This is MJ, back to talk about Peter Pan. This time we're in chapter two and in my reaction
to this I'm going to be talking about how, again, how honest and open the book is and
how weird it is. Well, how honest and open it is and how weird it is. So first of all,
like George Banks, or George Darling is at fault here. He blames himself. He and his
wife and their dog commiserate over the fact that the children have been abducted by Peter
Pan. And this is weird framing device where they're talking about how they commiserate
together with their dog and then they go into the actual events of the night. So it's kind
of like a flashback is being framed by the narrative. And yeah, he's like super immature.
He's acting like a toddler. He's stamping his feet. He refuses to take his medicine,
which he did. And Eliza, the servant found for that for him and, you know, put in the
proper place. And it's just strange how immature and petty he is. And it's an odd depiction
for him. It's almost like an old depiction of like a toxic male or something. And I do
think that's strange, but I think he's a more nuanced character than that. If you really
look at how he reacts to things. I don't know. I don't know that Barry's... Mrs. Darling
is like a good woman and she is depicted in a very positive light. And George is not so
depicted, is depicted in like a less positive light. He's not bad though. I don't think
Barry thinks he's bad. I did just think he has, you know, whatever problems. He's a frail
mortal and it's more about maybe insulting the class and their pride. I'm not sure. I
don't know what class Barry was from, but you know, he is kind of insulting towards
the class and the pride. Like, you know, the parents... Anyway, what happens is because
of his pride and the fact that he gets mad at Nana and wants to throw her out because
everybody likes her better than they like him. They're sympathizing with her when he
did something nasty to her, which was make him drink, make her drink his medicine that
he didn't want to drink because he was being a baby about it. He throws her out and that
night Peter goes into the house, into the room and he's able to take the kids out of
the nursery. And again, this happens because, well, I mean, Mrs. Darling has her fault as
well. She wanted to go to this party down the street at someone's house because she
loves parties so much. And instead of staying there with her children, they went, but also
he was the one who took the dog out. So I actually find it interesting how Barry frames
it as they could both be seen as being at fault for throwing Nana out or for presenting
the opportunity for Peter Pan to come in and take their kids away. Had Nana been there,
I'm presuming like he wouldn't have thrown her out. Well, I guess had George not been
petty, he wouldn't have thrown Nana out. Had... What's the word? I can't remember. Had she
not wanted to go, Mrs. Darling not wanted to go to the party, they would have stayed there
with the kids to protect them. Even if Nana wasn't in there, they would have heard some
ruckus and then gone after Peter or the kids or whatever and been able to stop it or possibly
been able to stop it. We don't know for sure. But it's interesting because I would say the
narrative firmly places some blame on both of them and Nana did no wrong. That's the
point. She's a good dog. But yeah, it's really interesting because... Yeah, it's just so
strange how it frames the parents in the particular way it does, the narrative does. And then,
which is very realistic, it's an honesty that we don't like to express because it's not
nice to say how petty adults can be and how terrible adults can be and that's not the
way it should be. And definitely in our fiction, those sorts of things are not idealized. You
either have a type of company that is evil adults or you have noble people who are doing
the best they can. And George is a little petty and a little unnoble, but he's not doing
the best he can. And it's interesting because he still wants to be, he still desperately
wants to be loved by his family and appreciated by them and admired by them. That's like,
that fatal conceit or that flaw in him is the source of so many of these problems, which
is pretty interesting. And Mrs. Darling comes off basically seemingly really good except
for her... not the procession, it's her desire to go out and socialize and have fun with
other adults and be with the kids. That's kind of interesting. One more thing, yeah,
so there's like other crazy world building. First of all, it states that Nana is holding
Mr. Darling's hand, which I guess is the thing where dogs do the world with their paw in
their hand, I don't know. But besides that, there's this mention of stars being like sentient,
semi-sentient and being able to communicate by blinking. And there are small or young,
I'm not sure if they're small or community-based size, but for young of being small in age,
there'd be small stars that are said to be communicating with you and helping them out.
And they actually look at him or whatever and they communicate with you. Now is your
chance for the buildings around you to be doing their nursery for kids. Sounds really weird,
but it's not as weird as it sounds. But I think we hear a little bit more about stars in chapter
three. But yeah, it's really interesting how are stars sentient and how do they communicate
with you through blinking, as they look at the stars and then they blink and see where
they're going. The way everything is going is really, really interesting and I find it
fascinating and I don't think you're supposed to take it literally, but you could take it
literally if you want to and be rich. But you could also just take this very figurative,
very flowery language and be drawn in by that and be delighted by that. And I really like
this and I'm excited to move on to the rest of the book.