This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. You can find all my work at MJMunoz.com
I'm talking about Peter Pan, Chapter 10, as I continue talking about this book, chapter by chapter.
So this is interesting. Barry sets up the status quo of the happy home for Peter and Wendy and the Lost Boys,
as well as the Redskins, who are now their friends, all in an effort to make us feel more bitterly or more sharply
what is going to befall them in the next chapter or two.
He even hints literally at it as the chapter progresses, and things are going so well for everybody that this will be the last time
that they will all be together in this house.
Towards the very end he says that they played this song, and it was a creepy song,
and there were these shadows that they played with, and little did they know that there would be actual creeping shadows
that were going to get them and to attack them soon, and it would really scare them and take them away from the stuff that they love.
So that's really interesting. I love how he ratchets up the tension.
In order to do that, we get some really fun stuff, some really cozy home life stuff,
where the children are at tea, I'm assuming like four o'clock tea, because they're British,
and they have pretend mugs that they're drinking pretend tea at.
They're really complaining against each other for different things,
and because Wendy has a strict no hitting each other policy while we're at table,
they've come up with this thing where they have to raise their hands and wait for her to call on them,
and then they say, I complain of so-and-so for doing such-and-such, and Wendy accepts that.
But apparently, as boys will do, as children will do, they abuse the system,
and they either all raise their hands to complain of each other too much, or they don't raise their hands at all,
and they're just saying, I complain of so-and-so, I complain of this, I complain of that,
and he goes through this scene illustrating the way that they're all complaining of each other for doing different things,
and at one point, even the narrator says, so-and-so said this, that was telling, or that was, yeah, I think it was that was telling,
and then so-and-so says, I complain of such-and-such, and it's funny, it's really funny,
and there's even the thing with, I think it's slightly he wants to be the baby,
he wants to be like, he wants to sit in father's chair, he wants to be father, he wants to be a baby,
he wants to be something important, and he gets all worked up, and Michael tells him, no, he can't be the baby,
and then like a couple minutes later, Michael says that he doesn't want to be the baby,
he complains about that to Wendy, and says he wants to get out of it, and she's like, no,
a baby is such a cozy thing to have in a house that we have to have a baby in a crib,
and I don't think there's a crib, I think they're just pretending that he's in a crib, and yet that makes it all work,
so again, the power of pretend and the power of play is so fun, and it's so endearing, and it really is rather magical,
and I like how it's working on one level, just it's telling the story, and it's telling of these kids playing and pretending,
and that's magical in and of itself, and it makes for such a happy atmosphere that,
and the chapter is even called the happy home, that it really does give a sense of, I don't know, like warmth and wholeness and wholesomeness,
and then as Barry starts peppering in that this is going to be the last time, and that there's bad stuff coming along the way,
it kind of does create tension just by him setting things up very nicely and then saying, but it's not going to last,
and I think it's very effective and very good, and I like it, I don't know how old the technique of going one way
and then setting it up to spring back and go another direction is, but I like it, and it's very effective and very good,
and I think it's very well done here, it's very skillfully done here, and I really appreciate it, so that's it for now.
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I want to hear people's thoughts about what's going on in these books, what's going on in these books chapter by chapter,
and even in the book as a whole. I will be having a book chat covering the full book at the end of this book,
so I'll finish it and then I'll do the last chapter by itself, and then after that I'll do one more,
I'll do a fortress fiction episode where I talk specifically about this episode, about this book as a whole and its merits
and whether or not I think it belongs in the fortress fiction, and anyway, I will continue doing that,
and I'm continuing to work on my own book about magical bugs battling monsters, and once I get that one published,
I'll let you all know about it and I'll share different things about it here, because I think you'll like it,
if you like Peter Pan, I think you'll like this book, so anyway, until next time folks, take care, be well, and keep reading.
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