Ranty rant rant
Aug. 3rd, 2006 03:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
erasteswell, had a nice lunch - went out to the pub with kerry and had sausages and parsnip mash. yum.
Now I just have to RANT. What the heck is up with the Nanny mentality? I was just wondering at how many literary magazines the Americans have for children and bemoaning that we don't have the same kind of habit over here. (cruising www.duotrope.com btw) and then I come across "Jack & Jill Magazine" and this is the tripe they have in their submission info: Granted it's a "health orientated" magazine - but STILL!!
"Ages 7-10. 500-800 words. Characters in fiction should adhere to good health practices, unless failure to do so is necessary to a story's plot. Remember that characters in realistic stories should be up-to-date. Many of our readers have working mothers and/or come from single-parent homes. We need more stories that reflect these changing times but at the same time communicate good, wholesome values."
Well goodness me.
Ok. Let's re-visit some of our early adventure stories with that in mind shall we?
*James* - a relatively poor boy from a single parent family, lives with his working mother above a public house. It's not the best environment for a poor lad, as he has to suffer passive smoking and he gets little sleep because the naughty sailors who populate the public bar are often singing into the night. He has to work before and after school to cope with the lodgers that his mother brings into make ends meet. There are no bathing facilities and no-one has yet invented toothpaste yet. He looks at the sailors with some dismay and realises that one day he will have no teeth. One day he goes sailing with some older men which is a much healthier environment.
*George *lives in the country with her Dog Timmy. There is no Frontline flea treatment in the 1950's and George is bitten regularly. She is forced to live on a terribly unhealthy diet of pound cake, fish paste sandwichesand lashings of ginger beer. She does however, despite eating very little fibre, gets a lot of exercise with her three friends, Dick Anne and Julian.
*Harry,* an orphan is practically starved by his evil family. In spite of this, he has not developed ringworm or rickets and has good teeth. He goes to school in Scotland and despite the freezing weather and months of snow wears no thermal underwear. However he's an amazingly healthy little chap, and he's never ever had a cold or flu. Jamie Oliver doesn't become famous until 1996, so sadly the school continues to serve the most unhealthy options full of transfats. It would seem that house elves have never heard of sun dried tomatoes or olive oil, and the children are force fed a diet of steak and kidney pie, and their main source of liquid is pumpkin juice, which isn't good for the teeth. Despite this, wizards (unless blown up or eaten) live even longer lives than people in the mediterrnean, so perhaps eating fatty food is better for one than one thinks. Despite participating in an active and dirty sport, Harry has only had one bath in six years.
I could go on, but I'd rather like to hear your versions!!
Now I just have to RANT. What the heck is up with the Nanny mentality? I was just wondering at how many literary magazines the Americans have for children and bemoaning that we don't have the same kind of habit over here. (cruising www.duotrope.com btw) and then I come across "Jack & Jill Magazine" and this is the tripe they have in their submission info: Granted it's a "health orientated" magazine - but STILL!!
"Ages 7-10. 500-800 words. Characters in fiction should adhere to good health practices, unless failure to do so is necessary to a story's plot. Remember that characters in realistic stories should be up-to-date. Many of our readers have working mothers and/or come from single-parent homes. We need more stories that reflect these changing times but at the same time communicate good, wholesome values."
Well goodness me.
Ok. Let's re-visit some of our early adventure stories with that in mind shall we?
*James* - a relatively poor boy from a single parent family, lives with his working mother above a public house. It's not the best environment for a poor lad, as he has to suffer passive smoking and he gets little sleep because the naughty sailors who populate the public bar are often singing into the night. He has to work before and after school to cope with the lodgers that his mother brings into make ends meet. There are no bathing facilities and no-one has yet invented toothpaste yet. He looks at the sailors with some dismay and realises that one day he will have no teeth. One day he goes sailing with some older men which is a much healthier environment.
*George *lives in the country with her Dog Timmy. There is no Frontline flea treatment in the 1950's and George is bitten regularly. She is forced to live on a terribly unhealthy diet of pound cake, fish paste sandwichesand lashings of ginger beer. She does however, despite eating very little fibre, gets a lot of exercise with her three friends, Dick Anne and Julian.
