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As I was saying on the second page,
the character Christopher Robin was more than just a childhood interest; he
was my childhood alter ego (more so in his Disney incarnation than in the original Milne/Shepard
incarnation on the left). I sensed that he and I were very much alike, and that the original boy behind the original Christopher
Robin and I were also very much alike. (In fact, I often felt that I
was Christopher
Robin in a sense -- Christopher Robin as he should have been.) As an adult, I encountered the
original autobiographical
trilogy of A.A. Milne's son, Christopher Milne, and learned just how accurate my perception was. (It was interesting
to learn -- for example -- that Christopher Milne, like myself, was largely Scottish by descent. There are many
more parallels between us, however.)
But more than that, Christopher Robin as a character was the inspiration for much of my own childhood role-playing.
That role-playing was rarely if ever in A.A. Milne's original
setting. Let me tell you where that led, if I may... |
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As a boy, I had one of the largest collections of plastic
play figures I have ever seen in the hands of a child. Among them were several Poohs, Owl, Eeyore and my favorite,
Christopher Robin. My best friend Tim Meyers had Kanga, one or two more Poohs, and I think Rabbit as well. All
of these were obtained as "prizes" in a cereal that Nabisco used to make (with Pooh himself as its inspiration),
Nabisco Winnie-the-Pooh Great Honey Crunchers. Our role-playing was incredibly syncretic, mixing these characters and many others in a
complex science fiction/fantasy universe of our own creation. My adaptation of Christopher Robin played a major
role in this universe, proving to be a considerably tougher character than either A.A. Milne's or Disney's version
of the original (if no less helpful, sensitive and intelligent).
I imagine that many of you genuine Pooh fans are rolling your
eyes already. What A.A. and Christopher Milne, both pacifists to the core, would
think of the above (let alone of the following) is perhaps best left unimagined.
But please bear with me (no pun intended)... |
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As I grew and changed, so did my fictional universe,
and my adaptation of Christopher Robin grew and changed with it. In fact, Christopher Robin opened the door in
high school to a creative collaboration. After telling a new friend, David Cunningham (you may
find him
professionally at DMC
Training), about my love of the character,
he told me, "Well, you look
like Christopher Robin." (At the moment, I did: blond hair, brown
eyes, skinny frame, shorts and all.) I then shyly told him about the
science-fiction universe that Tim and I had created. David, in
delighted astonishment (or was it astonished delight?), told me of
his own efforts in science fiction and fantasy -- and we spent the
rest of the night and many days and nights thereafter sharing ideas.
Without that feedback, I doubt if my ideas would have grown as far
as they did.
In due time, "Christopher Robin" was replaced
with "Chris Alan Ralston" (I always liked the name "Ralston", thanks to the company
Ralston Purina). Finally, after several mutations of
his name (and countless mutations of his speculative-fictional universe), I
ended up calling him "Chris Alan Starbright". He eventually inspired
one of my very best original songs -- the very song you could be listening to
right now as a
MIDI file (see the player at the bottom of the page).
I thought at first that British actor
Alex Pettyfer (above left,
playing the character Alex Rider) was a very good (though not perfect) model for Chris
Alan in his mid-teens. A better model is Alex Rider as he's drawn
(quasi-manga style) in the
graphic novel version of
Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker. (See also the
original novel.) In the graphic novel version, Alex is a more
sensitive-looking character, with softer facial lines -- very much like a more
grown-up version of Christopher Robin as conceived by Milne and Shepherd. (N.B.:
Chris Alan as I've conceived him has shorter hair than Alex Pettyfer, Alex Rider or even
Christopher Robin.) |
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Indeed, the graphic novel's vision of fourteen-year-old Alex Rider (left -- there are
even more telling renditions inside the book) is simply uncanny it its
physical and temperamental resemblance to my vision of Chris Alan (or his
predecessors) at the same age.
(There had to be someone like Chris Alan out
there somewhere... even if he proved to be some things that
neither Christopher Robin Milne nor myself ever were.)
