Introduction: Particles of Narrative October 26–27, 2007 Trinity College, University of Toronto

The "Particles of Narrative" conference came about through a kind of magic familiar in children's stories, the magic of friendship, openness, and intellectual inquiry otherwise known as curiosity. If Tim Wynne Jones and Philip Pullman had not had some good conversations; if Megan Whalen Turner had not been so interesting when I interviewed her for the Toronto Star; if Philip had never read the writings of Megan's husband, Mark Turner; if Linda Hutcheon had not had a children's author as a high school mentor; if Sarah Ellis had never been writer in residence at the University of Toronto. . . .

With similar magic, or perhaps by one of those beyond-ordinary-understanding scientific workings to which Tim alludes in "Entropy Means Nothing to Me," the five papers gathered here consider children's fiction via metaphors taken from the language of science: particle physics, cell biology, chemical solutions, biological adaptation. Despite their range across the branches of science—or perhaps because of it—each of these papers enhances our understanding of the others.

Philip examines one fundamental particle, or image—the container—and shows how it accrues a variety of metaphorical meanings, thanks in part to its origins in our bodily experience. His essay culminates in his cheering—nay, inspirational—musing on moments of artistic inspiration. At the end of this collection, Tim discusses the "mind of narrative"—how a metaphor (such as the container) appears as a particle when it enters the narrative, but becomes a wave thereafter, exerting its influence on how we interpret the narrative even when the metaphor is not in plain view.

In her appreciative analysis of Meg Rosoff's How I Live Now and Hilary McKay's Permanent Rose, Sarah offers a case study that shows just how two such particles function in that wave-like way; or how, just as we might look at smaller and smaller bits of cell to understand what is happening in the human body, so we can look at smaller and smaller bits of story to understand how narrative and metaphor function. Megan turns to chemistry in her paper: in a playful exploration of Coleridge's familiar "suspension of disbelief," she draws attention to the particles of reality that float suspended in any work of fiction, sometimes precipitating out to reveal to us our own prejudices or those of the past. In Linda's paper, the adaptive techniques of living organisms become a way for us to consider literature, and other forms of art adapted from children's books, as new organisms that have something to show us about the originals, and about ourselves as readers.

Like the best forays into science, which leave their participants filled with wonder, these delightful, thought-provoking papers left those who attended the "Particles of Narrative" conference full of wonder at the mysteries of language.

"Particles of Narrative" was funded by a generous donation to Trinity College at the University of Toronto, from Larry Muller, the now retired president of Scholastic Canada and a Trinity College alumnus.