From: Neil Sklar <rp_mcmurphy>
Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2001 08:47:48 -0400

Lauri,
         I'm not sure what you mean when you say that "our forefathers and mothers did quite well in real life" after being reared with that sort of literature." What makes you think that was the case? When people still listened carefully enough to language that Shakespeare was well known to children, they surely knew that everybody dies at the end of Hamlet and that Lear gets his eyes gouged out. And we all know that the work of the brothers Grimm would be harshly criticized for content were it to be initially released today.
         As you don't think that every book should necessarily end with
"happily ever after," I certainly don't think that every book (children or adult) should end in tragedy. But I do think that it doesn't hurt, and probably helps, if some well chosen tragedies are thrown into the mix. Even (perhaps especially) if the reader later wishes s/he had never read it.
-Neil
Received on Fri 31 Aug 2001 07:47:48 AM CDT