A Penny for your thoughts?

 
 Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.
~Colossians 3:16~ 


 Thanks to Anna at The Daily Life of a Homeschool Teen for tagging me, and I'm finally getting to it!  Instead of tagging someone else though... I guess I'll just let anyone do this if they want to. (:


What are you working on now?
Well, I came up with two really cool titles ("Her Empty Book" and "Ellawynd's Locket), and then one of the titles sparked an idea for a short story so... and the other title I may have to reserve for the second book in the series I'm working on.  The title, "Her Empty Book" made me think of a girl who wandered the world with an empty book that was somehow special, so that's turning into a short story...  No one ever notices her, till a boy bumps into her.  That's pretty much all I had to go on.  But back to my Nano project that's failing miserably... I'm only at about 10,000 words so I'm probably not going to finish 50 by Saturday.
Anyway, the title for it that I'm using now is Ellawynd's Locket.  It's similar to Red Riding Hood, Fitcher's Bird (but nowhere near as gory), and a Charles Dickens book.  And maybe a little like Inkheart, but no promises, cuz it's not finished yet.


 How does it differ from other works in its genre?  
It's quite different because it's part historical fiction part fairy tale part fantasy.  And I'm trying to keep it accurate to the times instead of making it more "modern".


 Why do you write what you do?  I shall tell a story.  Since we have this old Mac computer that no longer has internet on it, we were wanting to get rid of it, but I wouldn't let us get rid of it till I had collected my old writings off of it.  You see, this was one of the old computers I used to write on before I got my laptop.  So as I was going through each file I had made and copied and pasted it onto one document, I found a document I typed up saying how much I wanted to be a great writer and was eleven and a half and how I wanted to be a missionary to Germany and Ireland and to go to Europe.  I had forgotten how long ago I began writing passionately (even if not very good), and it surprised me a bit.  Of course, I had been making up stories before then (stapling paper together and drawing pictures that told my story) since I was five or six.  But yes.  The reason why I want to write is because it's been in me so long and I want to change the world for the better.  I want to make the world think, and weep, and laugh, and I want to show children the narrow, hopeful path through the mountains of growing up, one possibility in many.  And perhaps, help people find a glimpse of God's love and majesty.  There is something magical in creating your own world and watching as it comes to life under your fingers, or by the tip of a quill pen or pencil. It's not so much that I want to be famous as I want my stories to be read and hopefully enjoyed.  And so I want to write to be worthy of that.


 How does your writing process work?  Well, when I get book ideas I write them in my journal.  When I have interesting dreams I don't want to forget, I write them in my journal.  When something stands out in a movie or book, I write it down and ask myself why it stands out.  One book I highly recommend (though I haven't finished reading it yet) is Through a Screen Darkly.  And even though it's a nonfiction book about movies by a Christian geared more toward people in their twenties and up, I recommend it to both writers and readers.  It's actually very interesting (about critical thinking and looking for messages in films and art), and it's written by my favorite author/movie reviewer, Jeffrey Overstreet, who wrote the Auralia Thread series (four books).
Besides that, I haven't been writing in my stories on a daily basis, though I wish I was, and I want to (but then there's school and Thanksgiving and Turkey Bowling tonight and cooking apple caramel pies and going to movies and concerts and the Children's Nutcracker and more more more school and plus that... distractions.).


 Any departing words of wisdom for other authors?  
"A good book isn't written, it's rewritten."-Phyllis A. Whitney
And... if you want to write, just do it.  Stop what you're doing and do it. And try to organize your thoughts/ideas (on paper or computer).  That makes it a lot easier.  But yeah.  Keep reading and keep writing.

Don't be stressed.  Enjoy what you do.  Anything you do can be done as if you were doing it for God.  Think of writing as play, not work. (:  That's what Mr. Overstreet says anyway.

And think of what you're thankful for!  Not just one thing, but five new things each day.  And write them down too.  That is what will keep you happy.  Remember.  God is real.  Therefore, he loves you because he made you, and because he is love.  We love others because he first loved us, and he still does because he can't change (which explains why he is infinite and lives forever).  Happy Thanksgiving! (:
How are you going to celebrate it?

