Judith Lewis, better known by her pen name Cassandra Clare, is a young adult fiction author who has captivated readers across the world with her Shadowhunter Chronicles. Her stories have become the topic of a movie and a hit tv series on Freeform.
She began her journey publishing her first book, City of Bones, in 2007. Since then, she has expanded her work to the rest of The Mortal Instruments, The Infernal Devices, The Dark Artifices, The Magisterium Series, companion books, and various short stories.
Loving both reading and writing, she started her career writing at a young age with several books but never publishing any of them. Clare went to college and took writing classes that she did not like which led her to think that she was not meant to be a fiction writer. It was not till after college working in a children's bookstore that she started to find her desire to write once again. The inspiration for the City of Bones did not come until she moved from Los Angeles to New York City, the setting for the series.
Wanting to make sure her series was rooted in mythology, she read a variety of books from various cultures around the world. There are Jewish, Japanese, Indian, Tibetan and other myths present in the books that she freely adapted to serve her purposes.
The Mortal Instruments series originally ended with the third book, City of Glass. Originally planning the books as a trilogy, each book had a part of the characters fall and then rise to heaven. The first book, City of Bones, had the theme and references to the descent into the underworld. The second book, City of Ashes, told of the hero's journey through the underworld. The final book in the trilogy, City of Glass, told of the hero's ascent to heaven. Clare decided to continue her work with a second trilogy with the themes of temptation, fall, and redemption.
Her books tell a story about characters who are at a crucial life stage between adolescence and adulthood. A time, where many of us are now, have to make choices that determine the kind of person we will be. Her books are also targeted towards adolescents about to begin their journey through adulthood.
Cassandra Clare's ability to take so many myths from around the world and transform them to create her own story makes her a little C creative. She took various myths from around the world and combined them to make her own story. Aiming these ideas a young minds, she shows them how they are able to make choices that not only influcence them, but also those around them.
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I loved Cassandra Clare when I was in highschool! The Mortal Instruments and the Infernal Devices were great! I always loved how she took ancient myths of Christianity and biblical text and wove her own story out of it. I did not know though the other myths she took it from such as how she read Japanese and Tibetan myths. It is making me reconsider reading them again to pick up on those myths and see how she adapted them.
ReplyDeleteI always find it interesting how many creatives seem to be told they're not good enough by the field like Cassandra felt after taking the writing class in college. I also always find it interesting how contemporary authors adapt mythology. Mythologies are essentially archetypical stories. Many of what they cover are still applicable to today, but there are some newly uncovered problems that affect us in our current time. It takes a true creative to uncover these archetypes and apply them to current day problems to uncover truth and understanding.
ReplyDeleteI thought of Frank Gehry when you said that she was told by one of her college professors that she wasn't good enough to be a writer. It's interesting that many creatives are discouraged either by teachers or family members when they first start out. I think it's a good thing that she pursued her passion because I thoroughly enjoyed reading these books as a teenager.
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