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.