Peter Pan Post 5: The Disney Version

 
"Be assured that from the first day we heard of you, we haven’t stopped praying for you, asking God to give you wise minds and spirits attuned to his will, and so acquire a thorough understanding of the ways in which God works. We pray that you’ll live well for the Master, making him proud of you as you work hard in his orchard. As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work. We pray that you’ll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us."
~Colossians 1:9 MSG~


Hi! :)

Okay I know I should be writing in my Nano novel (I'm actually way behind I'm only at 8,000 words) but I'll write this instead. 

Okay.  Peter Pan.  The old Disney version.  I grew up watching it and enjoying it.  We have it on video cassette still, a fifty year anniversary version I think (yes, that cartoon is much older than we remember).  The same lass who was Cinderella in the Disney version is also Wendy in the Disney version of Peter Pan (and she's also Alice in Wonderland too).  And they all wear the same color: blue.  I wonder if there's something to that...

Once when I was re-watching the cartoon, at the beginning when the narrator was talking about how Wendy was an expert on Peter Pan, I was starting to wonder...  How did she learn so much about him?  It was as if he was a fantasy she had created, a story she was writing that came true.  Authors have to be experts on their characters, after all.  And when she finally does meet him, she talks to him like an author might talk excitedly to their character if they met them.  Probably not how it was meant to come out as, but I thought it was a cool thought.

Like I said before in one of the other posts, Peter Pan in the Disney version doesn't know what a mother is.
"What's a mother?" he asks.  Wendy replies, "Oh Peter, a mother is someone who cares for you, tells you stories..."
"Stories!  You can be our mother, Wendy!"
And thus, Peter forces her to become an adult figure without even knowing it!  That's something my sister pointed out to me and I stared at her like she was a genius.

Another fun fact about the cartoon is that the same man who did the voice for Captain Hook also did the voice for Mr. Darling.  Is that... a bad thing?  A friend of mine didn't like the Disney version much because it was like Captain Hood represented Mr. Darling, the only father figure in the story.  The friend was writing a paper on how feminism has been ruining the traditional, Biblical ideals of family at the time.  This made me sad, but then wait, remember at the end of the cartoon, when they've just gotten back and Mr. Darling sees the shadow of the ship in the clouds, and he says he has the suspicion that he saw that ship before a long time ago when he was very young?
I do wonder what that meant.
But then again, at the beginning of the cartoon, the narrator says, "It has happened before, and it will happen again."  The coming of Peter Pan.  So I suppose Mr. Darling went to Neverland, in the cartoon version when he was a boy (none of this is in the book but I can appreciate what it tries to explain, that the coming of Peter Pan is like the phase that all people go through when they are children, that childishness, that wonder).  That fact sort of redeems him in my mind.  It reminds us that all adults were once children.

Now, on to Wendy.  No one is very nice to her in Neverland.  The mermaids try to drown her, Peter himself says a few mean things ("Girls talk too much!" it's meant to be funny but it's kinda sad) and he isn't quite as mannerly as he is in the book, the Indians aren't very nice to her either, and that's when she gets mad and wants to go home.

Opposed to this is the actual book where Wendy realizes that she herself and John and Micheal are beginning to forget their parents, and that's when they decide they should go home before they in turn are forgotten (and this version is in the 2003 movie so that's cool).

But overall the Disney version has a quite different feel/worldview to it than the book did.  It leaves you with a happy feeling, and it makes some people mad that Wendy didn't stay with Peter in Neverland.  Some said she wasn't being sensible, but I will talk about that also in my last post.  It will only be one more post on Peter Pan... unless I feel like it's too long.  Then it will be seven... heehee my favorite number.

Anyway, the cartoon sequel to Peter Pan that was also done by Disney but a long time later turned out to have an even different view of Peter Pan than the first one!  I was young when it came out, maybe five, but I absolutely LOVED it.  I found out later that a lot of what I loved was really the MUSIC... I put it above  (lol I grew up when all the sequels were coming out and I ended up liking them better than the first ones lol oh well and my sister liked the first ones better but she's four years older so...)  Now I'm slightly embarrassed to say I liked it better than the original cartoon.  He was kinda annoying to my sister and I only noticed it when I got older.  But there are some things about it that always made me nostalgic, besides the music.  The two pics above are from it.
By the way, I found out that the same person who did the soundtrack for the sequel is also doing the music for the Tinker Bell movies, or at least he did one of them. 

