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Katherine Paterson
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From: Uma Krishnaswami <uma>
Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1999 08:31:27 -0600
Michele writes:
...snip...
But there is that in every child, isn't there, and in every human being, that is outside the experience of every other? I think this is what Paterson's characters evoke in those who connect with them. Each of us has at some point had the experience of being somewhere where we've not quite belonged, not quite been wanted. In one of her essays Paterson talks about being in Japan/being misunderstood, then coming back to the US and longing for the hundred aspects of daily life that four years in Japan had gotten her accustomed to. That is the experience of travel, of immigration, of leaving home, of growing up, of turning 40, of growing old. Adolescence carries this with it, and its awakenings are in the ten year old.
I had the great good fortune years ago of meeting the Dalai Lama, and someone asked him "What is the greatest difficulty that human beings face?" I'll never forget his answer. He said, "It is the greatest difficulty and also the greatest blessing -- that we will never completely understand one another, and that we have the opportunity to never stop trying."
Interestingly Paterson has said she herself is "distinctly uncomfortable in the face of eternal questions." It seems to me she addresses them in the often muddled lives of her protagonists rather than through the provision of authoritative answers.
I have only a sample of one to present, but my son read Bridge when he was in fourth grade -- he skimmed it, and not much registered beyond the events of the story. When he read it in school a year later he lingered over it, went back and reread pieces, asked about 60s musical allusions, etc. To me this is the hallmark of great writing, that it can inspire that kind of thinking and rethinking. Maybe it has to do with Linnea's point about the adult reader guessing what the child character doesn't know -- these are the very revelations that the first-time young reader doesn't get, but they begin to fall in place when he/she goes back.
If you'll bear with the one-kid sample for a moment -- I find it no coincidence that the only other book(s) my son has ever done this with to quite the same degree are the Tolkien trilogy. To which Paterson makes reference too when she speaks of her writing -- that the quest is a reality in all of our lives.
As a parent I am grateful for Katherine Paterson's work. As a writer, I find her inspirational, not the least because she in her time collected 7 years' worth of rejection slips;-)
Uma Krishnaswami
Uma Krishnaswami Writer 765 County Road 3000 Aztec NM 87410 50525H17 uma at cyberport.com http://www.childrensbookguild.org/Krishnaswami.html
...Facts can obscure the truth.
-Maya Angelou
Received on Sun 22 Aug 1999 09:31:27 AM CDT
Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1999 08:31:27 -0600
Michele writes:
...snip...
But there is that in every child, isn't there, and in every human being, that is outside the experience of every other? I think this is what Paterson's characters evoke in those who connect with them. Each of us has at some point had the experience of being somewhere where we've not quite belonged, not quite been wanted. In one of her essays Paterson talks about being in Japan/being misunderstood, then coming back to the US and longing for the hundred aspects of daily life that four years in Japan had gotten her accustomed to. That is the experience of travel, of immigration, of leaving home, of growing up, of turning 40, of growing old. Adolescence carries this with it, and its awakenings are in the ten year old.
I had the great good fortune years ago of meeting the Dalai Lama, and someone asked him "What is the greatest difficulty that human beings face?" I'll never forget his answer. He said, "It is the greatest difficulty and also the greatest blessing -- that we will never completely understand one another, and that we have the opportunity to never stop trying."
Interestingly Paterson has said she herself is "distinctly uncomfortable in the face of eternal questions." It seems to me she addresses them in the often muddled lives of her protagonists rather than through the provision of authoritative answers.
I have only a sample of one to present, but my son read Bridge when he was in fourth grade -- he skimmed it, and not much registered beyond the events of the story. When he read it in school a year later he lingered over it, went back and reread pieces, asked about 60s musical allusions, etc. To me this is the hallmark of great writing, that it can inspire that kind of thinking and rethinking. Maybe it has to do with Linnea's point about the adult reader guessing what the child character doesn't know -- these are the very revelations that the first-time young reader doesn't get, but they begin to fall in place when he/she goes back.
If you'll bear with the one-kid sample for a moment -- I find it no coincidence that the only other book(s) my son has ever done this with to quite the same degree are the Tolkien trilogy. To which Paterson makes reference too when she speaks of her writing -- that the quest is a reality in all of our lives.
As a parent I am grateful for Katherine Paterson's work. As a writer, I find her inspirational, not the least because she in her time collected 7 years' worth of rejection slips;-)
Uma Krishnaswami
Uma Krishnaswami Writer 765 County Road 3000 Aztec NM 87410 50525H17 uma at cyberport.com http://www.childrensbookguild.org/Krishnaswami.html
...Facts can obscure the truth.
-Maya Angelou
Received on Sun 22 Aug 1999 09:31:27 AM CDT
