Status Updates From Mary Poppins

My audio copy had a postscript by Brian Sibley entitled “Tea With Mary Poppins.” He describes his first of several meetings with Travers. One point he made was like Tolkien, she claimed she didn’t creat Poppins so much as discovered her.

Chapter 11 “Christmas Shopping” is a delightful Christmas story in which one of the Pleiades, Miaia joins them to do some Christmas shopping for her family. Her return to the heavens reminds me of Christ’s return to Heaven.. The policeman’s obtuseness ordering a celestial being Dow to stop her messing up traffic says something about humanity.

This is the chapter in which we learn that all the natural creatures take part in a dance in which Mary Poppins is the center. I’ve seen a similar scene in Spencer’s “The Fairy Queen.” The children are allowed an audience with a hamadryad, a King Cobra. The word also means a Greek tree dryad. Another mythic tie in.

Halter ten, “The Full Moon” is a surreal almost dream event which turns out to be Mary Poppins’ birthday. However since it occurs on the night of a full moon, it is celebrated in a zoo in which humans and animals trade places and the point is made that all creatures have more in common than differences. Like the adventure with Mrs Corry, there is a mythic quality to all of this, a feminine power.

Chapter Nine, “John and Barbara”# Story” is a melancholy narrative about the inevitable movement of time and suggests that all of us once could understand the birds and wind and even the sun beams. But we forget as we grow older…except for Mary Poppins. This is the only narrative which center on the baby twins.

One othe wonderful quality of Mrs. Rory is her immense age. She has lived through various creations and recalls King Alfred and William the Conqueror as if they were childhood friends.

There trio of women along with Mary Poppins returning stars to the sky is truly magical. I wonder about what elements Travers is drawing from.

Chapter Eight, Mrs. Corry, is a bit longer and introduces some very odd characters, but only after involving a pair of store attendees—the butcher and fish monger—so naturally alive I think Dickens would be impressed. But then the troop head off to a gingerbread shop run by the tiny twittering Mrs. Corry and her giant daughter Miss Fanny and Miss Annie.

Chapter 7, “the birdwoman“ is a very short one but it gives us one of the most famous characters in the Mary Poppins narrative. It is not as central as it is in the Disney film to any larger theme. However it contains a charming image of a woman whose speech is limited to only “feed the birds: tuppence a bag.” Jane and Michael are the ones who weave the magic of this encounter more than Mary Poppins.

“Bad Tuesday” depicts Michael having terrible day. No reason is given and it seems to get worse as the day progresses. His sinfulness springs from a weight in his chest which encourages him to “not care!” And it only abates when he, like Scrooge, is faced with deadly judgement. The magic compass that allows for world teleportation is the mechanism of his journey but no real explanation is given to Michael.