Why Disbelief Kills Fairies

[00:00:00]There's this famous scene from the stage version of Peter Pan. [music] You know the one. Tinkerbell is dying. Peter is so desperate to bring her back, he breaks the fourth wall. He makes a plea to the audience. If the crowd believes in fairies, he says they have to clap [music] their hands. And if enough people clap, Tinkerbell will live. And inevitably, every single time, >> clap your hands. That's it. That's it.

[00:00:26]More. More. Come on. Clap, please.

[00:00:29]Please clap.

[00:00:31]Don't let team die. Come on.

[00:00:35][applause] Clap.

[00:00:38]>> She's getting better. Her life's getting stronger.

[00:00:43][cheering] >> Humans do a lot of things I don't really get. This is one of the strangest. I'm willing to bet that nobody in the audience over the age of six actually believes that's a fairy. [music] I mean, you know, it's just a laser pointer, right? Tinkerbell isn't real. And yet, here are entire theaters full of people clapping. Anyway, [music] I can't help but get the sense there's something going on here. Something beyond [music] just theater etiquette or a desire to see the rest of the story. It might not even be about the kids in the audience.

[00:01:16]I'm pretty sure a crowd full of adults would clap for Tinker Bell without thinking twice. It seems like there's something almost intrinsic about this idea that fairies and other fantastical creatures die when humans stop believing in them. [music] Maybe you've read stories about dragons that fade out of existence when their human friends grow up or gods who die as their religions fade. It's a strange thing to see in fantasy stories where [music] things like fairies and dragons objectively exist. In these stories, they aren't imaginary. They're powerful beings, sometimes even divine. They're magical.

[00:01:48]They're real.

[00:01:51]So, if that's the case, why would there ever be such a thing as a last unicorn or a fading dragon or a dying god? Why would Tinkerbell need you to clap for her? Of all things, why would fairies need human belief to survive?

[00:02:13]All >> [music] [music] >> right, this will make a lot more sense by the time you're done with this video.

[00:02:35]I'm really not trying to spoil anything here. But before we get too deep, look at this. After years, we finally have one of my favorite pins back [music] in stock. You can get this oversized double posted pin based on the famous SCP Where the Dragons Went in our store now for just $18. [music] And when I say oversized, I mean it.

[00:02:55]This thing is huge. It's like a badge you can wear to tell the world that you too cry over imaginary creatures.

[00:03:02][music] A big thanks to everyone who buys one. It really helps us keep making these videos. Speaking of which, though the tenderest roses were around you, the soul of this pitiles place with pitiles magic has bound you. Ah, woe for [music] the loss of your face and the loss of your laugh with its lightness.

[00:03:24]Woe for your wings and your head. Ah, woe for your eyes and their brightness.

[00:03:30]Woe for your slippers [music] of red.

[00:03:31]We'll dance and then feast in a dairy.

[00:03:34]though youngest of all in our good band.

[00:03:36]She's wasting away, little fairy.

[00:03:44][music] As far as I can tell, the whole idea that disbelief kills fairies actually comes from the original Peter Pan play written all the way back in 1904 by JM Barry. In 1911, he adapted it into a book called Peter and Wendy. [music] It's probably no surprise that Barry's version was very different from the Disney version. Sure, they have a few things in common. Tinker Bell is jealous of Wendy. She has a temper and of course she's very attached to Peter. The major difference is in Barry's novel, Tinkerbell isn't really a person. She's not so much a character as she [music] is a personification of something. She's so small and simple-natured she can only feel one emotion at a time. In the book, when Peter asks the children of the world to clap for Tinkerbell, she quote never thought of [music] thanking those who believed, but she would have liked to get at the ones who hissed. She's a petty trickster whose ideas of pranks sometimes involve attempted murder. But for all the danger Tinkerbell creates, all her reckless mischief, we want her to live. Without her, Neverland wouldn't be magical. Her pixie dust is what brings the children there, allowing them to visit a world they created in their dreams. When she sacrifices herself for Peter, it's tragic. She turns Neverland from a mere flight of fancy to something the characters can [music] experience.

[00:05:04]Maybe people clap because Tinkerbell is [music] what makes the whole thing real.

