The Wider Worlds of Jim Henson, edited by Jennifer C. Garlen and Anissa M. Graham is a collection of essays about various Jim Henson productions. I am huge fan of Henson’s work, but managed never to see Fraggle Rock because I didn’t have HBO; I learned a lot about the show from this book!
Some of the essays, I was surprised to note, treated the worldbuilding in a meta fashion, for instance comparing ways to “read” Fraggle Rock and The Dark Crystal through various lenses, including ecological, postcolonial, or Marxist criticism (but concluding, as makes the most sense, that to interpret them as fantasy narratives is the best method). Another essay whimsically explores the beings of Fraggle Rock realistically as part of an ecosystem. Labyrinth and Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas are also represented in the collection, though not as much as Fraggle Rock.
There’s an essay on The Jim Henson Hour, which I never was able to see in its entirety, that gave me a renewed desire to see the episodes I missed. I especially enjoyed reading more about the Henson Company’s work on Dinosaurs, about which I knew practically nothing despite having seen a few key episodes, and the alien puppets on Farscape, a show I love.
I can see myself revisiting some of these essays as I watch and rewatch Henson’s work, and I continue to feel that he died far too soon.
I love that this is what the prompt had you picking out! I need to get a copy of these essays to read.
Last year, we started rewatching Dinosaurs and it will sometimes amaze me how pointed they were in their topics and how a puppet show could say so much but that was the magic of Henson.
I was very amused with myself when I saw the theme!