Today’s Daily Prompt word Silhouette triggered nostalgic memories of Lotte Reiniger’s stop-go animations, often shown on television when I was young. High-tech they weren’t – but exquisitely expressive nonetheless.
Exotic folk tales like The Arabian Nights always awakened my imagination, instilling a love of escapism that found a later echo in sci-fi and fantasy. The magic was in the reading, however. I sometimes found illustrations disappointing and often felt that TV and film versions were crass and clunky. Between page and picture something had disappeared.
But these little animations have a tremulous, gentle delicacy that somehow preserves the dreamlike appeal of traditional stories. Here is one I particularly remember. Second childhood, perhaps, but the older I get the more I find myself returning to such sources of innocent pleasure …
a nomad in cyberspace 