Saturday, February 5, 2011

Whimsical

Have you ever noticed that when you read a book that has `whimsical' in the description, the story is often disturbing?  As I kid, I found Louis Carrol's Alice stories morbidly fascinating.  The landscape shifts and changes like those in a dream.  People morph into animals and back without warning.  The story is mind-bending as a Dali painting, and I read it over and over trying to figure out what was going on!  I like the Alice books now.  I get the puns, and the unfamiliar landscape has become comfortable with associated memories.  But when I see advertisements for Burton's interpretation, I'm not surprised that they look a bit chilling.  It is, after all, a disturbing story.

There are several whimsical books that I just adore.  Jame Thurber's `The 13 Clocks' is high on the list.  The pictures are almost all night scenes, the epilogue, in which we discover the fate of the evil duke, is chilling.  But the story has such lovely language.  My favorite line is about the Golux, an odd little man with "a describable beard and and indescribable hat." The line is: "The Golux did not seem wonderful to him now, and even his indescribable hat was suddenly describable."  Thurber frolics with words.  The result has the feel of a fairy-tale -not what people think of when one says fairy-tale, but an actual fairy-tail, where danger is close, and every night is ridden with storms.


What makes a story whimsical seems to be a certain mood, a willingness to play with language.  The worlds are as fluid as the words, and there's a habit of turning expressions into reality, or just looking at things sideways, that shifts perception in the reader.  It's unsettling, but it's also fascinating.  And that makes whimsical books worth reading.

9 comments:

  1. Certainly Alice in Wonderland can be disturbing. Not only is the landscape rather dreamlike, but there's a lot of casual cruelty in the original. {half-smile}

    I hadn't noticed that as much about other "whimsical" stories, but you may be right. They're often "dreamlike," and dreams aren't always nice. {Smile}

    Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

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  2. My brother and I joke about that. If I say something is `whimsical' he'll go `ah, you mean it's disturbing and frightening.' To be fair, Whinny-the-Pooh is often described as whimsical, and it's not disturbing (though House at Pooh Corner always makes me cry at the end.)

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  4. {Smile} Sounds like you and your brother have some fun conversations. {Smile}

    Yes, Winnie the Pooh is whimsical without being disturbing. {Smile} (And "Winnie" is for some reason difficult to spell. {lop-sided smile, wink}

    Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

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  5. Oops! Guess I should have gone for my copy of House at Pooh Corner instead of assuming I remembered. :)

    I love whimsical stories, and I often enjoy mind-bending stories, I just wish there was a way to tell which was which because I worry about little kids whose parents don't pre-read stuff before giving it to them. A lot of kids enjoy things that are creepy, but some children are very sensitive. (I was. There were a lot of books my mom wouldn't let me read until I was in my teens just because she didn't want to deal with the nightmares.)

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  6. I got The House at Pooh Corner out the other night myself. In may case, I wanted to check the ending. I didn't remember it being something to cry over, yet it made me blink a few tears away. It does touch the sentimental side, doesn't it? {Smile}

    Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

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  7. Yes, but then, I bawl at anything. I can't listen to sad songs while I drive because it clouds up my glasses.

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  8. I see. That would make a difference. It tends to take a bit to get my tears to spill, tho I'll admit my glisten more often. {Smile}

    Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

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