I thought I would share one post of a series of posts about Peter Pan that I thought are amazingly thought out.  This one is about Neverland the island.  And they're clean, and very interesting besides.  If you're interested.
http://nerdfighters.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-neverland-a-state-of-mind

There is just too much to talk about so I won't talk about everything and exhaust the topic.  Hopefully you're not getting bored...
I'll probably just talk about one more thing, in my next post on the subject (and yes I will be doing an interview thingy about my Nano novel so comment and tell me if you want to be tagged).

Good bye. (:

Peter Pan Part 4: Peter Pan and Mothers (and Jack Frost)

 "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change."~James 1:17~


I know I should be writing in my Nano novel... but...  I felt like writing this post instead.
Peter Pan was first a play.  Then J M Barrie put it into a book with more details put in, and the book was called "Peter and Wendy" instead of Peter Pan.  There is a picture of what the book looked like below. (:  And if you want a better look, you can always google it.  I googled "picture of first edition of Peter and Wendy."

What I love about the book is that there is so much in it that is only casually mentioned as if it was common knowledge about Neverland, when we really don't know that much.
I feel like chasing after the writer and saying, "Tell me more!  Please!  I want to understand this!"
Oh well.  He's dead.  Maybe I'll see him in heaven.  Hopefully...  And NO I didn't mean to sound funny.

I suppose in that way J. M. Barrie was like a child.  In the book, it says this:
"Children have the strangest adventures without being troubled by them.  For instance, they may remember to mention, a week after the event happened, that when they were in the wood they had met their dead father and had a game with him."  Even though it's funny, it's true.  While we are young, everything seems to be happening at once, and sometimes we forget to speak up because something takes the place of the thought we had.
J. M. Barrie writes simply and doesn't go into a lot of detail.  I mean, he says many things that weren't in the movies based off of the book, but he doesn't go into detail in these except sometimes.  Like here:
"It is the nightly custom of every good mother after her children are asleep to rummage in their minds and put things straight for next morning... It is quite like tidying up drawers.  You would see her... lingering... wondering where on earth you had picked this thing up... pressing this to her cheek as if it were as nice as a kitten, and hurriedly stowing that out of sight.  When you wake in the morning, the naughtiness and evil passions with which you went to bed have been folded up small and placed at the bottom of your mind; and on the top, beautifully aired, are spread out your prettier thoughts, ready for you to put on." (I tried to edit out as much as I could, as it's a long passage near the beginning of the book.)
When I first read this, it seemed like a very sweet thought, like the stories of the Tooth Fairy.  And nowhere in the movies does it mention this habit of all mothers, this legend J. M. Barrie created, of mothers who tidy up their children's minds.
I admire the movie Hook, which serves as a sequel to the story, because they throw in such a lot of references to the book!
I enjoy the movie adaptation from 2003 (I posted the soundtrack of it in last post) because of its nostalgia feel and because... well... I'll have to get to that in my last post, which will be about both Cinderella and Peter Pan.  For now...

"When you play at it (Neverland) by day with the chairs and tablecloth, it is not in the least alarming, but in the two minutes before you go to sleep it becomes very nearly real.  That is why there are night-lights."  I have a feeling the night-lights are like guards.  I'd love to find out if the night-lights mean anything.  They are mentioned maybe three or four different times in the book.  -- If you think of something, comment below! --  They are "the eyes a mother leaves behind to watch over her children."  A little creepy and yet sweet, in different ways.  Another legend made to make a child feel safe when the night-light is lit.
Here, when the mother and her children are all asleep in the room, something happens.
"Look at the four of them, Wendy and Michael over there, John here, and Mrs. Darling by the fire.  There should have been a fourth night-light."
When I got to this part, I was very much intrigued.  What was to happen?