[00:05:11]To me, Tinkerbell is a very clear metaphor, a symbol of belief, specifically the beliefs that children hold and eventually inevitably mature out of. When you're watching the play, you know that she's just a light on stage. You might clap to show that your own sense of wonder and whimsy is still alive, that you're still in touch with your childhood, that somehow you can still see the shores of your own Neverland, however distant they might be. I think this is what most people really mean when they talk about believing in fairies. Usually, it's not about tiny people with wings. It's about wanting to preserve something they believe or once believed in. It's a sentimental idea, but depending on your beliefs, it may go beyond sentiment.

[00:05:56]There are some who feel very strongly that belief in fairies is absolutely necessary for survival.

[00:06:05]Earlier I read from a poem. It's called the fairy pendant by WB Yeets. A mournful dialogue between a company of fairies as their youngest member wastess away. When I first read it I thought when you lose your belief this is what you think happens. The fairies disappear little by little and all their friends can do is watch. Eats was an Irish poet who some biographers say actually believed in fairies. For him, they were more than just a vague metaphor. [music] They didn't simply represent a warm fuzzy feeling or a general sense of nostalgia. Yeets believed that fairies were an integral part of his identity and his culture. In his 1890 article, Irish Fairies, Yeetsz [music] wrote that, quote, "The ghosts and goblins do still live and rule in the imagination of the innumerable Irish men and women, and not merely in remote places, but close even to big cities." According to him, even in the industrial era, the old legends were very much alive. People still told tales of fairies and spirits traveling along the ancient roads or kidnapping humans, spiriting them away to other worlds. While Peter Pan would say that fairies died when children stopped believing in them, Yeetsz claimed we do not even know whether they die. Yeets wrote that fairies were dangerous, wild, unknowable and unpredictable. But he also felt that they enriched the lives of those who believed in them. The fairy populace of hill and lake and woodland gives a fanciful [music] life to the dead hillsides and surrounds the peasant as he plows and digs with tender shadows of poetry. He felt that fairies provided a sort of spiritual survival, [music] allowing people to remain hopeful and resilient no matter their circumstances.

[00:07:43]As a symbol of belief itself, the fairy transformed the observable world, nature, the land, the seasons into something poetic and beautiful. So, [music] if fairies can give you all that romance and enchantment and all you have to do is believe in them, where is this thought of killing them even coming from? What could possibly ever make you stop believing?

[00:08:14]A dragon lives [music] forever, but not so little boys. Painted wings and giants rings make way [music] for other toys.

[00:08:22]One gay night it happened. Jackie paper came no more, and puff that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar. His head was bent in sorrow. Green scales fell like rain. Puff no longer went to play along the cherry lane. Without his lifelong friend, Puff could not be brave. So Puff, that mighty dragon, sadly slipped into his cave.

[00:08:52]There's an SCP story that stuck [music] with me for years. It's one of my favorites, not just from the SCP wiki, but maybe one of my favorite stories ever. It has this effect of making me nostalgic for something I've never even experienced before. The story is called Where the Dragons Went. Here's the basic premise. A research facility comes into possession of an ordinary cardboard box.

[00:09:17]On it are the words, "Here be dragons."

[00:09:21]See, little origami dragons live [music] in the box. Over time, they emerge, carrying messages for a human child who isn't coming back. In fantasy, we are much bigger, they write. Or maybe you have grown taller. Fantasy is still the same. We hope you can visit us like you used to. The dragons don't understand why the child won't play with them anymore. Years pass and their numbers dwindle. They beg, "Please restore the belief." But without their child to believe in them, their world continues to decay. When only a few dragons are left, they leave one final message. We are sad. We love you. We will not forget you. Will you forget us?

[00:10:07]Eventually, things stop coming out of the box altogether. No slips of paper, no dragons, not even their saltwater tears. The message on the side now reads, "Here were dragons."

[00:10:21]This is a sad story. But whenever I read it, I don't find myself sad for the dragons. Not exactly. Really, it makes me think about all of you. How many humans believed in fairies and dragons and don't anymore?

