{"id":210,"date":"2024-04-24T08:09:06","date_gmt":"2024-04-24T08:09:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gwynethlewis.com\/site\/?page_id=210"},"modified":"2025-04-28T11:22:30","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T11:22:30","slug":"the-meat-tree","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/gwynethlewis.com\/site\/the-meat-tree\/","title":{"rendered":"The Meat Tree"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Gwyneth<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

A dangerous tale of desire, DNA, incest and flowers plays out within the wreckage of an ancient spaceship in this absorbing retelling of one of the best-known Welsh myths by prize-winning writer and poet, Gwyneth Lewis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An elderly investigator and his female apprentice hope to extract the fate of the ship\u2019s crew from its antiquated virtual reality game system, but their empirical approach falters as the story tangles with their own imagination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By imposing a distance of another 200 years and millions of light years between the reader and the medieval myth, Gwyneth Lewis<\/em> brings the magical tale of Blodeuwedd, a woman made of flowers, closer than ever before: maybe uncomfortably so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After all, what man has any idea how sap burns in the veins of a woman?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u2018Seren\u2019s series of new stories inspired by the Mabinogion may be the greatest service to the Welsh national epic since Lady Charlotte Guest published her translation of the medieval folk tales in the mid-19th century\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gwyneth Lewis\u2026 provides a satisfyingly bizarre context for a narrative about an unfaithful woman made of flowers who turns into an owl, while Lewis\u2019s inspector observes events from a hilariously jobs-worth perspective: \u2018I\u2019m an experienced enough traveller to know that you lose all dignity on a space trip. But that\u2019s usually to do with toilet matters, not being banished to a forest with your student, turned into an animal and forced to reproduce\u2019.<\/p>\nAlfred Hickling, The Guardian<\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u2018The bar is set high but The Meat Tree, Gwyneth Lewis\u2019s gripping and intelligent exploration of the fourth branch of the Mabinogi, Blodeuwedd\u2019s tale, does not disappoint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gwyneth Lewis\u2019s astute handling to time\u2026 enables her to combine the archetypal themes of myth with concerns that preoccupy our twenty-first century consciousness. Power, morality, man and nature, gender relations, art and reality, and above all, notions of separation and exile, heritage and loss, are refracted through the prism of a spatially and temporally distant future, constantly in motion against both our own present and the mythic Blodeuwedd past. These temporal shifts are matched by Lewis\u2019s fearless mixing of the modes of poetry, prose and drama in her quest to conjure a world that will resonate long after the tale has ended, in the reader\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The successful recreation of myth requires a wiliness that exceeds that of the original mythmakers, and Lewis patiently and skillfully demonstrates that willingness in presenting to her readers \u201cthe battle between meat and magic, between body and imagination\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018What kind of being does a virtual world create?\u201d asks Gwyneth Lewis\u2019s Campion. \u201cIf two negatives make a positive, then can two virtuals make an actual? Have we just conjured up a person who\u2019s real? Or one who is death?\u201d Such thoughtful probing of existential and artistic issues shows a significant respect for the challenge that the Seren project presents to its writers\u2019.<\/p>\nTimes Literary Supplement<\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher: Seren books<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A dangerous tale of desire, DNA, incest and flowers plays out within the wreckage of an ancient spaceship in this absorbing retelling of one of the best-known Welsh myths by prize-winning writer and poet, Gwyneth Lewis. An elderly investigator and his female apprentice hope to extract the fate of the ship\u2019s crew from its antiquated… Read More »The Meat Tree<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-210","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Meat Tree - Gwyneth Lewis<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An absorbing retelling of one of the best-known Welsh myths by prize-winning writer and poet, Gwyneth Lewis.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/gwynethlewis.com\/site\/the-meat-tree\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Meat Tree - 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