We also visited the Fremont Troll. This art installation sits under a bridge. Made of concrete, it holds an actual, concrete-covered VW under one paw. Its one glittering eye is a hubcap. Here is Jack "caught" by the troll:
The troll has also been used in a number of urban fantasies set in Seattle. Seattle seems a popular setting for fantasy, including this year's Locus Award winner, Cherie Priest's BONESHAKER. Certain cities are good for fiction. Very few novels are, for instance, set in East Lansing, Michigan.
5 comments:
We love Fremont, especially the troll. It's a regular stop if we're heading through from Vancouver.
Don't forget to take your family on the Underground Tour.
It's very weird. I haven't been in Seattle since 1981. The troll was installed after that. But I took one look at that location and thought "I know where that is." And then had to google it to be sure. Because, of course, I forget where the Fremont district is. But I used to be able to see that bridge from our apartment on Eastlake that looked across Lake Union. And while we didn't own a car then (poor grad students), we got around on the bus sometimes and beyond the U district. How funny memory is.
My favorite statue in DC, aside from the statue of Albert Einstein, is The Awakening. It's in a new location, but is a wonderful statue of a giant coming out of the earth, hands, legs, head.
I dunno... I think there's also a certain charm to your East Lansings. Look at Harvey Pekar's Cleveland, Gore Vidal's Duluth, and Phillip Jose Farmer's Peoria.
Of course, they did it on purpose.
The Yoopers - those of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan - refer to the denizens of the lower peninsula as "trolls" because they live "below" the Saginaw Bridge.
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