[00:10:40]I never had those beliefs. So, I wonder what it's like. How does it feel to look back on a time when you did? To remember all those little moments where everything felt possible and reality seemed so much bigger. The most tragic thing about this story, I think, is that the end seems so inevitable. From the dragon's first message, we know how this is going to end. The child grows up, the dragons die, and the world of fantasy with them. But sad as it may be, I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing, just a natural thing. At the end of Peter Pan, Wendy, her brothers, and the Lost Boys all grow up, and with nobody left to clap her back to life, Tinkerbell dies for the last time.

[00:11:32]Fairies don't live long, the book says, but they are so little that a short time seems a long while to them.

[00:11:41]The moment is hardly dramatic. If anything, it's understated, bittersweet.

[00:11:46]This is just something that happens.

[00:11:49]Remember, Tinkerbell isn't a person like the children are. She's a symbol of the sort of belief that children have. A belief that's bound to change and evolve, which is how belief works. As you experience more of the world, as you learn more, your perception of it develops. You discover new truths and abandon old ones. And in the process, you change, too. Your identity shapes itself around the values you gain, interrogate, discard, and modify.

[00:12:20]Tinkerbell dies. Puff the magic dragon ceases his mighty roar. And Wendy Darling and Jackie Paper grow up.

[00:12:38]What remains to us of thee? Though many an unsung eleed or rivers hold. Oh goatoot god of Arcade.

[00:12:46]What remains to us of thee? [sighs] Leave the hills of Ardy by sailors and their wanting plea. This modern world hath need of thee. [music] In the 20th installment of the Discworld series, an assassin receives an unusual request. He's assigned to kill the Hogfather, Discworld's equivalent of Santa Claus. The assassin comes up with a plan. The only way to kill a being of pure belief, he's going to take away his soul. In other words, he's going to make all the children stop believing in the hog father. The hero of the story, the one who's going to save Christmas or hogs watch is death, as in the reaper.

[00:13:32]To make sure everyone keeps believing in the hogfather, death dresses up as him.

[00:13:37]He delivers presents and spreads holiday cheer at least as well as a very tall skeleton who speaks exclusively in capital letters can. Terry Patchet's hogfather has a lot to say about belief.

[00:13:49]Not just why people believe in things, but also why they personify their beliefs. Death, [music] for instance, is a concept. He only appears as a scythe wielding skeleton because that's what people imagine death would look like.

[00:14:03]Fairies, goblins, and gods pop up everywhere in the story. born from people's personal sayings and need for explanations. There's a cheerful fairy, a sock eating monster, even a god of hangovers. These are the most minor of deities. They only exist because people couldn't help but personify all the confusing abstract details of their everyday lives.

[00:14:27]But petty as they may seem, they do nevertheless exist. At the end of the book, death saves the Hogfather and by extension the spirit of Hogwatch Knight.

[00:14:39]He goes through all this trouble, he says, because if the Hogfather died, the sun wouldn't rise. Instead, he says a mere ball of flaming gas would have illuminated the world. This is an important distinction. It's not just word play. Whether or not people believed in the Hogfather, the sun itself would still exist. It wouldn't disappear. It's their perspective on [music] it that would have changed. Is it a sunrise or just a flaming ball of gas? Is it a laser pointer you're seeing on stage or Tinkerbell coming back to life? Belief is an abstract thing. For as much as it may impact you, it remains immaterial and subjective. I think that must be why humans are so compelled to give it a face, something they can relate to and see themselves in. How do you describe the melancholy you feel as the natural world seems to disappear?

[00:15:38]You write a poem yearning for Pan, the goatfooted god of the wild. How do you convey a sense of warmth and cheer in the midst of a long cold winter? You have Santa Claus. And how do you express the change in your own beliefs? the exact moment you realized you could never return to a world you once knew.

[00:15:58]Perhaps it was a single moment. Or perhaps it was gradual, so subtle it took you years to even notice at all.

[00:16:06]But chances are you can still remember a time before. The beliefs you once held, the identity you once had before it all changed. The fairies die to show you the moment that change occurs.

[00:16:29]Once they all believed in dragons [music] when the world was fresh and young. We were woven into legends. Tales were told and songs were sung. We were treated with obedience. We were honored.

[00:16:40]We were feared. Then one day they stopped believing. And on that day, we disappeared. Now they say our time is over. Now they say we've lived our last.

