“If you believe in fairies, clap your hands…”
🙂 🙂 🙂
In this short book, Conan Doyle tells the story of the famous ‘Cottingley Fairies’ – 5 photographs taken over a three-year period purporting to show fairies and gnomes sporting in a valley in Yorkshire. The photos were taken by two young girls, but it was only when Conan Doyle got his hands on them that they became a cause célèbre.
By the time the first photos surfaced in 1917, Conan Doyle had already become a firm supporter of spiritualism and, while he makes it clear that he doesn’t consider the existence of fairies to be directly related to people communicating from beyond the grave, he expresses his hope that this ‘proof’ of one thing thought to be a myth might open people’s minds to considering the truth of the other. In short, he was motivated to accept the photos as genuine and to dismiss any other explanation. And sadly, that’s exactly what he does.
‘Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.’
Unlike the revered Mr Holmes, Conan Doyle decided to believe the improbable by assuming that it was impossible for the girls to fake the photos. Fortunately, by the time the girls admitted that the fairies were copied from a magazine, cut out from cardboard and held in place by hatpins, Conan Doyle had long since died – though of course one of his medium friends may have passed on the shock news.
“We received [psychic] communications from a fairy named Bebel several times, one of them lasting nearly an hour. The communication was as decided and swift as from the most powerful spirit. He told us that he was a Leprechaun (male), but that in a ruined fort near us dwelt the Pixies. Our demesne had been the habitation of Leprechauns always, and they with their Queen Picel, mounted on her gorgeous dragon-fly, found all they required in our grounds.”
Extract of a letter from one of Conan Doyle’s ‘witnesses’.
The book itself is less interesting than I hoped. Conan Doyle includes his own magazine article and copies of the correspondence between himself and Edward Gardner, the man who carried out the investigation. But he also includes copies of lots of correspondence he received from other people also claiming to have seen fairies and his acceptance of even the tallest of these tales becomes somewhat uncomfortable after a time. There’s also a long chapter in the form of a report from a clairvoyant who sees so many fairies, goblins and gnomes cavorting in the valley that it’s hard to understand how a man of Conan Doyle’s undoubted intelligence couldn’t see it for the sham it so clearly was. Unless, of course, you believe in fairies…
(It’s OK, Lady Fancifull – I’ve finished. You can stop clapping now… 😉 )
Very interesting! Personally, the professor thinks Doyle was a bit funny in the head. If fairies existed the professor would be quite scared, I believe.
Professor Fiction Fan IS a fairy. You are right to be scared
No, no, no, Tinkerbell! Don’t mislead the poor Professor! You know fine well I’m a gnome…
Interesting. But I’m not sure the professor knows the difference between a gnome and a fairy. (LF, that seems to make sense…)
Fairies are wicked, but gnomes are wickeder…
That makes sense, then, that FEF is a gnome, definitely. Definitely makes sense.
But then fairies are pretty, and gnomes are…ugly…
Well in that sense, FEF is a fairy.
😆 Very smooth, C-W-W – thank you! How about a gnairy…or a fome…
The professor is usually smooth–except when he’s dancing. Well, I don’t like gnairy, reminds me of hairy. And fome…I think we have to do better.
He is, and I bet he is… 🙂
Yes, I think you’re right(er) about gnairy. Well, you’re the creative one…
😎
Haha! Well…how about…FEF. I think that sums up everything rather well. The wickedness and the…uhh…prettiness.
Oh, you sweet old Professor, you! (Though a bit less hesitation over the prettiness bit would have been more convincing… 😉 )
Coincidentally I’m listening to your friend Angel at the mo – while writing reviews. I wonder if all my reviews will come out sounding vaguely Spanish…
😀 Well I was hesitating because the professor doesn’t like to call people pretty. It’s unprofessorish; but since FEF’s a very good friend…
Sweet! Hope you’re enjoying it. I’m writing posts too, and this professor is listening to Inception’s soundtrack. (Spanish reviews would be neat.)
Well, I think it’s good practice for the Professor…and not at all unprofessorish… 😉
Yes I did – or do. I don’t know Inception at all, I’m afraid – neither film nor soundtrack. (They would be miraculous given the only Spanish I know is paella and olé! Oh, and Vamos, Rafa, of course…)
But I don’t see why the professor should practice such things…
That’s a good thing. The professor watched Inception and it boggled his mind. I’m still not over the confusion. (Some say, it had a lot to do with making the professorish mind much worse.)
That’s more Spanish than this professor knows! I tried to speak Italian way back in the day when I was gullible. So I know a couple words there, but not much.
😆 Sometimes the Professor is so like Tom Sawyer, it’s scary…
D’you know, oddly you’ve kind of made me want to watch it now. Anything that can boggle the Professor’s mind must be fun surely…
I can do a bit of French (not much) but that’s about my limit. But of course, I can spell in both English and American…
Not Huck? What a pity.
Well, if you watch it let me know. I’d hate for your mind to be destroyed too. Just tell your family and close friends that the professor had nothing to do with your decision.
And you can write Scottish speak–which is cool. Yes, I think FEF is a really gifted…girl.
You don’t cuss enough to be Huck. Anyway Tom’s braver…
I’d be very surprised if my family and friends would notice much difference – in fact, they might see it as an improvement.
Och, aye, ye’re richt! Ah mean, richter!
(You did really well in that last sentence, you charmer, but you must work on that hesitation… 😉 )
Maybe I should start cussing more. Dadblameit counts, doesn’t it?
