Readers' Review: "Peter Pan" by J.M. Barrie
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-10-26/readers-review-peter-pan-jm-barrie
J. M. Barrie’s “Peter Pan”, the story of a mischievous boy who could never grow up, has been immortalized on the stage, in fiction, and even in film. This year marks the hundredth anniversary of the novel. From his first appearance, the appeal of Peter Pan has been inter-generational. His home on the island of Neverland was populated with lost boys, mermaids, Indians, pirates, and of course fairies. Children relished his adventures; adults enjoyed the story as a parable of lost youth. For this month’s readers’ review we discuss why, much like Peter himself, the book has never aged.
Guests
Maria Tatar
chair of the Program in Folklore and Mythology at Harvard University and editor of "The Annotated Peter Pan."
John Glavin
professor of English, Georgetown University.
Jillian Finkle
program manager, theater and early childhood, National Children's Museum.
Related Items
Read an Excerpt
Reprinted from The Annotated Peter Pan: The Centennial Edition by J. M. Barrie, Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Maria Tata (c) 2011. Used with permission of the publisher, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.:
Comments
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When kids fly out the window and go to Never-Neverland, where are they really?
Having been a battered child, I found "Peter Pan" to be a blessed escape, a tender mercy with a binding I could cloak myself in and for a little while pretend I was someone or somewhere else. The book didn't just resonate for me; it felt medicinal and I read and re-read it often, availing myself of that small bird of hope that startled when Peter flew out the window. I was elated that the children had the great good fortune of Peter in their lives, but I also envied them deeply, even while wistfully acknowledging Peter Pan was surely not going to come rescue a bedraggled little Appalachian girl and whisk me out into the twilight, into the stars. I read the book at least 30 times, and saw any film version available; I even bought Mary Martin in the role wholesale, I think because I so desperately wanted to believe, as Tink entreated us to.
As a grandmother now, I look back on my preoccupation with this book as a coping strategy. I was so bitterly alone, so isolated and devoid of hope & felt abandoned by adults...but Peter helped me believe that somehow, I would someday be free of the terror and shame I lived with and that someone would arrive on my horizon who'd care for me,perhaps even rescue me. Turns out that someone was me, so you could say Peter Pan /Mr.Barrie helped me save myself. I wish I could've written him a thank you note for the book and all it has contributed to my life over the years.~
I was wondering. One if the guests mentioned a version of I think he said Peter Pan and Kensington Gardens by someone called Mordoc or Murdoch. I was wondering the exact information for that book because I looked for it and was unable to find it. I may have misheard.
What a fantastic program! Such depth you only get on public radio. The author mentioned is Iris Murdoch and the book is The Word Boy. I haven't read it, but Murdoch seems to have an ongoing interest in English folklore and legend and the magical, as in her titles such as The Unicorn and The Green Knight.
Has anyone read The Word Boy? The Wikipedia entry makes no mention of Peter Pan.
What Barrie and those Davies boys gave us in the story of peter pan is timeless. I teach Preschool and have read and introduced the theater version to numerous years of children. The power of imagination is a powerful tool to give a child especially though an adventure filled with pirates and lost boys and now through the wonderful tales written by Dave Barry and Scott Ridley the mythos continues with the Peter and the Starcatchers series. A young girl I taught just started college... she still remembers that all children grow up...all except one.
Thank you very much for your response.
Scatterins extravagant
Inappropriate & inapropos, of Tinker Bell Pixie Dust
Briar crowned statues in a forest glade found
Strong wise still stone gentle & just
There’s New York moments. There’s driveway moments. More than a few of which Ms. Rehm must bear responsibility for. :) Then there are TV moments: Apollo 11 & less sublime, the OJ verdict. Few years back I remember a talking head mention a TV moment I’d forgotten, the most magical one of all, from a more innocent time. I was about 5. It was around 1960. Our family had gotten our first TV, b&w. Tinker bell was dying! (HORRORS!). Peter Pan (Mary Martin) peered out from the screen right at me & Baby Sis. If WE believed in fairies & clapped our hands to show it along with all of the other boys & girls all over the world then maybe, just maybe, we could save Tink! It was up to us kids. Adults hadn’t the wherewithal, the wherefore, or the why. With both apprehension & faith, we clapped, along with all the other children in all their houses up & down the blocks up & down all the streets everywhere, we clapped as hard as we ever could and… and … we watched with wonder, with joy – & a sense of accomplishment that only wee ones can know, at first steps, first words, first self-made PBJ sandwich (folded, not cut), first time without training wheels, first time saving a dying fairy, we watched as Ms. Bell’s light, nearly extinguished, shone anew. Bless the cotton socks of that talking head, whose name I can't recall, for reminding me of the magic I once knew, once believed in. Can still believe in, if I’m only willing to clap my hands or tap my heels together 3 times – & avoid stepping on that sidewalk crack. Extravagant scatterings, too, of pixie dust, upon Ms. Rehm, her staff & guests for re-reminding me in these grim times. Above all, Mr. Barrie, who started it all. Time to blow the pixie dust off that “children’s” book & fly away, if only for a little while, to Never Never Land.
This was such a beautiful, touching program to listen to. Thank you for the wonderful discussion :)