*Harry,* an orphan is practically starved by his evil family. In spite of this, he has not developed ringworm or rickets and has good teeth. He goes to school in Scotland and despite the freezing weather and months of snow wears no thermal underwear. However he's an amazingly healthy little chap, and he's never ever had a cold or flu. Jamie Oliver doesn't become famous until 1996, so sadly the school continues to serve the most unhealthy options full of transfats. It would seem that house elves have never heard of sun dried tomatoes or olive oil, and the children are force fed a diet of steak and kidney pie, and their main source of liquid is pumpkin juice, which isn't good for the teeth. Despite this, wizards (unless blown up or eaten) live even longer lives than people in the mediterrnean, so perhaps eating fatty food is better for one than one thinks. Despite participating in an active and dirty sport, Harry has only had one bath in six years.
I could go on, but I'd rather like to hear your versions!!
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no subject
Date: 2006-08-03 07:01 pm (UTC)I only remember her dissauding me from reading enid blyton. She didn't buy me any of her young children's books at all, like NOddy and The Far Away tree, which to this day I still haven't read. Not because she believed in the idiocies of political correctness of allegations of racism, but because she thought they were poorly written. She only read Philopsher's stone, too. She had no interest in reading any of the others for the same reasons, she was distinctly unimpressed with JKR's writing. But again, she didn't tell me that until I started discussing the Spork with her, like then, she let me form my own opinions. Everyone should have her for a mum.
However it did cause me to read as much Blyton as I could lay my hands on, when I could get it!
I love your take on Charlie - so true! And their dietary habits were dire, they only ate cabbage! I beleive you CAN live on cabbage, but it's not something I'd like to try.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-03 07:29 pm (UTC)I'm trying to think what an American equivalent of Blyton would be - with my kids' generation it would have been R.L. Stine or the Babysitters Club books, but in my day, not sure. Things like the Bobbsey Twins and Nancy Drew maybe.
I'd forgotten about the nothing but cabbage, so yes, that makes it even worse!
no subject
Date: 2006-08-03 07:57 pm (UTC)I was a Blyton WHORE as a child. I've actually just been re-reading The Faraway Tree with Sam and I still love it. I'm not entirely sure whether it's poorly written or not and it's certainly outdated but really, the concept did it for me regardless of the rest of it. I mean seriously, a tree that has a different magical land at the top of it each week? I must have spent hours and hours inventing new ones - it was like brain fuel. An indication of how long these books stayed with me - I remember coming up with a very detailed sex land once. I'm guessing I was out of the 7-10 age bracket by then.
But back to the point - I do get really irritated with all the Nanny stuff. Kids are waaaaay more perceptive than people give them credit for - they can spot a 'message' a mile off, even at Sam's age and if they think they're being lectured or manipulated, they just won't listen. Why do they think Horrid Henry is so popular at the moment? Because he eats trash, tortures his little brother and is basically a lazy, rude little sod. It's REAL, and kids know that. They learn from it - they learn about consequences, that if you nick a pile of sweets and eat them you'll probably puke, and if you manage to get away with murder you probably won't have any friends, but they learn from it in a way that they can actually relate to.
I know a lot of the older books have been disposed of or changed now which is just a horrific crime. I personally don't see what's wrong with a kid reading anything as long as you're on hand to discuss it with them.
We've read ridiculously outdated stuff that we've found at second hand book shops and fetes and stuff - pre-war, Edwardian even, and as long as I explain to him WHY Tom's father appears to be physically abusing him without anyone batting an eyelid, or why Fanny (really) has to help mother with the housework while Dick gets to sit with father in the study and read, then it's actually a very valuable educational tool.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-03 10:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-03 10:13 pm (UTC)These days I'd just like a money land and a sleep land. Once I'd had a couple of months in those I might start thinking about the sex land again.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-03 08:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-03 09:18 pm (UTC)The book itself was very primary, imo.