Like Geppetto Did
‘Once upon a time there was a piece of wood. It was not an expensive piece of wood. Far from it. Just a common block of firewood, one of those thick, solid logs that are put on the fire in winter to make cold rooms cosy and warm.’
For close to 140 years, readers of a classic Carlo Collodi tale have witnessed this embryonic beginning of a wooden puppet we know as Pinocchio. We’ve delighted at his impishness, ill-behaviour and eventual heroism, but what of the puppet, why should a character made from wood capture the imaginations of so many?
It’s difficult to explain, but there is something about a puppet; it’s immediately believable regardless of how far from reality the puppet really is. The moment a string is pulled, it’s as if the puppet gains a soul; it’s alive!
And yet I can’t imagine the tale of
