On the importance of wallpaper

This weekend I was reading Terri Windling's introduction to The Faery Reel. Windling takes us through the history of fairies, from their early incarnation as human-sized fey, through their evolution as Tinkerbell-sized nature spirits, their relegation to children's fantasy, and back to their adult-sized and adult-aimed presence in our lives through the popularity of Tolkein's elves.

One of the things that struck me most about this history, was the fact that fairies were originally so important to adults, not children. Windling writes that in the nineteenth century

"faeries could be found in middle-class [English] homes in every form of decorative arts:
wallpaper, draperies, ceramics, stained glass, metalwork, and so on."

Why were fairies so important to the English middle class of this time period? They were reminders of nature to the new breed of city-dwellers flocking to urban life at the dawn of the industrial revolution. Fairy stories were haunting reminders of the countryside, the dales, the glens, the peasant life and stories that city dwellers left behind.

Windling cites a painting called "The Piper of Dreams" by Estella Canziani. The earth-toned painting shows a boy in peasant garb propped up against an autumn tree. His pipe playing has attracted the company of a sparrow, a little chipmunk, and a ring of translucent, winged fairies that circle his head. According to Windling, "The Piper of Dreams" was

"an image as ubiquitous in England then as Monet's water lillies are now."

I couldn't help but laugh when I read this, since my first dorm room decoration was a Monet poster, and it's stayed on my wall as I've moved from apartment to apartment. Are Monet's water lillies a different kind of reminder of nature- one more naturalistic than fantastic?

Walking around my own home, I see grape leaf patterns on a drawer handle, pink lillies on the shower tiles, autumn leaves on the quilt on my bed. One of my early childhood memories is of the autumn leaf pattern on the kitchen wallpaper, and my husband's first word, "bird," was inspired by the eagles on the wallpaper in the family den.

It seems that the need to bring icons of nature into our civilized homes has not changed. The manner of representing nature has. I wonder how people generations from now will bring a sense of vitality and a link to nature into their living environments? It's an interesting question for an sf writer, brought on by a study of fairies.