Tender, Yet Creepy
September 17, 2024 at 12:34AMAs children, when we play with dolls (and other inanimate objects that we give human qualities), we ignite our imaginations and expand our inner worlds. “Through play,” writes Tishani Doshi, “the imagination rushes in to fill the spaces we cannot know but long to.” For Aeon, Doshi writes a sharp, engaging essay on doll-playing as transformative, consciousness-expanding playtime.
I don’t remember feeling any heart-pauses with Tom except when I packed him away in an airless cardboard box before going to college. It felt treacherous, consigning him to a claustrophobic, lonely life in the attic while I set off on adventures. Like so many children across the world, I believed that my dolls came alive at night. In the Enid Blyton books, which were the staple of my childhood, toys sprang to life only when no one was watching. It was as though their animation was sparked by our nightly suspension. I sometimes heard the patter of feet against the floor, or a shuffling on the doll shelf, but I never stayed up trying to catch them in the act. I don’t think I actually wanted to see them alive any more than I wanted to see Santa Claus climb through the window grills. The story of Pinocchio was always a horror story for me – the doll coming to life and not behaving as he was meant to. It unsettled something in me. I adored my dolls because of their passiveness, for their steady availability for me to project any story onto them.
from Longreads https://longreads.com/2024/09/16/tender-yet-creepy/
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