The World Beyond The Hill
Nov. 27th, 2005 09:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kerravonsenThere is a book on my shelf called "The World Beyond The Hill" by Alexi and Cory Panshin, which ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
aizain introduced me to. It's a history of science fiction from a mytheopoeic standpoint; the thesis is that SF is modern myth, it fulfills the same kind of cultural need. In myth, the hero leaves his village, and ventures into the world beyond the hill, and comes back with tales of wonder and terror, and sometimes he comes back changed. Or else, denizens from the world beyond the hill visit the village, and then leave again (or are driven out).
One of the interesting things that Russell T. Davis said on the commentary to "Rose" was that one of the great things about Doctor Who (and the Autons) was how it made ordinary things scary -- like dust-bins. Which reminds me of this quote from Lewis: "He does not despise real woods because he has read of enchanted woods: the reading makes all real woods a little enchanted."
Doctor Who makes all dustbins a little enchanted.
The Doctor is not just a visitor from Beyond, he brings the World Beyond the Hill with him, and as is often the case when the Beyond comes into the Village, it is in the form of danger and terror. The horror always comes before the wonder, because the Beyond is strange, scary and dangerous. People fear what they do not understand, fear is our first reaction. Fear is easier to evoke. And of course the World Beyond the Hill is very dangerous, especially to those who don't carry handy-dandy vials of anti-plastic on their person. It can swallow you whole.
It isn't until you cast off your fear and try to see the Beyond on its own terms, that you can see the wonder of it -- like Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, who was the only one who went into the toxic jungle without fearing and hating it, and thus was the only one who could see its wonders. In Doctor Who, Mickey refuses to go with the Doctor, because he can only see the horror and terror of the Beyond, while Rose goes with him willingly, because she seeks its wonders. But then, when he introduces her to them in "The End of the World", she gets freaked out, she's not quite ready for all the strangeness, to see all these Things as People... until the conversation with the blue-skinned plumber, when the strangeness suddenly doesn't matter: this is a person like her.
When Roes does come back, when she is stranded in the "village" in "The Parting of the Ways", she comes back changed. Her horizons are broader than just fish and chips and the local pub. She wants to save the world.
Interestingly enough, Adam also comes back changed, but he comes back cursed. He tried to steal the forbidden fruit, and bring it back to the Village, for his own selfish profit. He'd been shown the wonders, the goose that laid golden eggs, and all he wanted to do was cut open the goose. His mind was still in the Village.
Rose, on the other hand, becomes a citizen of the universe.
aizain introduced me to. It's a history of science fiction from a mytheopoeic standpoint; the thesis is that SF is modern myth, it fulfills the same kind of cultural need. In myth, the hero leaves his village, and ventures into the world beyond the hill, and comes back with tales of wonder and terror, and sometimes he comes back changed. Or else, denizens from the world beyond the hill visit the village, and then leave again (or are driven out).One of the interesting things that Russell T. Davis said on the commentary to "Rose" was that one of the great things about Doctor Who (and the Autons) was how it made ordinary things scary -- like dust-bins. Which reminds me of this quote from Lewis: "He does not despise real woods because he has read of enchanted woods: the reading makes all real woods a little enchanted."
Doctor Who makes all dustbins a little enchanted.
The Doctor is not just a visitor from Beyond, he brings the World Beyond the Hill with him, and as is often the case when the Beyond comes into the Village, it is in the form of danger and terror. The horror always comes before the wonder, because the Beyond is strange, scary and dangerous. People fear what they do not understand, fear is our first reaction. Fear is easier to evoke. And of course the World Beyond the Hill is very dangerous, especially to those who don't carry handy-dandy vials of anti-plastic on their person. It can swallow you whole.
It isn't until you cast off your fear and try to see the Beyond on its own terms, that you can see the wonder of it -- like Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, who was the only one who went into the toxic jungle without fearing and hating it, and thus was the only one who could see its wonders. In Doctor Who, Mickey refuses to go with the Doctor, because he can only see the horror and terror of the Beyond, while Rose goes with him willingly, because she seeks its wonders. But then, when he introduces her to them in "The End of the World", she gets freaked out, she's not quite ready for all the strangeness, to see all these Things as People... until the conversation with the blue-skinned plumber, when the strangeness suddenly doesn't matter: this is a person like her.
When Roes does come back, when she is stranded in the "village" in "The Parting of the Ways", she comes back changed. Her horizons are broader than just fish and chips and the local pub. She wants to save the world.
Interestingly enough, Adam also comes back changed, but he comes back cursed. He tried to steal the forbidden fruit, and bring it back to the Village, for his own selfish profit. He'd been shown the wonders, the goose that laid golden eggs, and all he wanted to do was cut open the goose. His mind was still in the Village.
Rose, on the other hand, becomes a citizen of the universe.
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no subject
Date: 2005-11-27 01:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-27 02:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-27 09:53 am (UTC)That's beautiful.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-27 10:33 am (UTC)What a great line!
Incidentally, if you haven't read Alexei Panshin's SF novel "Rite of Passage", I can recommend it. (I hope that it's really as good as I remember it being, as it must be around 25 years since I read it.)
no subject
Date: 2005-11-27 11:18 am (UTC)Thanks.
Alexei Panshin's SF novel "Rite of Passage"
I remember I did read something written by Panshin when I was a teenager, but I can't remember what it was.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-27 11:28 am (UTC)http://www.adherents.com/lit/bk_Pans_RiteOfPassage.html
It does have a couple of mild spoilers, but it's a novel where the setting and the characterisation are more important than plot details so they shouldn't matter too much.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-27 08:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-27 08:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-27 03:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-27 07:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-28 01:35 pm (UTC)where is the village
Date: 2005-12-03 12:40 am (UTC)David
Re: where is the village
Date: 2005-12-03 12:51 am (UTC)