Everyone thinks they know the story of Peter Pan, and I did, too, so I was on the fence about reading it… until I saw a beautiful hard-cover illustrated centenary edition and was held in thrall. Forget Julie Andrews, forget Disney, forget Robin Williams: this is a creepy story that is just a hair shy of Lord of the Flies (actually, another book I have never read, but have referred to very often. That gives me pause, actually). A very enjoyable, wicked and more wicked story, with words I had to look up. (“Moidores” are Portuguese gold coins; “ambonpoint” means plump in a pleasing, healthy way and incidentally, was used to describe Tinker Bell.) The last line of the book sums everything up: “When Margaret grows up she will have a daughter, who will be Peter’s mother in turn; and thus it will go on, so long as children are gay and innocent and heartless.”
Someone famous, I don’t remember who, said it is crucial to read the classics rather than anemic interpretations on them, and Peter Pan is a case in point. Additionally, it brings up another important aspect of fantasy: the logic of magic. Imagination runs rampant here, but that is the natural landscape for it, and the narrative swoops and flies exactly like the magic it describes, running from person to person and time to time, to imagination, and back to reality, with neither being more important than the other.
Lessons. One – I do need to read classics. It is inevitable, now. Two – the logic of the magic must be understood, must reflect the theme, and must be supported by the narrative. It must be woven throughout the story.
See the beautiful and illustrated version.
Someone famous, I don’t remember who, said it is crucial to read the classics rather than anemic interpretations on them, and Peter Pan is a case in point. Additionally, it brings up another important aspect of fantasy: the logic of magic. Imagination runs rampant here, but that is the natural landscape for it, and the narrative swoops and flies exactly like the magic it describes, running from person to person and time to time, to imagination, and back to reality, with neither being more important than the other.
Lessons. One – I do need to read classics. It is inevitable, now. Two – the logic of the magic must be understood, must reflect the theme, and must be supported by the narrative. It must be woven throughout the story.
See the beautiful and illustrated version.
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