Fairy Tale Spotlight: Mary Poppins [Book Review]

[Spoilers included.]

I originally wanted to call this blog "Mary Poppins is a Weird Book," but I figured I'd keep to my usual format. But it is true. The book is weird. It's very weird, and the movies don't really do it justice.

I'm not saying the movies are bad. In fact, they are quite good. I actually love both films and still do. But they don't really represent the book. The book is its own thing and that is fine too. I happen to love that first "Mary Poppins" book just as it is, but that doesn't change the fact that is an extremely weird book.

Comparing it to the movies were difficult NOT to do. I was constantly doing it. But what was missing was the actual plot of the film. The whole story about Michael not wanting to invest money in the bank and his father getting into trouble with the bank was not in the book at all. In fact, there was no actual overarching plot in the book, unless you count "Mary Poppins is strange" as that plot.

The book is laid out as a series of short stories which take place in chronological order. Among my friends, I compared it to the "MASH" book a lot. The difference here is that it is seriously hard to tell exactly how much time is passing between chapters... and even sometimes between some sentences. Time sort of flows however it feels like, and the author P. L. Travers does not make it really clear when anything happens relative to the previous moment.

The concept of Mary Poppins is that she is some sort of entity that may have been alive since the beginning of the universe. She has her third eye wide open. She is aware of things in the world that nobody else seems to notice. However, if you happen to be with her, your third eye will be forced open for the time being.

The book also suggests that infants, before their first birthday, also have their third eye open and understand everything for just that amount of time. When that time expires though, they lose that ability and never seem to remember it ever happening. Older children and adults have some sort of coping mechanism that causes them to disbelieve in impossible things.

Much of the impossible things that happen in the book seem silly when first presented, but are interwoven into some very solid pagan/pantheistic lore that is actually very well written for what it is. Everything in the universe seems to have a spirit of some sort, and Mary Poppins is in tune with all of it. There was no mention of a God or specifically a Christian God in the entire story. However, spiritual matters were everywhere, and Mary seemed to be in tune with every bit of it.

Although I do not agree with books with this theme, I tend to find them far more interesting than standard Christian stories. And personally, this is a book I do recommend. I recommend it because what it does, as far as pagan/pantheism, is done extremely well. Mary Poppins is a fascinating character. Not all that pretty, but certainly vain. Open minded to all that is there, yet she never quite will admit to any of it. The story is left to the children to interpret, and that was a good way to do it.

Even if you prefer the movies, the book is worth reading. Just temporarily let the movies go and take a moment to explore who Mary Poppins really is. I think you may find it all very interesting and give you a better look into how the author may have seen her.

"Marry Poppins" was published in 1934 and written by P. L. Travers.

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