Identity and Individuality of Derivative Fictions -- continued

Wendy manages to get close to the long-awaited dreamland of Neverland, where she sees Captain Hook's pirate ship for the first time, and immediately mentions her specific knowledge of the boat’s capabilities, and John also gives his detailed information about each member of the crew. Just as Peter was told in the original Peter and Wendy, the pirates who haunt Neverland are actually nothing more than mental landscapes that have existed in the depths of children’s minds from the beginning. Again, they follow the scene at the beginning of the film Peter Pan where Wendy talked to her brothers, showing off their expertise in the world of vicious pirates that Wendy did not possess in the original novel.

Forty gunner. She must do 12 knots under full sail.
／Noodler, with his hands on backwards! Bill Jukes!
Every inch of him tattooed.

The film Peter Pan shows the grotesque appearance of the Noodler, with visual description, using specific but subtle momentary cuts. And both of Wendy’s younger brothers, John and Michael, have exactly the same level of grasp and understanding of the details of Neverland as Wendy have.
They instantly identify the legendary pirate Hook at a glance.

Hook!／Let’s take a closer look.　

Sensing the approach of his opponents, the children, Hook immediately prepares for battle. Hook is not only a wicked antagonist against Peter, but also an ideal villain who embodies the crude desires of children who love adventure and conflict with all their hearts.
So Hook’s response is relentless.

Fetch Long Tom. Fire!

In the movie Peter Pan, the scene that follows Peter’s counterattack is depicted in a scene that uses visual expression to quickly proceed with the action, while in the original Peter and Wendy, the world of Neverland itself was targeted, and this mysterious realm of Peter’s home was impressively depicted using a peculiar narration, showing it is a different dimensional space within the psyche shared by all the children.

Strange to say, they all recognised it at once, and
until fear fell upon them they hailed it,
not as something long dreamt of and seen at last,
but as a familiar friend to whom they
were returning home for the holidays.
p. 45

We can see that the lines spoken by Wendy and John when they saw the pirate ship earlier eroded some of the original narration in a more concrete form in the movie Peter Pan. Somehow Wendy manages to reach Neverland safely after surviving Hook’s relentless attack, but the Lost Boys, instigated by Tinker Bell, shoot Wendy down with a bow and arrow. The description of this situation brilliantly exposes the uncaring selfishness of children and their undisguised brutality, which was the subject of the original novel Peter and Wendy, from a different angle in the film.

I got it.／I got it.／That is no bird.／It is a lady.
／And Tootles … Tootles has killed her.

The children’s innate “heartless” mentality can be clearly seen in the way they blindly assert their rights without acknowledging the credit of others, and then mercilessly abandons and denounces their fellow who has made a mistake, and the selfish nature of Peter, who joined in this scene, is not at all different from them, because he does not care about others’ feelings and always thinks only of himself. Not only that, but Peter’s joy lies in his ruthless acts and merciless carnage.

I’m back! Great news! I know what happened to
Cinderella. She defeated the pirates.
There was stabbing, slicing, torturing, bleeding…
and they lived happily ever after.

The lines spoken in this scene by Peter exposing his terrible tastes were not in the original story, but they must have been in the region of the archetype Peter Pan, and they were ones most suitable spoken by Peter, who is fond of fierce adventure and sanguinary battle. And there are also examples of descriptions of the cruelty and ruthlessness of the children’s minds that accurately correspond to this in the original Peter and Wendy. In the film Peter Pan, Wendy herself played an active role in representing this characteristic at the beginning.
　However, perhaps the most striking part of the story, which illustrates the cruelty of the nature of children, is the depiction of the desperate fight of Peter’s arch enemy, Captain Hook, in his final moments in the original novel Peter and Wendy. It is because, more than talking about the ruthlessness of Peter or Hook themselves, it is explicit that the basic subject of the story is the introduction of a taste for cruelty that is totally tolerated by the reader. In the original Peter and Wendy, the depiction of Hook continuing to fight desperately even after losing all his minions and being left alone, was a horrific one as follows.

I think all were gone when a group of savage boys
surrounded Hook, who seemed to have a charmed life,
as he kept them at bay in that circle of fire. They
had done for his dogs, but this man alone seemed to
be a match for them all. Again and again they
closed upon him, and again and again he hewed a
clear space. He had lifted up one boy with his
hook, and was using him as a buckler, when another,
who had just passed his sword through
Mullins, sprang into the fray.
p. 132

This is a gruesome scene that seems to be difficult to describe in video, but the boy who is caught by the Hook’s claw may have been happily enjoying this cruel treatment. It is because Neverland is a dreamland where fantastical delusion is realized freed from all the shackles of the reality, completely defying reason. Both killing and being killed are nothing more than children’s favorite make-believe enjoyment.
The children’s talk that follows in the movie Peter Pan also shows the selfish mentality peculiar to children, represented by Peter, which was expressed by the author using the word “heartlessness”.

