Second to the Right and Straight On Till Morning (standard:non fiction, 1797 words)
Author: red1hols	Added: Aug 23 2004	Views/Reads: 3846/2278	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Think of Peter Pan and you are transported back to times of innocence, so just how could you produce a sequel?

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

seven years later. Three years later, the Great War ripped the 
structured social order that Wendy flew from apart. Barrie himself died 
in 1937 and left the rights to Peter Pan to a children's hospital. He 
wasn't to witness the changes brought about by a second global 
conflict. 

Unlike Peter Pan, we can't avoid growing up. Supposedly, we gain wisdom,
skills and knowledge. We stop looking at the story and start to seek 
out the meaning. It is then that we start to notice James M. Barrie's 
theme. Once innocence is lost, you cannot regain it. However much we 
yearn to be able to see the world without the patina of cynicism, we 
can't. 

Maybe that is why I re-acquainted myself with Peter Pan once I had
children of my own. Perhaps I hoped that they would discover the joys 
of holding onto innocence and buck the fashion of growing up earlier 
and earlier. 

When they were very young, I read them the Disney Peter Pan storybook.
More of a series of pictures from the film strung together with simple 
words, it doesn't justify quotations around the name. 

The real re-introduction came when I took my children to see Brian
Blessed play Captain Hook (and Mr. Darling) at the Derngate in 
Northampton. 

Brian Blessed has a cult status in the UK. He has appeared as “Boss Nass
in Star Wars - Episode 1” and as leader of the Bird People in “Flash 
Gordon”, both roles are subdued compared to what he brought to the role 
of Captain Hook. Being a larger than life character on a small stage, I 
suppose he was going to dominate the production. 

My children have grown up now. In the spirit of research, I asked my
daughter about her memories of the play. She recalled the failing 
scenery and Brian Blessed splitting his trousers. Still, that is far 
superior to my memory of my pantomime trip. 

Already in her short life society has moved on. The Internet, the
computer, the mobile phone and the video game have embedded themselves 
into our lives. Global Terrorism has replaced Global War as the demon. 
The rise of the Global Corporate continues to change the way we carve 
out careers. We measure success more by what we consume rather than 
what we create. 

Hardly surprising then that she is already giving the world her own
patina of cynicism. Our conversation expanded and moved on to the 
amazing parallels between “Peter Pan” and “Alice in Wonderland”. Both 
deal with the rites of passage from childhood to adulthood, since their 
deaths; critics have questioned the motives and morals of the authors. 

My little girl has left her Neverland behind. 

We can give thanks that the original remains. Generations of children
will discover its wonder and enchantment. Neverland is crammed with 
enough fuel to provide a life time of adventures. The characters of 
Peter, Wendy, John, Michael, Hook, Tinkerbell, The Lost Boys and Smee 
never give a child the excuse to look beyond the story. With any luck, 
I will have opportunity to read it to the next generation and enjoy 
their reactions of innocent excitement. 

Change and time will ensure that the next generation will know even less
of the governesses, nurseries and servants of Edwardian England. 
Although these help form the framework of “Peter Pan”, somehow, it just 
doesn't matter. Their presence in the story only goes to add to the 
mystery and adventure of it all. The book is a classic. A classic 
brought about by its time rather than a timeless classic. 

While everything around him grows up and changes, Peter Pan will remain
suspended in time. J. M. Barrie's bequest of the rights to Great Ormond 
Street Hospital ensuring that the benefits are life enhancing at so may 
levels. 

The success of “Peter Pan” has helped thousands of children. The
hospital is at forefront of pioneering techniques to help sick 
children. 

In the last seventy years, medical advances have been staggering.
Antibiotics, advances in surgery, new drugs, X-Rays and the human 
genome project now offer new hope to sick and injured children. We even 
have transplant technology, a thing of horror in Mary Shelly's 1816 
novel, “Frankenstein”. With all of these advances has come an increase 
in cost. It is understandable that the hospital, faced with the 
expiration of the rights, are seeking someone to write a sequel to 
“Peter Pan”. 

The disquieting part of this is that they are seeking to update the
story for the twenty-first century. After all, we are talking of a 
children's adventure story set in Edwardian England which is a metaphor 
of Wendy ceasing to be a girl and becoming a lady (nice girls in 
Edwardian London didn't become women, they became ladies). 

The twenty-first century doesn't provide such a clear cut rite of
passage. The innocence of childhood appears to be lost at a much 
earlier age. There seems to be such a rush towards being grown up, 
especially among girls. Try as I might, I cannot think of any event in 
a child's life that would mark the passage into adulthood in the same 
was as leaving the Edwardian nursery. 

Whoever takes up the cudgel to try to write a sequel has a major issue. 

Perhaps the solution lies by turning things on their head. In order to
give “Peter Pan” a modern edge, the writer has to try to recapture the 
innocence and wonder of a child. The story would not be one of leaving 
childhood behind, but returning to Neverland in attempt to rediscover 
it. 

Modern society offers up a multitude of opportunities to destroy the
innocence of a child. Pick one and that would be the starting point. 

However, by returning to Neverland, it would not protect against the
demons. Those would surely follow. Captain Hook would be bound to 
return, but in a new form – pirates are so old nineteenth century you 
know! 

By now, Hook would have discovered drug running and what better hideaway
than Neverland? 

So the adventure would begin. 

We would have to do something about the Indians. After all, they would
have moved from their tents and into the resort business. Tiger Lily's 
all inclusive casino and luxury apartment complex becoming a target for 
the evil Hook to use for money laundering. 

I don't envy the writer chosen for this task. Modern cynicism is already
tarnishing my thoughts. It makes me wonder if Neverland could survive 
the sequel, let alone give the option of a further book. 


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