Subject: (urth) Little, Big: the magic goes away

From: Adam Stephanides <adamsteph at earthlink.net>
Date: Mon, 01 May 2000 22:45:20 +0000

Alex wrote:

> if I recall, we see the "inward vanishing" of the Drinkwater clan into
> the "Big" world inside ours (with, as Nutria suggests, hints that the
> "old fairies" went down into a deeper recursive descent).  And our world
> is left poorer.

I agree with the first of these sentences, but not with the second. I
don't recall any indication that the presence of the fairies brought any
benefits to the world at large, either directly or through the diffusion
of enchantment.  The world of the final section is impoverished not
because of the absence of magic, but because of the real destruction
brought about by the civil war that the fairies themselves caused.  

The book's final paragraph is beautiful, but it's not an objective
comparison between now and then.  It's an expression of nostalgia,
sharpened by material deprivation; and (I would suggest) a nostalgia as
misplaced as the nostalgia for Russell Eigenblick described in
"Fifty-two Pickup" (Book Six, Chap. Four).

--Adam

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