I don't like that people sometimes compare Peter Pan to a kidnapper, a stalker, a creeper, whatever.  He's the spirit of innocence, not a murderer!  Of course he is cocky, but he is a gentleman, and "he would never keep a lady in Neverland against her will."
Now he may have been terribly clever without knowing it, for he's like that, and sometimes of course he is selfish.  For instance, after telling him the end of Cinderella and he wants to go, Wendy says this,  
"'Don't go, Peter,' she entreated, 'I know such lots of stories.'  Those were her precise words, so there can be no denying that it was she who first tempted him.  He came back, and there was a greedy look in his eyes now which ought to have alarmed her, but did not.  'Oh, the stories I could tell to the boys!' she cried, and then Peter gripped her and began to draw her toward the window."
I don't blame Wendy for giving Peter the idea to take her with him.  But she even goes on after he already has got the idea in his head!  I don't think she quite knew what was happening.  Sometimes when we're young, we really don't care.

And so Peter asks her to come with him and gives several reasons why.  I always got excited at this part, not so afraid, because I know Peter Pan isn't bad, but excited that he wanted a female friend who would tell him stories.  I could tell him stories myself if only he came.  But then, I've met him many times in my dreams, too many to count now, ever since I was eleven or twelve.  And perhaps those dreams really happened and my mind was made fuzzy so I couldn't remember well. (:  Maybe I'll write him a story. 

When I first saw the trailer and then movie for Rise of the Guardians, I felt like Jack Frost was just like Peter Pan but an older teenage version.  I suppose that explains why my hoody that's blue like Jack Frost's is my favorite, and why I'm wearing it now without meaning to.  By the way, The Rise of the Guardians is based on a book series, and I have read the first two books and they carry a sort of Neverland-ish nostalgia that's very sweet and I recommend them.  All this time I thought Nightlight in the books was the original Jack Frost and that the movie people had changed the story a lot, BUT I WAS WRONG and I'm so happy because we haven't met Jack Frost yet in the book series Guardians of Childhood and that excites me a lot.  Did you know the author of the series actually got to do some of the art for the movie based off the series?  I thought that was cool.  He does the illustrations in the books himself.  Anyway... back to Peter Pan.


Unlike the Disney version, in the book, Peter Pan does know what a mother is.  He goes on to tell Wendy that she could tuck them in at night and that they had never been tucked in before, and that she could sew their clothes.  Wendy is very excited and wants to do these things.  These things are very motherly like.  This is another bit of evidence that Peter really does want a mother though he himself doesn't think so.

Peter Pan came to listen to Mrs. Darling's stories, not Wendy's stories, as Disney would have you believe.  He listened to the story of Cinderella but didn't get to hear it all.  he was very anxious to know what happened to the lady who couldn't be found by the prince.  This is all evidence that Peter did want a mother, or to grow up, though he was sure he didn't.  All this is in the book.

Sometimes Mr. Barrie points stuff out to us that otherwise we wouldn't have noticed.  And I should stop for now.  :)  Good night.  Perhaps Peter Pan will visit our dreams.  See ya later!

Peter Pan Part 3 and Nanowrimo: Growing Up

 
"Now we know so little, even with our special gifts, and the preaching of those most gifted is still so poor.   But when we have been made perfect and complete, then the need for these inadequate special gifts will come to an end, and they will disappear.
It’s like this: when I was a child I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child does. But when I became a man my thoughts grew far beyond those of my childhood, and now I have put away the childish things." ~1 Corinthians 13:9-11~


The important moment passed (talking about something mentioned in this previous post).  Okay I'll tell you.  I....... started driving.  And I was terrified the whole time.  But I grew just 1/100th more confident. lol It's like that book, "Do Hard Things," which is a really good book and you should read it.  Doing stuff out of our comfort zones that are good for us will stretch us and strengthen us.  To be honest I'm still a little afraid to go to the dentist, but I'm used to it now and I go anyway. 
Boys have always intimidated me and they still do... but I'm trying to figure them out a bit more now.  In a way I am Rapunzel.  And I can NOT figure out how she got to be so comfortable around Flynn the moment they set out on the adventure.  In real life, we act differently to different people.  Everyone uses a different range of vocabulary, and sometimes in order for them to understand our polite meanings, we have to "speak their language".  This is what we do as we grow up.  When I first saw the 2003 version of Peter Pan when I was... twelve or eleven, I started crying because I didn't want to grow up.  It seemed so sad to me.

