Enjoy this guest post by Ryan Sawyer on the mysterious metaphysics of the Fraggles.

“The center of the universe is, of course, that marvelous land known as Fraggle Rock.”

These words are narrated to us in the first episode of “Fraggle Rock” by Uncle Traveling Matt, the first known Fraggle to travel into “Outer Space” (our human world). We take what he says with a grain of salt, since the Fraggles, much like the people of our Dark Ages, are a superstitious lot who believe everything in the universe revolves around them. Unlike the people of the Dark Ages, however, he may be correct.

If you grew up in the 1980’s, you’ll recall that one of the tunnels leading out of Fraggle Rock leads into Doc’s workshop, while another tunnel leads into the Gorg garden. These are not the only tunnels leading out of Fraggle Rock (for example, there is another that leads directly into the Gorg castle, and another that opens into the basement of Fozzie Bear’s mother’s house), but these are the two we’ll be examining.

Up 2: Next Year in Jerusalem

“He caught him up, and, without wing
Of hippogrif, bore through the air sublime,
Over the wilderness and o’er the plain,
Till underneath them fair Jerusalem,
The Holy City, lifted high her towers . . .

. . . There, on the highest pinnacle, he set
The Son of God.”

– John Milton, Paradise Regained, Book IV

The kindness of the world toward your existence turns out to be an illusion of youth, and all love dies. Man must keep his faith and promises, even as he ages toward death — find a place to stand firm, even as he falls.

Pixar’s Up and John Milton’s great poems Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained are about more than what they have in common. A laundry list of their similarities would hardly be interesting (especially if you haven’t read the poems). But they meet at a critical and compelling place in what I like to call the Artistic Project.

This balloon is about to get heavy, so if at any point you need a little extra lift, bookmark this.

Now, let us go, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow, to find our solitary way —