SNOWGLOBAL II

Earlier today I posted that quote by Guillermo del Toro about the existence of the magical brought about by Belief. And then I mentioned that I wrote about the same thing in my Toobworld novel.

I mention that novel every so often, but I'm not sure when/if I'll ever be ready to send it out.

Oh, it's finished, but I keep coming up with new nitpicks to add or amend to the body of the story. But I thought I'd at least share with you now that same section I mentioned - in which my characters discuss how Belief can bring fictional characters to life.

Hey, it's my birthday party, I'll quote if I want to.....

"I don't see where there is a major difference between literature and television," said Bat. "They're just different ways to tell stories. Mankind has been telling stories since he could first corner an audience. Gathered around their campfires, the tellers of tales would spin their myths about their gods and heroes, monsters and strange occurrences. All to explain the mysteries of the world around them."

Bat leaned forward and as one, The Group leaned into the circle to listen. Obviously, thought Thom, Bat had mastered the art of the storyteller over the years. With their attention focused on the editor, Thom was the only one to notice Keefe get up and leave the room, but he figured the puppeteer still had a few pints to empty.

"Because of the book I’m working on, right now ghost stories are my particular area of expertise," Bat continued. "I believe they may be one of the older forms of folklore. As the cavemen sat close to their fires, who knew what types of supernatural beings lurked in the shadows beyond the fire and in the shadows of their minds? The stories gave them a way to talk out their fears. They were told and retold, embellished and revised, over the ages. Until the audiences came to believe in the ghosts, the demons, and the elves. Mankind put so much of his belief, his faith, into the booguns of his subconscious that it gave them life."

"Get real!" scoffed Mary Ann. She wasn't giving anybody the benefit of the doubt.

But Bat was unfazed. "No? What about the sightings of the Devil during the years of the Salem Witch Trials? And of Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster? Au grand seriux, who here can truthfully say that they never were afraid of ghosts, even though they knew ghosts couldn't be real?"

"Not me," Griff admitted. "I still won't go down into our parents' basement if I'm the only one in the house."

"The only one.... LIVING, that is!" Rafe intoned with an evil laugh. Rachel smacked him with a throw pillow.

"En fin, television is a direct descendant of that oral tradition," Bat concluded. "Only the fire is now a flickering blue light with the stories built in."

"Funny you should put it that way," Toob remarked. "Ed Wynn once described television as the 'glass furnace'."

Rachel Wixted was still mulling over Bat's theory. "So you're saying that if enough people believed in Joe Friday and Roseanne Roseannadanna like Toob does, then it would bring them to life?"

Bat nodded. "A gestalt existence."

"The power of the Id," added Nash.

"Horseshit!" sneered Rafe.

Hope you liked that....

BCnU!