If you listen to the first minute and a half of this song, you'll get what I mean.  Listen while you read.  And I'll talk about this version, the 2003 one, of Peter Pan in another post.  But for a teaser, I liked it a lot.

 As a child I thought that to grow up...
1.  I wouldn't have any more fun.
2.  I would stop having faith (I do believe in fairies!  I do!  I do!) because of having to be realistic.
3.  There's something about childhood that's magical, and I thought I'd have to forget it.
4.  I would have to become mean and not have time to play with children.  But now I realize that we get to choose who we will become, and it's a very important thing to do while we are young.
5.  Growing up is a step closer to growing old and ugly(lol I know, but you're thinking it too I'm sure!).
6.  And it's another step closer to... dying.  I shall quote Death from The Book Thief here:  "When the time comes, don't panic."  ... don't be afraid.  God will give you the strength you need just in time, to quote the Hiding Place.  And all good stories must end, except the everlasting one, which is the best of them all. 
7.  I don't know... I felt like there should have been something else.  The thought of growing up just sounded boring and sad.
Now I remember.  The effects of seeing all the sorrow in the world made adults seem hard-hearted and cold to me.  And as we age we learn more about death and suicides.  And it saddens us and makes it harder to be brave.  When you think about it, being brave helps us to grow.  The word "brave" always made me feel special, and whenever I had to tell myself to "be brave," it then seemed easier to do.  To kill a roach, for me, is to be brave lol.  To walk in the dark is to be brave.  And then... so is driving.

 Being stuck young will only keep important things from happening.

 

There's the good stuff about growing up too.
1.  There's freedom to go where you like and spend your own money and live where you like and go into debt... oh well there's responsibility that comes with power.  Spiderman...
2.  You're moving forward and letting go of the past.  This is good too, though hold on to the stuff you've learned.  "Keep moving forward."  That's from Meet the Robinsons Disney movie.  It made me cry.
3.  When we grow up... we tend to fall in love.  And when that happens we tend to get married and have children to tell stories to.  Though staying single is good too, if you're hard at work somewhere.  Paul was single because he had a lot of work to do. 
4.  Growing up is something we've gone through since before the day we were born.  It's only natural.  It's like change, and time itself.  It's always ticking, everything's always changing, and if we don't keep up, we'll be left behind in the dust.  Peter Pan I think is different because he's the spirit of childhood.  In the stories of course he's real, but I'm still trying to figure out why he chose not to grow up.  He could have married Wendy.
Spiritual growing:
5.  In the Bible it says that becoming mature is a sign of growing up, and that innocence is like being a child, and that we should be both.  Becoming mature means to learn the difference between good and evil on the basics, and then deeper, and learning to make better decisions.  I know it sounds boring, but when I was trying to find wisdom years ago I thought it was as cool as searching for buried treasure.  There we go.  Wisdom is more precious than gold.  It's what makes us mature.
6.  You have more chance to help people.  I've always wanted to "save the world." lol Then I realized I could, one person at a time.  Listening helps a lot.
7.  Many decisions, many possibilities.  The Fox and the Hound is a good illustration of the process of growing up.  So sad too though... 

Nanowrimo!!!!!  Halloween!  I've realized Cinderella is sometimes associated with Halloween because of the pumpkin carriage (and it's important in episode 21 of Ouron High School Host Club, an anime, and really interestingly made into a symbol that shows up in the episodes after it too).  I'm going to be doing Nanowrimo if I can.  If you don't know what that is... basically it's an online, free thingy where you sign up and try to write 50,000 words in a month, specifically, the month of November, which is nearly upon us. (:
Hark how the bells, sweet silver bells, all seem to say, "throw cares away!"
Thanksgiving, Turkey!  Homemade pie!  I love autumn and winter.  They're like the climax of a typical year.  And then new life comes back at Spring.  Ya see?  Constant change.

