Friday, March 17, 2017

Pwca dust

The pooka is an interesting myth. They seem to have been dreamt up as an embodiment of everything a child would want to be - and if not be, then at least associate with. A pooka friend would be fun. You could have one as an enemy and not know it, but God help you if you do.

I recently read "Penguins of the Apocalypse", a William Browning Spencer story about an alcoholic threatened by his pooka. It's sort of a darker take on Harvey. Also reminiscent of this Who song.

2 comments:

susan said...

I always thought the traditional pooka of alcoholics is the pink elephant but that information likely comes from 1930s cartoons rather than anybody's official mythology. Speaking of which you'd probably agree that the Disney corporation (among others) has done a lot of harm to the reputations of the Fae who, from what I've read, aren't all sweet little beings with wings who enjoy having tea with mice.

Ben said...

There's a funny scene on The Simpsons where a bunch of characters have been dosed with hallucinogen without knowing it. Homer is responsible, of course. Barney sees some kind of demon attacking him, but his pink elephant comes along and stamps it out.

The only Disney movies I can think of with fairies are Cinderella and Peter Pan. Oh, and maybe Sleeping Beauty, I'm not sure what the evil queen's deal was. The fae myths are pretty broad. These movies just cover a narrow range of it.