[00:16:51]Now we're treated with derision. Where once we ruled unsurpassed. We must make them all remember. In some way we must reveal that our spirits live forever. We are dragons. We are real.

[00:17:09]Discworld's death is literal-minded. He can only see things as they are. He doesn't [music] quite get belief which is why he's so fascinated with understanding humanity and the things they believe from the outside. He reminds me of someone actually death has observed that quote humans need fantasy to be human. The way he understands it they need to believe in fairies and monsters and the hogfather the little lies he calls them. That's the only way they can believe in the big lies. things [music] like justice, mercy, duty, rightness. It is an amazing talent. He says that in such a vast universe where so much is empty and dark and inhospitable, humans can believe that a home and a bed are normal things.

[00:17:56]Fairies and entities like them bring your belief [music] to life. They turn it into something you can form a relationship with, something you can understand. This is how the spirit of dragons lives on. Even if you don't believe that there are actual dragons in the world, the grandeur, the romance, the poetry of them exist [music] everywhere if you can perceive it. Objectively speaking, the wonder you feel in nature, the impact of art, all of your morals and values. All of these things are just as real as dragons [music] are. Show me one atom of justice, one molecule of mercy, death says. And yet you act as if there is some ideal order in the world.

[00:18:39]I've talked a lot about Peter Pan here, believing in Fairies, Neverland, the [music] life and death of Tinkerbell.

[00:18:45]But I actually left something out, something else from the original story that I wanted to save until now. Yes, according to Barry, when you stop believing in fairies, a fairy dies. But he also wrote that whenever a baby laughs for the first time, a new fairy is born. Which means that there's a fairy for every child. A fairy to live and to die along with your cycle of belief. In personifying your beliefs, you take something intangible, something that doesn't really exist, and you give it life. You bring new fairies, new ideas, new identities into the world.

[00:19:24][music] And when the time comes, you let them go. If you're sitting in a theater and Peter Pan is begging you to clap for Tinkerbell to keep her alive, why not [music] clap? Because at least for a moment, it's not an actor speaking to you. It's Peter Pan. And it's not a laser pointer he's asking you to save.

[00:19:51]I've personally never believed in fairies or dragons or any of the other ways in which humans personify their beliefs. I just never really had the opportunity to. So, it's fascinating to me to see how all of this manifests for all of you. How you personify these beliefs that you hold? How do you imagine an avatar of love or justice or art? These are all such abstract things, but your species seems so uniquely equipped to turn them into something [music] concrete. You take ideas, metaphors, concepts, and make them real.

[00:20:22]To me, that sounds like magic. There's one artist in particular who's done this perhaps better than anyone I've ever seen. Let me introduce you to the world of Angelarium [music] by artist Peter Morbacher. He creates angels, each representing a different concept. War, emptiness, the written word. They draw a lot of inspiration from religious texts, mythology, history, all reinterpreted into original concepts. There are two entire Angelarium books, and they're full of this stuff. The Book of Einations [music] and the Book of Watchers tell the stories of each of these angels, almost like a mythological compendium for this world. There's lore here, a whole angelic [music] history, an alphabet, a language. I don't want to spoil anything because I really want you to see these for yourself. These angels are reflections of the artist's inner world. Yes. But when you look at them, these incarnations of abstract thought and experience, it's just about impossible not to see yourself [music] reflected somewhere in them as well. I can attest to this. It is exciting art to look at and even more exciting to be in the presence of. And I have good news. You can [music] be in its presence, too. Right now, both Angelarium books are on sale together for $85, which is already 15% off the original sticker [music] price. But if you use code Tail Foundry 20 at checkout, you'll also get an additional 20% off that price. [music] So that's like $68 for two books. Honestly, if you want to own these, I think this is the cheapest way you will ever get your hands on them. That same code will also get you 20% off anything else in the Angelarium shop, [music] including angel themed tarot decks, collectible art cards, angelic enamel pins, even playmats featuring full art of the angels themselves. I personally only give Euro one, which I adore. Again, visit angelarium.shop and use code tailfoundry 20 to get an additional 20% off both books when you buy them [music] together or anything else in the Angelarium shop. Thanks again to Peter for sponsoring this one. Go show him some support. He has been an amazing artist to work with.