A "Charmed Digit" [3] over 150!

Today is the

153 Anniversary

of the birth

of Sir J.M. Barrie.

Truly, what else can I say?

I certainly hope I've done him proud.

All hail the

modern mythmaker!

Thank you, Sir!

Once Upon a Barrie-Land

This post contains spoilers about the TV show Once Upon a Time.  Proceed at your own risk.

I’ve made it known before that I enjoy ABC’s Once Upon a Time.  It’s a clever and fresh take on fairy tales.  Well, once upon a time, they expanded the definition by including the Lewis Carroll Alice tales.  A little later on, Dr. Frankenstein came into the mix.  Yet it still remained as fantastic as the stories from which it borrowed.  In a nutshell, “The Mad Hatter” explains to the skeptic character that all stories are histories.  They’re just told differently.  Our ‘actual’ history, in other words, probably lost something of pure truth in the writing of it.  Speaking sort of metaphorically, all worlds can be peeked into, or semblances of them.  In this way, we can allow for the spins on characters and events that we thought we knew.  The creators of tales heard whispers and tried to get it right.  Maybe they did, maybe they didn’t.  Of course, this only works within such a construct.  Separate Peter and Wendy and it becomes law until itself.  It can’t be told differently or contradicted or re-imagined… not unto its own telling as told by the author.   But the show does allow for deviations and it’s in this way that Once Upon a Time finally fully approached the Neverland.

With some rather unexpected results!

Hook has been on the show for quite a long time now.  However, we get to know him completely away from the Neverland.  Although we do know (and saw him chart a course for) the infamous isle.  [Once Upon a Time utilizes flashbacks to fully tell and realize their story.]  Their Hook is meant to make us swoon.  He’s much younger with good looks.  And his personality is sort of Jack Sparrow mellowed out with a touch of Barrie’s evil man.  The hook is on the incorrect hand, but then, it’s correct for Disney’s version and this is a production under their jurisdiction.  An interesting variation and major change is that Peter Pan did not cut off the captain’s hand.  Nope, not here.  Rather it had been the crocodile.  Except the crocodile isn’t an animal.  It’s a man with scaly skin, none other than the show’s Dark One himself, Rumpelstiltskin, who’d been thwarted by the pirate earlier in life before obtaining his magical power. The way I figure it, Peter would convince himself he cropped off the hand and bragged as such, thus the tale came to be.  For a whole season or so we’ve been wondering about the Neverland and Peter Pan.  Lemonie and I, and probably a slew of others, suspected a character as being Pan.  He even recognized and disliked seeing Hook.   But, we were wrong.

Well, they finally showed us how both the boy and the island manifestation in this version of fantasy on the episode “Second Star to the Right.”  Naturally they used Disney insertions into the tale of Peter Pan.  The second star to the right is one of two.  However, despite the title, it is never spoken.   We see a “second star” flash when Wendy is taken away.  And yes, I phrased it that way on purpose. For the living shadow is the other Disney touch.  Yet another unexpected twist.  It’s just the shadow!  There’s no boy.  He’s never referred to as Peter nor Pan.  Only the magic shadow.  Yet we can see that he’s dressed in leaves. Though Wendy wants to go (and it’s just her, by the way, not her brothers, too) the shadow forcibly drags her away.  She had been warned by a boy she’d been harboring in the house unbeknownst to her parents. (I didn’t know the nursery had a hidden compartment either, but it’s quite Barrie-like!) And oh – this boy happens to be from another world.  (This character fell into ours through a portal too many moons ago in the overall story.)  He fears magic, but away Wendy goes.  She comes back, though.  And mentions the mermaids and fairies…and the darkness at night.  She then describes the cries of children wanting to go home.  But the shadow won’t let them leave!  She escaped because it wanted a boy (imagine that!) and she said it could take one of her brothers.  The boy from the Enchanted Forest (the main place the storybook characters in the show came from) tries to defend them but ultimately goes instead to save the Darling Family.  (The boy lost both his parents, so it’s important to him.)  He fights the rapidly and dangerously flying shadow along the way, though, and plunges into the sea.  He’s picked up by Captain Hook.

As for the Neverland itself, we don’t get to see it other than glooming in the distance.  I’m not disappointed in that.  For their version needed to have it mysterious and foreboding.  Overall, I rather liked this take on it.  A recurring theme and line of the show all throughout has been “Magic comes with a price” so I enjoyed making the Neverland and its child thief as dark as can be.

Lastly, I’d like to say the portrayal of the Darlings is wonderful.  They certainly “looked” like them.  And how wonderful to weave in more of Barrie by having Mrs. Darling all too welcoming and ready to have another little one join the family.  Of course, Mr. Darling had two shillings to say about it.  But in the end, Mrs. Darling won out.  Any doubt? 

Once Upon a Time, thanks for bringing this to the dark.

Peter Pan 101

The "magically appearing overnight" statue of the infamous boy from Sir J.M. Barrie's most beloved tale has now seen a myriad of nights since then.  One hundred and one years of them, in fact.

I had a hard time finding it.  By which I mean I'd wanted to just come upon it.  Walking aimlessly amid the magnificence of lush greenery and splashes of color in the Kensington Gardens proved a welcome diversion.  To be in the place where it all happened!  You can wander for hours and not see it all, depending, of course on how much you take in or speed through.  You've been walking forever, thinking where the devil could it be??  And then, just around the bend (it's a cliché, but quite accurate!) it slinks into view from behind the trees.  As it should be -- like flying to the Neverland from London.

That's me there... in "painture."  I'm holding a picture of what Barrie had envisioned for the statue from George Frampton.  But, you can't win them all.  For the record, I'm back to wearing hats.

