TWO BOOKS THAT INFLUENCED CHANGELING

Travis Edward Pike

Waiting to hear the status of a submitted property is never easy, but Travis weas distracted by a visit with Hollywood author and screenwriter Max Shulman, who had heard the music, read Travis' treatment, and invited him to lunch, during which, once Travis was told what a Luddite was and where the term came from, he successfully defended himself against that characterization by claiming, on the contrary, his recording included electronic instruments and was recorded in a state-of-the-art, 24-track, sound on sound recording studio, making it possible to punch in to correct miscues, rather than start all over from scratch. Max then conceded that Travis had obviously done his homework, and followed Joseph Campbell's formula to the letter. Until that moment, Travis had never heard of Joseph Campbell or his "formula," but he'd read a lot and seen a hell of a lot of movies.

At first Max didn't believe him, and cited Campbell's ground-breaking Hero with a Thousand Faces as the bible of screenwriting, the standard against which novels and screenplays are accepted or rejected for consideration. This was important news to Travis, and Max broke one of his most stringent house rules, lending Travis his copy, under pain of death if it was not returned in as good a condition as when it was received. Travis not only read it, but immediately went out and bought himself a copy, in order to get Max's copy back to him in a timely manner.      And while we're on the subject of book-lending, Cathy Palmer, a student of fashion design, had been asked to help with costumes for friends who were participating in the Los Angeles County Renaissance Pleasure Faire, and had been told by a mutual friend, that Travis had a book on Costume Design he might let her peruse. She said she just needed to look through it and would take notes, so he set her up where she could do so while he was dubbing demo cassettes for his musicians. She became distracted by the music. She said Morningstone was beautiful and otherworldly, which pleased Travis no end, but the music and lyrics to The Fool brought her right up out of her seat. "You've read the White Goddess!" she exclaimed. He said hadn't, but it sounded like something he might be interested in. They talked about Changeling for about an hour, and she was distressed that she hadn't had time to take all the notes she needed, and asked if she could come back. Travis let her borrow the book. She returned it a few days later, along with the gift of a paperback copy of Robert Graves' White Goddess.      In Changeling's Return, the novelization of the screenplay published by Otherworld Cottage Industries in November, 2019, those two seminal source books are named, and the way the main character becomes aware of them is based on the way Travis learned of them.

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