Well, that’s a relief, I must say. ／Great news. I
have brought you she that told of
Cinderella. She is to tell us stories! ／She is…
Dead.／Tragic.／Awful.／Good shot, though. ／Whose
arrow? ／Mine, Peter. Strike, Peter. Strike true.

There is a contrast between the boys who abandon their comrade who has made blunder as if they have nothing to do with it, and skillfully reading the atmosphere around them and play innocent with blank faces, and the foolish Tootles who admits his fault and confesses. The author, Barrie, relentlessly continues to describe the ruthless and uncaring nature of children, in his novel. In the movie Peter Pan, a number of characteristic descriptions of the nature of the children, which were not given the opportunity to be told in the original Peter and Wendy, are embodied through vivid dialogue.
At this point, Peter notices that Wendy is still alive.

The Wendy lives! It’s my kiss. My kiss saved her.
／I remember kisses. ／Let me see it. Aye, that is a
kiss. A powerful thing.

It is a peculiar behavior pattern of children that adults have forgotten, wanting to pretend to know and make a plausible statement without understanding. It was a unique style of fictional description that was accomplished by the original Peter and Wendy, to set a point of view disguising the mind of a child and enjoying the world of makeup believe with them, while at the same time glancing at the rough behavior of them just as it is while harshly criticizing it with sober eyes. And the movie Peter Pan seems to maintain this fictional identity, accurately transforming it into a video work. The result is embodied in various possible dialogues/actions that could have existed in the original work but were not actually confirmed as phenomenal events.

She must stay here and die. ／ No! ／ How could I
have thought that? Stupid. Sorry. ／ We shall build
a house around her. ／ Yeah! ／ Brilliant! ／ With a
chimney! And a door knocker! ／ Perfect. ／ With
windows. ／ Windows! ／ Something to look out of. ／
Did you hear that? ／ He is a genius!

The unmistakable and authentic world of “Peter Pan,” which must have existed in the primordial archetype mode of “Peter Pan” but for various reasons did not have the opportunity to be manifested in the form of a phenomenal substance in either the stage drama Peter Pan or the novel Peter and Wendy, can be found in the derivative work revealed, following a different route.
The children hold their breath as Wendy wakes up in the house they built. The girl’s visit is the first adventure they have ever experienced. But among the tense Lost Boys, Peter is the only one who has the privilege of being allowed to speak on a whim as valid without missing the mark.

First impressions are very, very important. Here
she is! Look loveable. Wendy lady… for you we
built this house. With a door knocker. And a
chimney. One, two, three. Please be our mother.

The term “first impression” used by the Lost Boys here, which is a bit difficult phrase for them, was introduced in the original story with the following additional description by the narrator:

“All look your best,” Peter warned them; “first
impressions are awfully important. He was glad no
one asked him what first impressions are; they were
all too busy looking their best.
p. 69

As subtly implied here, the mysterious contrast between the rare privileges granted only to Peter and the pleasures enjoyed by ordinary people to which only Peter is excluded was an important philosophical theme in the original Peter and Wendy, and this divergence between the divine and human phases was a key philosophical theme in the film Peter Pan, where the conversion description is made constructing deliberate correspondence.
Wendy, who wakes up in the ideal house she had envisioned in her heart and is suddenly asked to be their mother by the Lost Boys who appeared there, shows a hesitant expression, saying, “I have no experience.” At times like this, Peter is the only one who is always full of confidence. In the original Peter and Wendy, it was described as follows:

“That doesn’t matter”, said Peter, as if he were the only present person who knew all about it, though he was really the one who knew least.
p. 70

One of the distinguishing qualities of the character of Peter Pan is the contradictory combination of ignorance and wisdom, of immense abilities and fatal flaws. (note)

note:
Specific examples of the philosophical significance of the interpretation of personality and deity in this character are examined in the author’s article, “Peter’s Ignorance and Mysterious Wisdom,” included in Fantasy as Antifantasy, Kindai Bungei-sha, (2005).


Peter brings Wendy to their underground house and immediately begins to play the role of the children’s father as usual. The typical dad actions in Peter’s mind are best illustrated by the following line he begins to say shortly after welcoming Wendy into his hideout:

Welcome, Mother. Discipline. That’s what fathers believe in. We must spunk the children immediately… before they try to kill you again. In fact, we should kill them.

Again, this is a line that was not in the original Peter and Wendy, but it is a perfect line that this boy would say. In the episodes of Peter Pan and in the descriptions of him, there are various details lurking that could not be embodied as a fictional description in the phenomenal world. What gives us the opportunity to realize these latent potentialities is the region of derivative works, which lies in the worlds set on different dimensional axes.