{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/3256", "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it. Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "urth", "thread": { "id": 3256, "subject": "Moonwalk", "messages": 3, "voices": 2, "first": "2002-05-12T17:45:16+00:00", "last": "2002-05-21T12:58:43+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Alice K. Turner", "address": "aturner6 at nyc.rr.com" }, "date": "2002-05-12T17:45:16+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Moonwalk", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "This is completely off-subject; skip if you will.\n\nWhen I was about 11, I read a Victorian children's novel\nin which a young boy looking out at the sea under a full moon, was able to\njump from bar to bar on the light reflected on the swell of the waves to\nreach another land (Heaven, I would presume, though I don't recall). Part of\nthat passel of Kingsley/MacDonald sentimental type of Christian fantasy. For\nmany years, decades, I misremembered this book as -At the Back of the North\nWind- by MacDonald. But it isn't; I reread that recently and it's entirely\ndifferent. But the image is very potent to me--the path laid down by the\nmoon. Does this ring a bell with any of you? Please e-mail if so. I would\nlike to get a copy of that\nbook to read again.\n\n-alga" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Adam Stephanides", "address": "adamsteph at earthlink.net" }, "date": "2002-05-21T01:58:59+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) Moonwalk", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "on 5/12/02 5:45 PM, Alice K. Turner at aturner6 at nyc.rr.com wrote:\nWhen I was about 11, I read a Victorian children's novel\nin which a young boy looking out at the sea under a full moon, was able to\njump from bar to bar on the light reflected on the swell of the waves to\nreach another land (Heaven, I would presume, though I don't recall). Part of\nthat passel of Kingsley/MacDonald sentimental type of Christian fantasy. For\nmany years, decades, I misremembered this book as -At the Back of the North\nWind- by MacDonald. But it isn't; I reread that recently and it's entirely\ndifferent. But the image is very potent to me--the path laid down by the\nmoon. Does this ring a bell with any of you? Please e-mail if so. I would\nlike to get a copy of that\nbook to read again." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "THE GARDEN BEHIND THE MOON, by Howard Pyle. A peculiar book: the titular\ngarden behind the moon is not heaven, but a place where the souls of\n\"simple\" children play temporarily. Its subtitle is \"A Real Story of the\nMoon Angel,\" who is a sympathetic Death figure (nearly a century before\neither Gaiman or Pratchett). It is sentimental, and not well written, but\nnot specifically Christian that I could tell; in fact, it contains a version\nof the story of the Fall in which, as with Pullman, the Fall is presented as\na good thing (though without the specifically anti-Christian coloration that\nPullman gives it).\n\n(I've both emailed this to Alice and posted it to the list, since others may\nhave found her description interesting.)\n\n--Adam" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Alice K. Turner", "address": "aturner6 at nyc.rr.com" }, "date": "2002-05-21T12:58:43+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) Moonwalk", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Adam replied:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "THE GARDEN BEHIND THE MOON, by Howard Pyle. A peculiar book: the titular\ngarden behind the moon is not heaven, but a place where the souls of\n\"simple\" children play temporarily. Its subtitle is \"A Real Story of the\nMoon Angel,\" who is a sympathetic Death figure (nearly a century before\neither Gaiman or Pratchett). It is sentimental, and not well written, but\nnot specifically Christian that I could tell; in fact, it contains a\nversion\nof the story of the Fall in which, as with Pullman, the Fall is presented\nas\na good thing (though without the specifically anti-Christian coloration\nthat\nPullman gives it)." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Many, many thanks. But without having read it yet, I should like to correct,\ngently, one thing. Sympathetic Death figures were very much a part of\nVictorian sentimentality; Victorians were virtually gung ho for death, with\nits attendant guardian angels etc. Tom is effectively dead for most of -The\nWater Babies- and is taught by two huge female figures. The North Wind (also\nfemale) is Diamond's pychopomp in -At the Back of the North Wind-. And\npopular art (very kitschy, we would say now) reflects this heavily. It was\nfiltered off into fantasy, and this is something that John Crowley captured\ntriumphantly in -Little, Big-, in some aspects a Victorian pastiche, with\nthe transformation of Daily Alice.\n\nSome years ago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, which has a costume\ndivision, put on a Victorian exhibit. To my absolute delight, there was a\nwedding panorama in which the bride's family was in mourning. The bride wore\nblack, as did the attendants. The groom was in the usual penguin suit. But\nmy absolute favorite was the little ringbearer, a boy of about six, who wore\na black kilt and tam-o-shanter.\n\n-alga" } ] } ] }