Let there be wonder

Fans enjoying a life-size version of Hobbiton created for the LOTR & Hobbit movies in New Zealand – photo by E. Jurus, all rights reserved

On my television as I write this post, intrepid Sinbad is battling a skeleton raised by the evil sorcerer Sokurah, inside a castle that’s a delightful amalgam of medieval walls, Arabic arches and bottomless stone caverns. There’s a massive green dragon, which, fortunately for Sinbad and the princess he’s to marry, is chained to a rock wall, but outside on their path to escape there’s an angry Cyclops bellowing for their blood. Sinbad releases the dragon from its captivity to battle the Cyclops in magnificent Dynamation, the technique invented by legendary Ray Harryhausen, master of stop-motion special effects in the 1950s to early 1980s.  

A couple of weeks ago I watched another Harryhausen movie, First Men in the Moon. While some of the premise was silly, the movie was surprisingly imaginative in its conception of a civilization of insectoid creatures living under the surface of the bright globe we gaze up at every night.

From Sinbad movies to the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, we the viewers and readers find ourselves enchanted by the stories of fantasy and adventure. The 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz has had an enduring legacy, with everything from the thousands of people still dressing up as the characters for Halloween to literary and musical adaptations to threats to bring on the flying monkeys when someone’s ticking you off.

So it was with some dismay that I read an article about Harry Potter actress Miriam Margolyes more-or-less reprimanding adult fans of the book and movie franchises for their continued enjoyment long past their childhood. Everyone’s certainly entitled to their opinion, so I’m going to offer mine: I completely disagree with her.

For every person that tells us to grow up and leave the joys of childhood behind, I applaud every person who refuses. There’s no harm in enjoying stories that still entertain us (as long as we still keep a foot in the real world, as we all have to). We need elements of fun, and play, in our daily lives – especially these days after weathering a long pandemic, worrying about climate change and having bad news blaring at us constantly.

Psychologists the medical community are all recognizing the health benefits of play, and play comes in all different forms. I read the Lord of the Rings trilogy in my early teens, and decades later my hubby and I spent a fabulous afternoon and evening at the Hobbiton movie set in New Zealand. There were fans there from all over the world, including several wearing elven cloaks, with whom we shared a fantastic hobbit-worthy meal at the Green Dragon Inn, followed by a lantern-lit walk back to Hobbiton and dancing in the Party Field.

A couple of years before that we were in the Universal Studios theme park for a couple of days on a Florida  vacation, and I have to confess that I totally geeked out in Knockturn Alley. Yes, I have a darker side, which manifests annually as early as September (or maybe sooner ) as the weather grows cooler and leaves begin to flutter to the ground.

One year hubby and I spent Halloween night in Disneyland, joining hundreds of other people in costume (he was a mad scientist and I was his partially-revived creation) to romp around with the Disney Villains, ride through the Haunted Mansion for the zillionth time and eat Halloween cupcakes until we had sugar overload. There were plenty of families there, but there were more adults in line at the trick-or-treat candy stations than children. By the time fireworks over Cinderella’s castle completed the festivities, everyone there was filled with the magic of a return to childhood for a few hours.

I hope that one day readers of my books will repeatedly revel in the adventures and the ‘worlds’ I’ve created. Growing up is overrated in some aspects, and we should never lose our childish sense of wonder and excitement. Let’s enjoy whatever makes us feel youthful and happy, and don’t let anyone tell you differently.

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