So... what do you think about all this?  Are you doing Nanowrimo?  What's your story going to be about?  In another post I might say what mine will be.
And here's a REALLY pretty song to end with :)

Peter Pan Thoughts Part 2: Staying a Child

"And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea."
~Matthew 18:2-6 ESV~


Tonight I feel like Wendy did the night before she had to grow up.  It's an important moment.  Two forces pulling you in two directions.  And if you go forward, you can't go back ever, and if you stay a child, it's only delaying the rest of your story.
That story begins with once upon a time, you were born.  The end of that story is death and fleeing into eternity.  You get to choose what you do and believe between those two lines, the beginning and the end.  But it depends a lot what your motives are, whether it is good or bad to stay a child.
To stay a child from the world's point of view means...

    Side One of the Coin of Staying a Child (bad stuff first, saving the better for last)
 1.  To not learn to drive
2.  To not get a job
3.  To stay dependent on others if you're not going to Neverland and eating imaginary feasts to live off of
4.  To not grow mature but instead play games and be entertained every day.
5.  To not get married and have children
6.  To not take responsibility
7.  To therefore be selfish and uncaring of the fact that adults throw money at you every day at the expense of practical things they might have spent.

Those are quite dark and unlikable characteristics of children.  And that's what some people think of when they think of not growing up, and they look upon it unfavorably when you mention it.
But there's another side of the coin too, a Christian's point of view of childhood.  One of the reasons I fell in love with God was how beautiful he made children, and how he told his disciples that unless they became like little children, they wouldn't enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  Because He and I have a common love, children, it was another reason for me to love Him, and not only because I owe my love to Him.

  Side Two of the Coin of Staying a Child
1.  To trust completely, without asking questions

This is a big one because when we become teens (in the Bible we would then be considered adults) we feel like we have to know the answer to everything.  We want to know the meaning behind something sometimes odd that our parents or God ask us to do.  But seeing isn't believing.  It's cheating.  Jesus said blessed are those who haven't seen but still believe.  But Thomas didn't believe Jesus was alive and said he would only if he saw.  Believing someone we know we can trust (and someone we should trust) is better than going by our sight.  Besides, people who are blind have to trust the people who guide them.  Their choices are either to try to find their way by themselves, and perhaps fall off a cliff in the process, or trust someone who can see.  And that's how little children are (of course not all of them, but I'm talking about the ideal child).

2.  To have a big imagination
Having faith is like having imagination in a way because they both happen in the mind.  Imagination is good because we're using our minds to create something, ideas, a story, a picture or world, that wasn't there before.

3. To have fresh eyes that look at the world in wonder
It's amazing, to learn what a pen is, what water is, by feeling it and touching it and using it, what words are and what they mean.  It's amazing to begin your story from scratch.  Another reason why I love children.  God has made amazing things.  The wind, the trees, the mountains so large.  And we're so small.

4.  They're okay with the fact that they're small (of course, they DO want to be bigger and look forward to that day), yet they don't worry about the future.
This is because they know that soon they'll be bigger, one day they'll be stronger, and they're content in the moment.  They believe in their parents, that their parents will take care of them.  They believe their parents love them.

5.  They have big dreams.
They don't care or even know that their dreams may be impossible.  The whole world to them is impossible, so a dream of theirs, to be a superhero, might not be as impossible as the world thinks.  I love this one quote from the movie Amazing Grace and I shall put it here now.  Benedict Cumberbach said it.  "We're too young to know that certain things are impossible.  So we'll do them anyway."

6.  They're humble.

7.  They have big faith.

That's why I vowed to myself to forever have a child's heart.  I hope you will consider it.  Choosing a path while we are young makes it easier when we're older to keep to it.

All the people who acted as Peter Pan in the plays and movies did grow up, and some of them were older than the character when they played him.  But Peter Pan doesn't grow up.  He still has all his first teeth.  He's the same size as Wendy in mind and physically, so the book says.  He's the spirit of youth.  Not teenage youth, but childlike, innocent youth.  He's the one who is surprised when something unfair is done, in the book, and every time something unfair is done, he is always shocked like it is the first time it has happened, for Peter Pan forgets.  That is why he likes to hear stories about himself.  So that he doesn't forget who he is, and, of course, because he's cocky.  Proud.  Because he doesn't grow up, I do wonder what I might find in his eyes if ever I did look into them.  An eternal-ness.  A pureness, though Peter Pan isn't exactly completely innocent, even in the book.
His ears would be pointed like a fairy's, for he's lived amongst them for a very long time now.  And I would want to give him a hug, and he wouldn't like that.  I'm too much like a real mother.  I'm already grown up in that way.  But every day when we're going another step further, we feel like we're growing.  Because the truth is, we're always growing up, always changing and developing our character.  And because this post is getting really long, I shall post the other half next time.
What say you on the matter?