Obviously,
author Anthony Horowitz and I (and the two manga artists who drew him in
the various graphic novels) are drawing upon the same Anglo-Saxon-Celtic and
British-schoolboy archetypes and reworking them in not-too-dissimilar ways. (The
fact that Mr. Horowitz came up with a character named Jack Starbright
first is pure coincidence... I get pre-empted by so many professional authors
that way.) |
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On the left is how I picture Chris Alan Starbright these days. He's quite the striking immortal
warrior (Starbard and Blademaster by training, both to Level Five or the
equivalent of an M.A. or M.S. college degree), as based on a combination of an
Alex Rider action figure
(more or less closely modeled after Alex Pettyfer) and a sword
and scabbard from a
Vandal Savage action figure (see also
here and
here). He is a pacifist in the way A.A. Milne considered was the only
practical way to be one: he seeks either
to avoid war, or to end war as quickly as possible if war is unavoidable.
In my fictional universe (or rather, multiverse), Chris Alan is a
"Ne'fi" or
ENFP,
as based on my conscious mind; but he often acts much like an
INFJ,
a sort of "Dark Protector", as based on my unconscious mind.
That's why he seems so suitable to me as wearing mostly black (although deep
charcoal gray would be better for his complexion), but with
white underneath. He's exactly what I as an ENFP should expect when he looks
inward to see his so-called "oppositional personality", and I have
Vicky Jo Varner to thank for
that insight. And I must acknowledge the sheer luck (or grace) that came with
the creation of the photo on the left that represents him; seldom indeed do I
pose anyone or anything that well on a first try, and it expresses who and what
he is perfectly. |
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But as I worked with my character further in a major writing
project (which I'll get to in a moment), I realized that he was in some sense
dual and needed to be split into two characters. The one on the left (drawn
so very nicely by Veronica aka E.V. Medina) is based on my conscious
mind, not my unconscious mind as Chris Alan was. I decided to call the
second character Alain Harper, and make him the eventual heir of the epithet
Undying Singer (with all its associated powers and "tools") in the chronology of
my fictional narrative.
As this new
character (likewise an ENFP) has been known to say of himself in a
formal
context:
“I am known by many names in many Realms,” said the young
man with authority and with the full power of his lyric tenor voice. “Alain Harper the Undying Singer I am
called as a Realmwalker. Lamb Lionheart is my honorific as a
Blademaster. Kit Foxfire is my nickname among the pirates of the Rim
Confederacy. I am Gr’ran ho-Kika’u to the Bruins of Gr’rakh, Nestor Miron to
the Felines of Markus IV,
Michael ben Abram to my wife’s people the Enoshim, and a hundred other names
in other languages in other places you know not.”
On the left Alain Harper is wearing his Cloak of Shadow, which
is meant to be deep charcoal gray. As an ENFP, he (like Chris Alan before him) is eminently suited to
be the Locus of the Metacosmic Realms, with everything in existence connected to
him and vice versa. That is, as Christopher Robin is the pivot (though not
necessarily the motivator) of what happens in the Pooh Books, so the Undying
Singer is the pivot of the action (though not necessarily the motivator of it by
any means) in the entirety of my fictional Metacosmic Realms. And that is the secret of the character, his powers
and his vulnerabilities.
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How does all this relate to
Christopher Robin as such (left: ink drawing by Disney, coloring and framing by
this author)? Consider this for the sake of comparison. While A.A. Milne was a probable
INTP (the inference
here that he was an
INFP
notwithstanding), his son Christopher Milne was a
probable INFP.
A.A. Milne's role as a "good parent" was expressed through his ability to
explore a multitude of possibilities and to make interconnections between ideas
and concepts. On the other hand, by his own admission A.A. lacked the
sentimentality about children (or anything else) that characterizes the
INFP, one
of the indicators that he was actually
INTP.
Here A.A.'s observations about childhood and adult life apparently have been mistaken for his
actual experiences of childhood and adult life. (It is most revealing that in adult life, A.A.
and Christopher Milne were both dedicated pacifists - but for completely
different reasons: A.A. because war is illogically cruel, Christopher because war is
heartlessly cruel.) Whereas Christopher, though an INFP, role-played
with his toy animals in loco parentis (in the role of a parent) very much
like an ENFJ
- effectively drawing upon his subconscious mind, as I often drew upon my
own when role-playing as Chris Alan.
And there I will leave you... with an invitation to listen to
a song about my original alter ego, written from the point of view of his fiancee. The instrumental version is available in two formats at the bottom of
this page. There are also lyrics (PDF format) and there will be sheet music in
due time. |
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Updated December 27, 2011
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