Posted by Eric Abraham on October 25, 2006 at 14:07:18 from 63.245.133.210 user EricAbraham.
In Reply to: Re: A report on Goblin Creek, Witch's Quay and Flint Island posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on October 25, 2006 at 08:43:11:
When I was 11 or 12 I bought a map on linen of the British Isles from the National Geographic Society (I still have it) on which I found "The Naze" and realized "Secret Water" and the Broads were real places! The Lake District I found, as everyone mentions, "altered" in the books. Still, the map only enhanced my appreciation for the series - I was definately NOT dissapointed! Most of the books I was reading then took place in fictional places - that was the author's right, I presumed.
Everything didn't have to be "Real" - and still doesn't and just WHAT IS "Reality" anyway? -- we now have "virtual reality", is that "Real"? It becomes very confusing, sometimes. I think the feelings that are reported here upon visiting sites in the books, such as Wild Cat Island, are very Real to the people who are experienceing them.
From that point on I absorbed everything I could about the British Isles! And continued to imagine and draw my own stories about the Swallows and Amazons embarking on even more exotic adventures than in Peter Duck and Missee Lee!
I believe that the purpose of fiction IS to enable the mind to explore areas that are unexplorable in the real physical world (even though the stories are based on real people and places).
Eric Abraham - Exploring Kansas and Elsewhere (a Real? Place)!