Peter and Wendy Analization part 1: A Bit of History

"So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you." 
~Romans 12:2~ The Message~


I've always wondered how Peter Pan remained young.  Perhaps the fairies kept him young, which would explain why, in the book, he was said to have a "fairyish" look, as if he was a fairy.  But I knew there had to be some story behind it all, so I dug deeper into the life of J. M. Barrie:

The first time anyone learned about the story of Peter Pan was when they went to see the play on the 27th of December, in 1904, in which a young woman played Peter.  Before the play began, some thought James M. Barrie crazy for having thought up the story.  A dog who was a nurse for children, who made their beds even, and even walked them to school!  A boy who could fly and not grow up!  A shadow that could be detached from its master.  Fairies and pirates and mermaids.  Some thought the play didn't have a chance of being successful, but it was.  Many enjoyed it, and some didn't.  The story had come from James' relationship with a bunch of boys who awoke in him a sense of adventure, and a reminding of something sad that happened long ago, when he himself was a very young boy.

James was the 9th of 10 siblings, and the eldest brother, David, was his mother's favorite of all.  Everyone was excited to see how David would be when he grew up, and had great expectations for him, while ignoring James a bit, who was only 4.  But David died on his 14th birthday, in a skating accident.  He would never have the chance to grow up now, and his mother was very heartbroken and hardly even noticed James, till one day when James went into her room dressed up like David, and pretended to be him, so that his mother might notice him.  He did this many times.

This made me wonder if Peter was like a ghost that had never fully faded away.  Neverland would be a little like heaven.  It would explain why in the book there was mentioned that Peter was said to have gone part of the way through that dark tunnel of death with children who had died, to comfort them on their journey to eternity (or something similar).  Things only mentioned in the book once I've been capturing lately.  It's very fascinating.  Although of course in the story Peter isn't a ghost, but a normal boy who simply decides not to grow up.

The edition of the book you see the picture of above is the very first version of Peter Pan I had read from the library.  It was a very special edition, hard cover with illustrations by Trina Schart Hyman, which made me forget about Disney's Peter Pan and led me to quite a different story, more fairy-tale-ish and dreamy and dark and filled with nostalgia.  It had characters that in my mind looked nothing like Disney's.


My next posts about Peter Pan will be coming soon. :)  Narnia may have to wait a bit, for I have much more to say.  What do you think about Peter Pan?  Have you read it?  

Chonicles of Narnia Thoughts Part 1 Comparing Beginnings

 "I, yes I, am the Lord, and there is no other Savior. First I predicted your rescue, then I saved you and proclaimed it to the world. No foreign god has ever done this. You are witnesses that I am the only God,” says the Lord."
~Isaiah 43:11-12~

Yes, the covers aren't that great a lot of the time (unless you have the newer version in paperpack), and that is probably what toned down my first opinion of the books, sadly.  I had read the books in a really odd out of order.  I did read the Magician's Nephew first though lol.  I can't remember the order I read them in but I didn't particularly want to read Prince Caspian because I had already seen the movie (I know, dumb excuse).

But the story was very important to me when I was 8, when my sister told me they were making a movie for the Chronicles of Narnia.  She was SO SO excited and I didn't even know what those were.  She showed me a trailer for the movie (it was the first one I think and only one minute long and only showed Lucy in the spare room, discovering the wardrobe and uncovering it from the sheet slowly, the fabric falling to the ground, and her looking up and smiling.  Fade to black.  Something in me lit a flame.  This girl was my age and it was instantly relatable to me.  A way into another world.  This was probably my first fantasy story in which someone went to another world.
Then the nine minute trailer came out and I wanted to watch it over and over again.  My sister (who was then 12) and I jumped up and down in excitement.
When we saw it at the theaters, my eyes were wide open the whole way through.  The ever so large screen, on which a giant, darkly carved wardrobe stood still and foreboding, and yet inviting.  Hide and Seek.  World war II.  The touch between a girl of earth, and a creature from a different world, which was so precious.  The talking beavers.  The tea and a lullaby.  THE SNOWY WOOD.  The lamppost, just standing there, like a gravestone in a graveyard.  The White witch, the hot chocolate, and the Turkish Delight (which I imagined was something like a cinnamon roll or funnel cake when I didn't know).  The lion.  The story, the music, it all made me cry.


