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Neverland is a fictional location featured in the works of J. M. Barrie and those based on them. It is the dwelling place of Peter Pan, Tinker Bell, the Lost Boys and others. Although not all people in Neverland cease to age, its best known resident famously refused to grow up, and it is often used as a metaphor for eternal childhood (and childishness), immortality, and escapism. It was first introduced as "the Never Never Land" in the theatre play ''Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up'' by Scottish writer J. M. Barrie, first staged in 1904. In his 1911 novelization ''Peter and Wendy'', Barrie referred to "the Neverland", and its many variations "the Neverlands". In the earliest drafts of Barrie's play, the island was called "Peter's Never Never Never Land", a name possibly influenced by "the Never Never", a contemporary term for outback Australia. In the 1928 published version of the script, it was shortened to "the Never Land". Neverland has been featured prominently in subsequent works, either adapting Barrie's works or expanding upon them. These Neverlands sometimes vary in nature from the original. ==Nature of Neverland== Barrie explains that the Neverlands are found in the minds of children, and that although each is "always more or less an island", and they have a family resemblance, they are not the same from one child to the next. For example, John Darling's had "a lagoon with flamingos flying over it" while his little brother Michael's had "a flamingo with lagoons flying over it". The novel further explains that the Neverlands are compact enough that adventures are never far between. It says that a map of a child's mind would resemble a map of Neverland, with no boundaries at all.〔 The exact situation of Neverland is ambiguous. In Barrie's original tale, the name for the real world is the "Mainland", which suggests Neverland is a small physical island offshore of Britain, and its tropical depiction suggests far offshore. It is reached by flight, and Peter gives its location as being "second to the right, and straight on till morning". In the novel, it is stated that Peter made up these directions to impress Wendy and that they found the island only because it was "out looking for them". Barrie also writes that it is near the "stars of the milky way" and it is reached "always at the time of sunrise", so it could be in the sky or in space. Walt Disney's 1953 version ''Peter Pan'' presents this possibility, adding "star" to Peter's directions: "second star to the right, and straight on till morning" and from afar, these stars depict Neverland in the distance. The 2003 film version echoes this representation, as the Darling children are flown through the solar system to reach Neverland. In ''Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens'' a proto-version of Neverland called the Bird's island is reached by flight, paper boat, or a thrush's nest, and it is connected to the Kensington Gardens by the Serpentine river. Therefore, Neverland could be a physical island, or a heavenly world above the earth or in outer space, and the "Mainland" could represent either Britain, or it could represent reality and the real world, or possibly both. In ''Peter Pan in Scarlet'' (not by Barrie), the children get to the Neverland world by flying on a road called the High Way, and the island is located in a sea known as the Sea of One Thousand Islands. The passage of time in Neverland is also ambiguous. The novel ''Peter Pan'' mentions that there are many more suns and moons there than in our world, making time difficult to track, and that the way to find the time is to find the crocodile, as there is a clock inside it. Although widely thought of as a place where children don't grow up, Barrie wrote that the Lost Boys eventually grew up and have to leave, and fairies there lived typically short lifespans. According to ''Peter Pan in Scarlet'', time froze as soon as the children arrived in Neverland. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Neverland」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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