|
|
|
|
|
Artistic licence
25 October 2009 By Nadine O’Regan
Something new was learned this week about the children’s author, Maurice Sendak: he has never been to media training. Sendak is the author of the classic children’s book Where the Wild Things Are, which has been made into a highly anticipated film by Spike Jonze. The book tells the story of Max, who journeys to a forest where he meets the fearsome Wild Things, before growing homesick for his family.
In a recent interview with Newsweek magazine, Sendak was asked how he would respond to parents who think the film adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are is too scary for their kids. ‘‘I would tell them to go to hell," Sendak replied. ‘‘That’s a question I will not tolerate. If they can’t handle it, go home. Or wet your pants. Do whatever you like. But it’s not a question that can be answered."
How did parents react? Well, to borrow a phrase from Sendak’s book, ‘‘Let the wild rumpus start!". Within minutes of the story’s publication, Sendak’s comments had been blogged, twittered and news-flashed around the world. Parents have said they will not take their children to the cinema in the wake of such words. Nor will they buy the book for their children.
Frankly, the fuss is frustrating, but to be expected. It has been 46 years since Where the Wild Things Are was first published and the world is a different - more cotton wool-clad - place. Parents are more protective, and authors have more hoops to jump through than ever before.
Don’t get me wrong, in lots of respects, this is a good thing. Fond as I was of Noddy, I’m happy that the dubious Golliwog got ditched from the roll-call. Likewise, I’m all for reinventing Tintin as a foreigner-loving explorer and not the kind of pointy-haired racist who’d willingly give the impression that - as the Commission for Racial Equality put it - black people ‘‘look like monkeys and talk like imbeciles’’.
But when it comes to the thought of books scaring our little kiddies, we appear to have a magnificent capacity to overreact. In fact, the greatest bogeyman children now have to contend with is the one lurking in their parents’ imaginations. That bogeyman is the same one responsible for creating what author Richard Louv has termed nature-deficit disorder in the real world - where children are so molly-coddled that they are nature-impoverished. It seems like some of us have forgotten what it was like to be young. At least for this writer, there was no happier, more powerful form of escapism than children’s books.
They were also tools of education. Such books helped you discover what life was like - and life does have bogeymen and monsters. In raising our fears, children’s authors also showed us how to control them and dismiss them.
Intriguingly, in the same week that Sendak’s comments were made known, a survey was published which reaffirmed how important many older children’s writers continue to be to children. In the Booktrust survey, characters by Roald Dahl, including the Big Friendly Giant, Fantastic Mr Fox, Matilda and Charlie Bucket all featured in a list of children’s favourite fictional creations.
‘‘The books sparkle with his genius," says Katherine Solomon of Booktrust. ‘‘His books have such a vibrant mixture of grotesque dark characters filled with a wicked humour and energy."
Those worrying about the Sendak film would do well to remember quite how joyfully disgusting many of the Dahl characters are - and how we thrilled to them as children. Sendak’s comments may have been unappealingly worded, but his message holds true. Parents: there’s no need to be afraid of the dark.
Nadine O’Regan is The Sunday Business Post’s Books and Arts editor. She presents The Kiosk, Phantom 105.2’s arts and culture show, every Saturday at 11am. E-mail: nadine@sbpost.ie
|
|
|