But now though, is so many, many years later.  The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was somewhat ruined in the movie.  Yes, it was entertaining, but it didn't make much money.  Narniaweb.com was very silent for a very long time.  No news at all.  Soon we all forgot about Narnia.  Hunger Games took its place in our minds, and Once Upon a Time.  We minded our business, and it seemed like the future of Narnia was dead.  Just a few days ago, though, this all changed.

They're finally making the Silver Chair into a movie.
When I heard this, I wasn't so much excited, because I almost thought it wasn't real, or that I couldn't trust it, or that the movie wouldn't be very good, or that they really weren't going to make another movie.  But go on here and listen to the podcast.  http://www.narniaweb.com/2013/10/podcast-94-the-silver-chair-in-development/
They're all so full of hope, which gave me hope.  And the podcast is funny.
I went to my sister's room and nabbed a copy of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and began to read.  I've realized something about C. S. Lewis' style.  He did once say that The Chronicles of Narnia were a sort of fairy tales.  At first I didn't quite believe it.  But now that I've been reading the beginnings of all seven, I'm beginning to realize that it's true.  Here, I shall show you the beginning sentence of each of the books, in the order they were published.

"Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy."
~The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe~
Just like a beginning of a fairy tale!  Not all fairy tales begin with "Once upon a time," you know.

"Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, and it has been told in another book called The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe how they had a remarkable adventure."
~Prince Caspian~
Yes, this really is the beginning!  Just like LWW, but adding on to it.

"There was a boy named Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."
~The Voyage of the Dawn Treader~
Still following the fairy tale feel.  Why did he "almost" deserve the name?  Was there something good that redeemed him?  Or is what DID he deserve if not the name?

"It was a dull autumn day and Jill Pole was crying behind the gym."
~The Silver Chair~
Mmm... "dull" makes me think of the color grey, and tension has begun.  Who is this girl, and why is she crying?  Beginning a story with unanswered questions in the first sentence keeps one curious.  I'm beginning to like the Silver Chair more and more now.  Up till now, the beginnings of the stories were about ordinary things, life, and how things were.  But now, something is happening, and it pulls us in.  The beginning also tells us that this will be a darker story.

"This is the story of an adventure that happened in Narnia and Calormen and the lands between, in the Golden Age when Peter was High King in Narnia and his brother and his two sisters were King and Queens under him."
~The Horse and His Boy~
Even though it took me a while to get into this book, this first sentence does draw one in.  One wonders what happened in the time they were kings and queens, what they did as rulers.  It takes one off guard because it takes place before the end of LWW, before the Pevensies got sent back to our world, and yet it was written after the Silver Chair.
This book does have its funny spots though, and also its serious spots.

"This is a story about something that happened long ago when your grandfather was a child."
~The Magician's Nephew~
At first I thought this book was my favorite.  Continuing the fairy tale feel.  A lot of it takes place in Charles Dickens' London, which made it all the more enjoyable.  I'd wished the next movie they were to make was this one, as it would be really cool to see on the screen.

"In the last days of Narnia, far up to the west beyond Lantern Waste and close beside the great waterfall, there lived an Ape."
~The Last Battle~
The beginning makes you wary and sad.  "The last days of Narnia".  Mentioning Lantern Waste and the waterfall reminds us of LWW, and the beginning of Narnia.
And the mention of an Ape catches us off guard again.  Up till now, there haven't been many (if any) talking apes as characters.  What sort of ape would he be then?

Anyway, I'm off to rewatch the Narnia movies (well, go to bed first) and read the books and the guides!  My, there are a lot!
By the way, which is your favorite Narnia book?  My mind has been changing a lot so I don't know anymore.
Do you know that Tom Baker (the Fourth Doctor) plays Puddleglum in the Silver Chair (BBC version)?