From: Nina Lindsay <nlindsay>
Date: Mon, 24 Jul 1995 08:02:00 -600

I'm responding to Perry Nodelman's comment that WTM, without the technology, etc. of today, "has to seem Utopian next to the real thing". Katy has already expressed some of my concerns with this idea, so I won't repeat. I just wanted to add that calling WTM
"Utopian" seems to be dismissing the best qualities of the book with a term that most people will look at as negative. I would not use the word "Utopian", but I would also say what's wrong with looking at a slice of experiences and characters apart from the world's everyday nightmares and headaches? Isn't this what, in part, literature is supposed to do -- let us reexamine ourselves outside of the discourses that current times impose? I agree that it's important that kids read about Today, but, as Katy mentioned, there are many books that do that, and one book should never be all things. I also agree that it's important to watch out for adult idealizations of childhood -- but I don't think that's what's going on in WTM. Finally, I think the world portrayed in WTM is just as much (and probably more) "the real thing" as in other children's literature today. So, Perry: you shouldn't "worry" that you enjoy the book, despite its "timelessness". I don't seem to be able to help it either.

Nina Lindsay Student--School of Library & Info. Studies UW Madison nlindsay at mail.soemadison.wisc.edu
Received on Mon 24 Jul 1995 09:02:00 AM CDT