A Prisoner in Fairyland (The Book That 'Uncle Paul' Wrote)Blackwood, Algernon
Science
A Prisoner in Fairyland (The Book That 'Uncle Paul' Wrote)
Blackwood, Algernon
Magic -- Fiction; Voyages and travels -- Fiction
And meanwhile, as May ran laughing to meet June, an air of coloured
wonder spread itself about the entire village. Rogers had brought it
with him from that old Kentish garden somehow. His journey there had
opened doors into a region of imagination and belief whence fairyland
poured back upon his inner world, transfiguring common things. And
this transfiguration he unwittingly put into others too. Through this
very ordinary man swept powers that usually are left behind with
childhood. The childhood aspect of the world invaded all who came in
contact with him, enormous, radiant, sparkling, charged with questions
of wonder and enchantment. And every one felt it according to their
ability of reconstruction. Yet he himself had not the least idea that
he did it all. It was a reformation, very tender, soft, and true.
For wonder, of course, is the basis of all inquiry. Interpretation
varies, facts remain the same; and to interpret is to recreate. Wonder
leads to worship. It insists upon recreation, prerogative of all young
life. The Starlight Express ran regularly every night, Jimbo having
constructed a perfect time-table that answered all requirements, and
was sufficiently elastic to fit instantly any scale that time and
space demanded. Rogers and the children talked of little else, and
their adventures in the daytime seemed curiously fed by details of
information gleaned elsewhere.
But where? The details welled up in one and all, though whence they
came remained a mystery. 'I believe we dream a lot of it,' said Jimbo.
'It's a lot of dreams we have at night, comme fa.' He had made a
complete map of railway lines, with stations everywhere, in forests,
sky, and mountains. He carried stations in his pocket, and just
dropped one out of the carriage window whenever a passenger shouted,
'Let's stop here.' But Monkey, more intellectual, declared it was 'all
Cousinenry's invention and make-up,' although she asked more questions
than all the others put together. Jinny, her sister, stared and
listened with her puzzled, moth-like expression, while Mother watched
and marvelled cautiously from a distance. In one and all, however, the
famished sense of wonder interpreted life anew. It named the world
afresh--the world of common things. It subdued the earth unto itself.
What a mind creates it understands. Through the familiar these
adventurers trace lines of discovery into the unfamiliar. They
understood. They were up to their waists in wonder. There was still
disorder, of course, in their great reconstruction, but that was where
the exciting fun came in; for disorder involves surprise. Any moment
out might pop the unexpected--event or person.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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