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Magic, Identity, and Relationships
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From: Nina Lindsay <nlindsay>
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 1995 08:30:00 -600
I'm back from vacation, and mulling over all that everyone's had to say about Mahy's books. I'd brought up the issue of magic as a metaphor for maturity; Marge and others brought up the wonderful
"everydayness" of the characters and family life; Megan brought up the possibility of a response to 16th and 17th century witch hunts, and to the bad image of witchcraft in general. Bringing all these ideas together, and considering the other "everyday magic" type of books that I appreciate so much (Kindl's "Owl in Love" (1994) springs to mind), I think I see why this seemingly odd approach to everday subjects works so well. Issues of identity and relationships have been hashed over endlessly in literature (sometimes excellently, often not), that -- to some extent -- we, and children, become too used to the usual tactics (which, in particularly bad cases, we might ascribe the term "touch?ely"). After Freud, and his opponents, I think we sometimes feel we've dispelled all the mystery of ourselves and each other. What better way to reapproach the mysterious in ourselves and our relationships than through magic? This is a metaphor that children can understand, since much of the adult world is as inexpicable to them as magic. And there is the historical background of witch hunts, in which those in power decried anything mysterious (different) in human nature or behavior as "magic" (and made this magic "bad", since they couldn't understand -- and thus control -- it).
I've been using the term "mysterious", but isn't this mystery really everyday? It's what makes each day so exciting: makes us look ahead, trying to understand ourselves and others in the past and then project this understanding into the future -- and constantly being, at least a little bit, surprised. What happens everyday, day-to?y, IS mysterious -- the job, and the joy, is in the understanding. I think Mahy's two books remind us there are many ways to do this.
Nina Lindsay Student--School of Lib. & Info. Studies UW Madison nlindsay at mail.soemadison.wisc.edu
Received on Fri 11 Aug 1995 09:30:00 AM CDT
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 1995 08:30:00 -600
I'm back from vacation, and mulling over all that everyone's had to say about Mahy's books. I'd brought up the issue of magic as a metaphor for maturity; Marge and others brought up the wonderful
"everydayness" of the characters and family life; Megan brought up the possibility of a response to 16th and 17th century witch hunts, and to the bad image of witchcraft in general. Bringing all these ideas together, and considering the other "everyday magic" type of books that I appreciate so much (Kindl's "Owl in Love" (1994) springs to mind), I think I see why this seemingly odd approach to everday subjects works so well. Issues of identity and relationships have been hashed over endlessly in literature (sometimes excellently, often not), that -- to some extent -- we, and children, become too used to the usual tactics (which, in particularly bad cases, we might ascribe the term "touch?ely"). After Freud, and his opponents, I think we sometimes feel we've dispelled all the mystery of ourselves and each other. What better way to reapproach the mysterious in ourselves and our relationships than through magic? This is a metaphor that children can understand, since much of the adult world is as inexpicable to them as magic. And there is the historical background of witch hunts, in which those in power decried anything mysterious (different) in human nature or behavior as "magic" (and made this magic "bad", since they couldn't understand -- and thus control -- it).
I've been using the term "mysterious", but isn't this mystery really everyday? It's what makes each day so exciting: makes us look ahead, trying to understand ourselves and others in the past and then project this understanding into the future -- and constantly being, at least a little bit, surprised. What happens everyday, day-to?y, IS mysterious -- the job, and the joy, is in the understanding. I think Mahy's two books remind us there are many ways to do this.
Nina Lindsay Student--School of Lib. & Info. Studies UW Madison nlindsay at mail.soemadison.wisc.edu
Received on Fri 11 Aug 1995 09:30:00 AM CDT