😆 I think you’re undervalued…
The professor wishes he could write hiself like that, but I fear I can’t.
😀 Well, I wasn’t sure whether to say girl or woman, you see. I think it’s pretty much the same difference, though.
Definitely! The unfortunate thing is that I find myself saying that in the ‘real’ world sometimes…it’s hard to explain…
So do I!!
Just watch 12 episodes of Rab C Nesbitt and you’ll be fluent –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k7VoFiagfs
Oh, I’m glad to know it was woman you were swithering over – I thought it might be gnome…
That’s not unfortunate, dadblameit!
We’ll have to do something about it one day.
The professor is having problems with his flash player, but I’ll take a look as soon as I can.
No, no. A gnome doesn’t do FEF justice.
Certainly he had his odd side! Unless he was right and we’re all wrong… 😯
But FEF can’t be wrong; she’s always right, and the professor is always righter. So…
So…that means Lady Fancifull (aka Tinkerbell) doesn’t exist…
😆 Tinkerbell? If that’s the case, the professor is Captain Hook.
Oooh, can I be the crocodile??
😆 Why did we choose him?
On second thoughts, I think I’ll be a vegetarian crocodile – I don’t think I could bear to eat my favourite Cap’n Hook…at least not unless he was cooked in a really nice sauce. 😉
Vile woman! Though even I, perhaps a child of a slightly more cynical time than the redoubtable Mr Doyle, would not be taken in MERELY by the fact that the tale tellers happened to be ‘innocent’ your girls, feeding into various chocolate box (so hard for me to avoid bringing chocs in everywhere i go) idealised thinking about childhood, and the innocence of young girls in particular. Maybe its because I was a young girl myself once that I know the perfidy and mischief which beats in a young girl’s heart….I suspect Mr Doyle would have distrusted a young boy, and probably a matron too!
Clap, Clap, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfmpykW-IfY hope you are okay with a link!
Sadly I think Conan Doyle was so far gone he’d even have believed a cat. (Mind you if my cat started telling me about fairies, my cynicism might be shaken too…)
I think my real problem with it (apart from the fact that ACD was clearly nuts) is that the photos look so fake. Look at the girl’s hand in the second from the top – ACD dismisses it with something like ‘she did have unusually long fingers’. Long fingers? It’s the hand of a long-dead werewolf!
Loved the clip – haven’t heard that in years! 😀
To quote the Samurai Rat – yucketh! Don’t think I’ll be adding this one to the TBR list (thank Goodness!), but it is interesting that at the same time as he was wallowing in this nonsense, he was also campaigning, on entirely rational grounds, to overturn various miscarriages of justice. Strange and wonderful is the mind of Man!
Yucketh, indeed! I know – he’s a conundrum, is our Sir Arthur! It was however your brother who made me read this, so I blame you…
Was the professor just called a rat? (Though I admit, the Samurai Rat is rather…neat.)
Sorry, Prof! You called yourself the Samurai Rat in a post a few months ago, and you are now suffering what FF and our brother have to live with – the fact that I have a great long-term memory .
Whereas poor old Reepicheep’s memory is worse than mine…
Who’s Reepicheep? (You’ve got to respect me now that I’m being quoted by your BigSister. 😆 )
Of course I respect you, Reepicheep! Who wouldn’t respect a katana-wielding rodent? 😉
That’s right, I recall that all the sudden! You were quoting the professor? Now, aren’t I honored?
(Goodness me. The professor will have to be careful from now on. Thinking back, twas probably not the best comparison, but it does work…very strange.)
FictionFan – I honestly find it so fascinating that this is the same person who was so rational, so pragmatic and so on in other ways. Well, just goes to show you how complex we humans are I suppose. Much as I respect Conan Doyle’s memory (and I do!), I think I’ll give this one a miss. I suppose I’m just too cynical…
I was hoping the book might help me understand how he could be so gullible about this when he was clearly so intelligent, but I didn’t really feel I got much insight from it. I guess if a person wants to believe something, then it’s easy to just ignore anything that suggests it’s not true…
[…] A special thanks to FictionFan, whose terrific review of Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Coming of the Fairies inspired this post. If you haven’t sampled FictionFan’s terrific review blog, […]
Finding fairies in the garden! Oh, magical =) Even if the book was less interesting that you had hoped for this blog post was a sweet little reminder of how wishful we can be sometimes =)
Thank you! And indeed, fairies would be so much nicer than some of the things I do tend to find in the garden… 😉
Two things:
1) he wanted to believe
2) he dismissed the abilities of women–never a good choice
Yep! And even though he knew the elder girl had worked in a photographer’s shop, he still assumed she couldn’t have picked up any technical knowledge…
This was VERY interesting reading! The power of belief is really something unto itself. I can’t believe he thought they were real. Sorry the book didn’t provide any insight but I enjoyed reading this post, FictionFan. You did make me laugh there re the shock of the news being passed on through his medium.
Thanks, Keishon! It really is incredible that someone so intelligent and logical in other ways should have fallen so easily for this, but I guess he was just willing to ignore anything that didn’t fit with what he wanted to be true.
I do love the idea of someone passing on the news of the fakery to Conan Doyle through his medium. This story has always fascinated me as I he was an intelligent man who was taken in by a couple of young girls!
What a disappointment that would have been to him, eh? 😉
I know – it just seems so out of keeping with the man who created the ultimate logical thinker.