Kiera Vaclavik
192
Until the very last page of the text, the influence of the underground environment is exclusively negative, but it is at this point that
MacDonald suddenly backs down, shying away from so unequivocal a
position. Many goblins die in the flood they have themselves provoked, others escape and return to the surface, but some survive and
remain underground. Of these, most “grew milder in character, and
indeed became very much like the Scotch Brownies. Their skulls became softer as well as their hearts, and their feet grew harder, and by
degrees they became friendly with the inhabitants of the mountain and
even with the miners” (p. 458). Thus, the underground can foster
physical and moral improvements as well as deterioration.
In a slightly later text, “The Day Boy and the Night Girl”
(1879), MacDonald pursues this more positive perspective on the underground. Here, a witch embarks upon a programme of social engineering in which two children are brought up, from birth, in
diametrically opposed conditions: a boy named Photogen is housed in
a tower and never exposed to darkness, while a girl, Nycteris, dwells
in an underground chamber modelled on an Egyptian tomb, and never
experiences any light other than that of a dim lamp. Sixteen years
spent underground have physical consequences for Nycteris which
bring her dangerously close to the grotesque: “her optic nerves, and
indeed her whole apparatus for seeing, grew both larger and more sensitive; her eyes, indeed, stopped short only of being too large”.
13
When, with clear undertones of the Platonic cave narrative, she makes
the difficult journey up to the surface, she is able to “see better than
any cat”, and to see colours invisible to ordinary human eyes (p.
182).
14 But her underground existence in no way leads to spiritual corruption or degeneration: she is sensitive and appreciative of the smallest things, impressively attuned to nature and – in her relationship
with Photogen – shown to be sympathetic, compassionate and loving.
___________________________
‘The Day Boy and the Night Girl’”, Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, 10 (1999),
308-20.
13 George MacDonald, “The Day Boy and the Night Girl”, in Victorian Fairy Tales:
The Revolt of the Fairies and Elves, ed. by Jack Zipes (New York/London: Routledge,
1989), pp. 175-208 (p. 179). Subsequent references are to this edition and are given
after quotations in the main body of the text.
14 See Frank Riga, “The Platonic Imagery of George MacDonald and C. S. Lewis: The
Allegory of the Cave Transfigured”, in For the Childlike: George MacDonald’s Fantasies For Children, pp. 111-32.
192
Until the very last page of the text, the influence of the underground environment is exclusively negative, but it is at this point that
MacDonald suddenly backs down, shying away from so unequivocal a
position. Many goblins die in the flood they have themselves provoked, others escape and return to the surface, but some survive and
remain underground. Of these, most “grew milder in character, and
indeed became very much like the Scotch Brownies. Their skulls became softer as well as their hearts, and their feet grew harder, and by
degrees they became friendly with the inhabitants of the mountain and
even with the miners” (p. 458). Thus, the underground can foster
physical and moral improvements as well as deterioration.
In a slightly later text, “The Day Boy and the Night Girl”
(1879), MacDonald pursues this more positive perspective on the underground. Here, a witch embarks upon a programme of social engineering in which two children are brought up, from birth, in
diametrically opposed conditions: a boy named Photogen is housed in
a tower and never exposed to darkness, while a girl, Nycteris, dwells
in an underground chamber modelled on an Egyptian tomb, and never
experiences any light other than that of a dim lamp. Sixteen years
spent underground have physical consequences for Nycteris which
bring her dangerously close to the grotesque: “her optic nerves, and
indeed her whole apparatus for seeing, grew both larger and more sensitive; her eyes, indeed, stopped short only of being too large”.
13
When, with clear undertones of the Platonic cave narrative, she makes
the difficult journey up to the surface, she is able to “see better than
any cat”, and to see colours invisible to ordinary human eyes (p.
182).
14 But her underground existence in no way leads to spiritual corruption or degeneration: she is sensitive and appreciative of the smallest things, impressively attuned to nature and – in her relationship
with Photogen – shown to be sympathetic, compassionate and loving.
___________________________
‘The Day Boy and the Night Girl’”, Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, 10 (1999),
308-20.
13 George MacDonald, “The Day Boy and the Night Girl”, in Victorian Fairy Tales:
The Revolt of the Fairies and Elves, ed. by Jack Zipes (New York/London: Routledge,
1989), pp. 175-208 (p. 179). Subsequent references are to this edition and are given
after quotations in the main body of the text.
14 See Frank Riga, “The Platonic Imagery of George MacDonald and C. S. Lewis: The
Allegory of the Cave Transfigured”, in For the Childlike: George MacDonald’s Fantasies For Children, pp. 111-32.