Sparkle Valley Philosophy: Hank & Frank Needlenose
Updated: Oct 6
Two competing visions of love, safety, and imagination
Hank and Frank are one of the best ways into Sparkle Valley philosophy.
Also, I just love these characters. Because everybody knows a Hank and everybody knows a Frank. And most likely you’ll recognize some Hank qualities and some Frank qualities in yourself.
The Fun One
Frank is the fun one. He’s the one who says yes to everything. Yes to any adventure, yes to any possibility. Like a great improv (“yes, and”) actor, the scene will never end with Frank. He’ll even break the rules if he has to, because magic is worth it.
He's the type of character who in book 2 sees a child crossing between two worlds and thinks: "Imagine the possibilities.”
In Book 2 when Young Doris comes to Sparkle Valley, he's thrilled. He gives her a magic journal to encourage her curiosity. Imagination is literally what keeps him alive. Even to the point when Doris hears some kind of force under Sparkle Valley that frightens her, Frank doesn’t comfort her, he says:
"Please don't tell me you've begun to fear the unknown. That's for grown-ups. Not children."
Reading that, you might think, hold on. But I actually love this.
Because this is exactly what modern life crushes.
The Protector
Along comes Hank. Same situation and opposite reaction.
But both Hank and Frank are acting out of love.
Frank loves imagination so much that he's willing to protect it at almost any cost. And Hank feels the same way about safety. These are the most human traits. And that's what makes them dangerous.
Because love can overcorrect.
Frank's problem is obvious. Who hears a strange hiss coming from a crack in reality and wants to get closer to it? This is the personification of “What if?”
The Whale
Just a quick aside, I was swimming in the ocean once and somebody said they saw a whale not far away. And for some reason I started swimming in that direction. I'm still not sure why. But as I got closer, I realized what I was doing, and asked myself a simple question: what happens if I actually swim up to this whale? So I stopped and turned around.
But let’s continue with the story.
Frank's view is beautiful. Without Franks, the world could get pretty small. Safer, yes, but also smaller. And yet then catastrophe hits. The worlds collapse. You reach the whale.
Or in Frank's case, you disappear.
And when this happened in Book 2, something breaks in Hank. And that's it.
That fear turns into ideology and imagination is now the enemy. Neither in isolation works. Wonder and curiosity with grounding. That's what works.
