivates bonsai, the perfect landscape for the fairy tale. Making sketches every day while Quintana works on her plants, Calista gets a peek at the narrow world of the Boston brahmins. And when Calista discovers the older woman's murdered body, she feels compelled to investigate..." <Not yet reviewed.> |
| __________ | |
| 1995
"Bonsai" in Late Summer Break by Ann B. Knox (Watsonville, CA: Papier-Mache Press. ISBN: 0-918949-65-3) |
Pp. 120-128.
A widowed woman and her two adult daughters come to grips with choices, expectations and letting some things just be. Best lines: "Bonsai isn't just decoration; the trees need tending, watering. You accept them for what they are -- growing things. "...You make the tree more fully itself." (pg. 126) <Read, but not yet fully reviewed> |
| __________ | |
| Master of Many Treasures
by Mary Brown
(Riverdale, NY: Baen Publishing. ISBN: 0671876937) |
" . . . . I had sat there [in a garden in an odd Buddhist monastery] during
the day a couple of times, on one of the two stone benches, amid pots of
exotic plants, ivies, and those tiny stunted trees so beloved by the people
of this land. Pines, firs, even cherry trees were bound and twisted
into grotesque shapes no higher than my hand, yet it is said that they
were as much as one hundred years old!
"I wondered vaguely if it hurt them to be twisted so unnaturally, and whether it would be a kindness to dig them all up secretly and replant them in the freedom of unrestrictedsoil many miles away. Or were they so used to their pot-bound existence that they would perish without special nurturing?" <Not yet reviewed. Suggested by Jim Lewis in post to rec.arts.bonsai newsgroup, November 19, 2001> |
| __________ | |
| 1998
Bloody Bonsai by Peter E. Abresch (Aurora, CO: Write Way
Publishing; First Edition.
|
A James P. Dandy Elderhostel Mystery that takes place during a four day
bonsai workshop. The chief murder weapon: the jinned branch of a
bonsai.
Best line: "That was the original purpose of bonsai, to create not a copy, but a remembrance of God's handiwork." (pg. 158) A few minor loose ends remain at story's end, but overall a pretty nice read. Quite satisfactorily covers the information which would be given in such a workshop. |
| __________ | |
| 1999
The Bonsai Bear by Bernard Libster (Illumination Arts Publishing
Company, Incorporated;
|
"A Japanese artist attempts to use bonsai cultivating techniques to control
and limit the growth of a young bear, not caring that he is denying the
animal his proper place in nature."
Ages 5 to 12. <Not yet reviewed.> |
| Anyone who knows of additional literary references to bonsai is asked to please e-mail rjb@phoenixbonsai.com . Contributor acknowledgment will be posted. Please include as many details as possible. Thank-you! |