Some pictures need a border

It was an irresistible development of modern illustration (so largely photographic) that borders should be abandoned and the “picture” end only with the paper. This method may be suitable for photographs; but it is altogether inappropriate for the pictures that illustrate or are inspired by fairy-stories. An enchanted forest requires a margin, even an elaborate border. To print it conterminous with the page, like a “shot” of the Rockies in Picture Post, as if it were indeed a “snap” of fairyland or a “sketch by our artist on the spot,” is a folly and an abuse.

-J.R.R. Tolkien, On Fairy Stories, (Note H)

This is not something I had never noticed or considered, but I think he’s right. Proper fairy-stories need to be compartmentalized to some degree to work their magic. It may seem at the surface that this is “throwing the camera a wink” again, but I think it’s of a different sort. The fairy-story doesn’t need to throw the wink because the border is already there. It finds freedom within the margin’s constraints.

The Bible is a curious case. It must be treated as both a true myth and as raw true history (of the photographic sort) to observe it’s full glory. It’s multi-faceted.