I've posted further information as well as my opinions of the statue over the years.  But no matter which lens is used, I'll not ever be able to discredit the sheer grandeur of craftsmanship and detail of the statue itself.  But more importantly, nothing will ever diminish the pure magic of the that moment.

Other posts on this date:  2008   2009   2010   2011   2012

Play THIS One on the Pipes, Pan!

Among a train of thought, the meaning of the name Peter came back to me. It is, of course, rock or stone. Then a line from a song bounced in immediately after. Despite the fact that it seems as if it would, this line does not readily pop into my head whenever Peter/rock comes up. The line is:

I am a rock, I am an island.

How could my next thought NOT be Peter Pan?



(Just a picture of an island -
not suggesting this is the Neverland!)



If you’re not aware, “I Am a Rock” is a song by the great duo Simon & Garfunkel. Naturally, I had to look up the lyrics. Too bad that some of them don’t fit very well with Pan, but much of it does. Perhaps the only one that is completely unlike Pan is a disdain of laughter. (What a horrid notion anyway!) The others can at least be chalked up to metaphor such as having books - [in many cases] these are just stories, and he loves those.  And the "Don't talk of love" set brings to mind the Fairy Dance scene in Hogan's version.



I Am a Rock
Simon & Garfunkel

A winter's day
In a deep and dark December;
I am alone,
Gazing from my window to the streets below
On a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow.
I am a rock, I am an island.

I've built walls,
A fortress deep and mighty,
That none may penetrate.
I have no need of friendship; friendship causes pain.
It's laughter and it's loving I disdain.
I am a rock, I am an island.

Don't talk of love,
But I've heard the words before;
It's sleeping in my memory.
I won't disturb the slumber of feelings that have died.
If I never loved I never would have cried.
I am a rock, I am an island.

I have my books
And my poetry to protect me;
I am shielded in my armor,
Hiding in my room, safe within my womb.
I touch no one and no one touches me.
I am a rock, I am an island.

And a rock feels no pain;
And an island never cries.

PANcil Drawing

How did P.J. Hogan reveal to Jeremy Sumpter that he'd gotten the role of Peter Pan?
He showed him a drawing and asked him who it is.  Jeremy replied with the obvious.  Peter Pan.
But the sketch depicted him, said Hogan.

Pretty cool.  I like the drawing.  My only critique is that he looks rather tall.  Also note that Pan apparently had wraps on his feet as part of the design.  I can see the probable need, and the logic.  But I'm glad they chose to eliminate them.  Barefoot is just much more in tune with rough and tumble Peter.

Thanks for sharing this pic, Mark Robert.  He's Sumpter's manager and you can see this photo and much more at the official site.  I'd been curious what the drawing looked like ever since I'd heard about it.  I think it's on the extras in the DVD.  Or else it had been during a promotional interview.  I don't remember... it's been nearly a decade since the film came out!

At any rate, always a delight to see a nicely done drawing of the eternal boy.  And even better to see an historic one!  (That label too much for you?  Don't forget he's the first Pan on film that's not silent, filmed on a theatrical stage or animated.  Not to mention the first seen boy in the role on film.)

Euler.... Euler... Euler...

Today Google celebrates a man named Leonhard Euler.

It’s the 306 anniversary of his birth date. Euler, a Swiss mathematician and physicist, pioneered and made important discoveries in fields as diverse as infinitesimal calculus and graph theory. Already hurts my head. (I’m not a math person!)

So why do I bother remarking on it?

A character of mine has a surname of Euler as well. Funny thing is, he’s not named for this man. The main character of that tale, Jeremy, “told” me his best friend’s last name. Turns out it’s famous in the right circles.

I discovered the accidental reference after having written the book. Perhaps sadly, Frankie Euler isn’t anywhere near the mental level of his non-namesake. But I like him anyway.

The book in question, by the way, is What If It’s a Trick Question? and it can currently be read online at Authonomy . The link is in the left sidebar column.  Not sure if it's going to be there much longer or not - so start reading what's been called my masterpiece by some, and meet Franklin Euler for yourself.

*As always, my drawings, deemed either good or bad in quality/skill/etc., are primarily for my amusement only.

*Regarding the pronunciation of Euler, see the comments.

The Realm of Barrie?

I always love hearing from fans.  Being told your work is enjoyed is a pleasure that never diminishes.  Beyond that, though, several of them have asked me questions about my books.  They also ask for my opinions, ideas and pick my knowledge about the world that Barrie created and about Barrie himself.  Thanks for that, too.  Glad to help when I can.   Still others have had regular chats with me.  And it’s during one of those that I’d been given a gift.

Note that earlier I said “the world that Barrie created” by which I mean, of course, relating to Peter Pan.  To me, this is covered by The Little White Bird (which contains Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens), Peter and Wendy (Peter Pan) as well as the play and screenplay, with the weight certainly upon the former two.  And then take my books, for instance.  They are meant to fit within and alongside that same set.  So what’s the umbrella term for all this?  I’d been saying Barrieverse, sometimes hyphenated.  I’d never been sure how it should be written.  I‘d never even been happy with it.  That’s where the fan, Norell (a name I've given him, as per his request), steps in.  He solved the terminology problem. 

I loved and accepted it immediately.  I shared it with my colleague and friend, Andrea Jones, author of The Hook & Jill Saga.  Her books skillfully chart another course for the classic tale without losing sight of or respect for it.  They extend the “world of Barrie” in a different way.   She wondered why we hadn’t thought of it.

I agree with her.  Why hadn’t we amid our immersion in it, literally whenever we interact?  It had been a snake, as they say.  Waiting to bite us.  Ah, the Neverland and its pitfalls and perils!

So what is this magical word that I thank Norell for creating?

Click here to find out.