it did. The parent Banks are kept in the dark; when Jane tries to tell her mother about
shopping with the Pleiads, for example, Mrs Banks replies: ‘we imagine strange and
lovely things, my darling’ (193). The parents employ Mary Poppins and in the sequels
continue to welcome her back, even though Mrs Banks declares at the end of the first
book that ‘I certainly shan’t have her back if she does want to come’ (203).
The appeal of the books, beyond the humorous situations, may also lie in what
Patricia Demers identifies as Michael and Jane’s attachment to Mary Poppins.
The bond between her and the children is cemented as much by her brusqueness as
by her firm yet sympathetic adult presence. Neither bored with her charges, nor
infantilized by their demands, Mary Poppins is clearly at home in the nursery, and
entirely capable of dealing with their curious questions.
Demers 1991:86Certainly the fantasy, often unexpected, enlivens their lives, but it is coupled with the
assurance that they will return home, that Mary Poppins will remain unchanged, every
hair in place, vain, curt and reliable. The only threat is her possible departure which is
softened when it occurs by her promise of a return.
Although both books are clearly comedies, the incongruence between the fantasy and
the ‘reality’ is emphasised in both A Bear Called Paddington and Mary Poppins by the
setting—a real London. In Diana Wynne Jones’s The Ogre Downstairs, the setting of a
rural market town has a similar effect, and there is further displacement because the
book reads like a realistic ‘problem’ novel and the fantasy merges into realistic problem
solving.
This book features a combined family, three children of the mother and two sons of
the father. The step-father is referred to as ‘the Ogre’ by the mother’s three children. The
joining of the two families has not gone smoothly; daily battles and small indignations
occur. The mother’s children are sloppy, the father’s neat. The father is reduced to
bellowing for silence; he frequently retreats to his study. The mother has headaches. In
an attempt to pacify the children, the father gives two chemistry sets, one each to the
younger boys.
The first accident with the chemicals results in flight, the second reduces the size of
one of the father’s children; this is followed by a transformation of one boy into the
other: each literally learns what it is like to be in each other’s shoes; then one child
becomes invisible, and inanimate objects come alive. Finally, the mother departs in
desperation, and the children are left to explain the chemistry sets to the ogre. At this
point, Wynne Jones ingeniously links fantasy and reality, for miraculously, he believes
them, and together they set about to right their living conditions. The children learn to
like each other, to understand the father, and he them; the mother returns, and the last
use of the chemistry set turns certain household objects into gold which sell for huge
amounts of money at auction allowing the family ‘to move into a larger house almost at
once, where, they all admitted, they were much happier. Everyone had a room to
himself’ [sic] (Jones 1975:191).
The technique of transformation is also used in Vice Versa and Freaky Friday to
accomplish similar ends as in The Ogre Downstairs, an understanding of what it is like
294 TYPES AND GENRES