A basic reason for the book Coraline by Neil Gaiman (2002) is the demand of the other mother to sew two buttons above Coraline's eyes. This symbolic gesture would retain Coraline forever in the space of the witch, perhaps by recourse to total submission and volitional abandonment (the one who learns to see differently after he had lost his sight, he is dependent to others). The alleged mom says that miss Coraline will continue to see, but differently, and only thus she would be as them - the people of that bizarre parallel world. But Coraline refuses persistently and this is not difficult to understand why: the loss of sight is an ancestral fear and the risk is considerable, even if the temptation of an alternative sight is greater.

I was surprised to find this symbol in a book that reports contacts with supernatural entities. Dr. Karla Turner says in her best seller Into the fringe (1992) that a young James was receiving visits from a strange woman who was materializing from nowhere in his room overnight, to have sex with him or to tell him about her parallel world. This woman asked him in a night to leave her to pull off his eyes, and instead of them to put two large, black, round orbits. You would be able to see, but differently, the strange creature calmed him down, which wasn't at all without sex appeal. Of course, James (who was a child then, as Coraline!) refused terrified. Dr. Karla Turner argued until her death that these contacts are authentic.

Similarities are remarkable: a female figure in both cases, with supernatural powers, an upended mother in the first case and a sensual mistress in the second case, entities which dominate space and time, which require supreme devotion by the unusual waiver of the sight, as sign of absolute submission. Do not forget that Karl's story is ten years older than Gaiman's book.

The contagion of ideas, abyss symbol of collective unconsciousness (which would delight Jung), resonance of some structures of large circulation in urban legends? Was Gaiman inspired by the material provided from the men who saw an UFO? Up where can go the collection of topics? It's inspiration, borrowing or simple coincidence? Perhaps the reality is often dizzying stranger than the most daring cast of imagination.



*article written by Anghel Pop and translated by Laurentiu Ion