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[CCBC-Net] Therapeutic elements and one definition of drama (was: Re: Hidden Adult)
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From: Klein, Cheryl <CKlein>
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:17:24 -0400
Perry wrote:
>> On the other hand, though,I've been having some interesting
discussions lately with Carol Matas, my collaborator in the Ghosthunters trilogy we're currently working on (The Proof that Ghosts Exist and The Curse of the Evening Eye have come out, and we've just finished writing The Hunt for the Haunted Elephant, scheduled for publication next spring--Key Porter in Canada, distributed by PGW in the US.) We've been speculating that the books are less successful than they might have been because they are, in fact, merely entertaining. We made the dumb mistake of not putting a therapeutic element in them, not setting them up so that they conform to, as Sheila says in her message today, "the way books are expected to provide positive role models for kids." We've been thinking we might have had more readers if we'd made our central characters more upset about the death of their grandparent and in need of coming to terms it, or if one of them had anorexia or an experience with as bully or something like that, and learned to cope better. Instead, they're just slightly eccentric but basically happy people totally focussed on dealing with the annoyance of ghosts and trying to solve a mystery. These books are in fact less obviously manipulative than the conventional model of a children's novel would suggest, and so, we're speculating, less successful: adults with a children's lit habitus just don't feel comfortable abut buying them for children when there are so many more obviously helpful books to spend their budgets on. I guess my habitus as a writer of fiction ain't what it should be, eh? <<
This discussion of a "therapeutic element" and being "in need of coming to terms with" something rang all sorts of bells for me, because, as an editor, I spend a lot of time thinking about plot construction; and in the Western world, our standard plots tend to follow the model that Aristotle laid out in the Poetics. Simplifying vastly, Aristotle decreed that a drama should show a change from good fortune to bad, or bad fortune to good; and that this change should be brought about by a flaw in the protagonist's character, which is in turn corrected or ameliorated by the action. In the modern world, that sort of questioning of and change in character is often defined as emotional depth: We as readers or audience members (at whatever age) are drawn to identify and sympathize with the protagonist (another requirement of drama cited by Aristotle); we suffer with him or her through the experiences caused by the "fatal flaw"; and then we achieve catharsis in the resolution of the action.
This sort of character change seems like exactly the sort of thing you're citing as a "therapeutic element" here, Perry -- and indeed Aristotle thought of drama as a form of education for the Greek polis, that through the catharsis of the tragedy, and seeing how a noble person was laid low by his or her faults, the people of Athens would be Athens would be morally improved. So while I'm not disagreeing that this is a form of didacticism or manipulation, I did want to point out that those sorts of character changes are not at all unique to children's literature, and in fact built into one common Western definition of good drama.
(In fact, Perry, I'm curious to know: Did you and Carol make a deliberate decision to make the "Ghosthunters" books "merely entertaining" -- to leave out any such therapeutic element in the course of your writing? This is a common theme in some submissions I receive, where writers say in their query letters that they just want to create stories that will "entertain and delight children." Which is a perfectly good aim, but reveals "The Hidden Adult" in a different way, perhaps -- that childhood should be a time where children are, foremost, delighted and entertained, and these writers seek to satisfy that need.)
Fascinating discussion, all! Thanks very much for it, and thanks to you, Perry, for sharing so much of your time.
Cheryl
+++++
Cheryl Klein Senior Editor Arthur A. Levine Books / Scholastic
Received on Tue 21 Jul 2009 10:17:24 AM CDT
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:17:24 -0400
Perry wrote:
>> On the other hand, though,I've been having some interesting
discussions lately with Carol Matas, my collaborator in the Ghosthunters trilogy we're currently working on (The Proof that Ghosts Exist and The Curse of the Evening Eye have come out, and we've just finished writing The Hunt for the Haunted Elephant, scheduled for publication next spring--Key Porter in Canada, distributed by PGW in the US.) We've been speculating that the books are less successful than they might have been because they are, in fact, merely entertaining. We made the dumb mistake of not putting a therapeutic element in them, not setting them up so that they conform to, as Sheila says in her message today, "the way books are expected to provide positive role models for kids." We've been thinking we might have had more readers if we'd made our central characters more upset about the death of their grandparent and in need of coming to terms it, or if one of them had anorexia or an experience with as bully or something like that, and learned to cope better. Instead, they're just slightly eccentric but basically happy people totally focussed on dealing with the annoyance of ghosts and trying to solve a mystery. These books are in fact less obviously manipulative than the conventional model of a children's novel would suggest, and so, we're speculating, less successful: adults with a children's lit habitus just don't feel comfortable abut buying them for children when there are so many more obviously helpful books to spend their budgets on. I guess my habitus as a writer of fiction ain't what it should be, eh? <<
This discussion of a "therapeutic element" and being "in need of coming to terms with" something rang all sorts of bells for me, because, as an editor, I spend a lot of time thinking about plot construction; and in the Western world, our standard plots tend to follow the model that Aristotle laid out in the Poetics. Simplifying vastly, Aristotle decreed that a drama should show a change from good fortune to bad, or bad fortune to good; and that this change should be brought about by a flaw in the protagonist's character, which is in turn corrected or ameliorated by the action. In the modern world, that sort of questioning of and change in character is often defined as emotional depth: We as readers or audience members (at whatever age) are drawn to identify and sympathize with the protagonist (another requirement of drama cited by Aristotle); we suffer with him or her through the experiences caused by the "fatal flaw"; and then we achieve catharsis in the resolution of the action.
This sort of character change seems like exactly the sort of thing you're citing as a "therapeutic element" here, Perry -- and indeed Aristotle thought of drama as a form of education for the Greek polis, that through the catharsis of the tragedy, and seeing how a noble person was laid low by his or her faults, the people of Athens would be Athens would be morally improved. So while I'm not disagreeing that this is a form of didacticism or manipulation, I did want to point out that those sorts of character changes are not at all unique to children's literature, and in fact built into one common Western definition of good drama.
(In fact, Perry, I'm curious to know: Did you and Carol make a deliberate decision to make the "Ghosthunters" books "merely entertaining" -- to leave out any such therapeutic element in the course of your writing? This is a common theme in some submissions I receive, where writers say in their query letters that they just want to create stories that will "entertain and delight children." Which is a perfectly good aim, but reveals "The Hidden Adult" in a different way, perhaps -- that childhood should be a time where children are, foremost, delighted and entertained, and these writers seek to satisfy that need.)
Fascinating discussion, all! Thanks very much for it, and thanks to you, Perry, for sharing so much of your time.
Cheryl
+++++
Cheryl Klein Senior Editor Arthur A. Levine Books / Scholastic
Received on Tue 21 Jul 2009 10:17:24 AM CDT
