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[CCBC-Net] It's about you, that story
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From: Valiska Gregory <mail>
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2009 08:57:23 -0400
As Cheryl Klein reminds us in her succinct discussion of Aristotle, this whole topic of just how human beings are influenced by stories is an old one. Horace in his Satires comments, "Change the name, and it's about you, that story." My academic spouse in explaining how stories influence the people we become says that "Stories are a kind of narrative cradle for the formation of the human soul." (See http://undpress
,nd.edu/bookP01318 for his forthcoming book that addresses many of the issues we've been discussing: Shaped by Stories: the Ethical Influence of Narratives.)
As a writer, I am not interested in manipulating my readers in the same ways that television ads or preachers do, but I am writing because I have something to say. Whether I am writing for adults or for children, I am aware that the stories I write have a theme, an underlying idea that informs the story's structure and characters.
I'm not sure that thoughtful writers are unconsciously trying to preserve an idyllic view of childhood, so much as they are trying to discover new ways of exploring those universal themes which interest us as human beings within the context of a child's sensibilities and experience. The novels I love as an adult invariably contain great themes (e.g., love, loss, death friendship, fear, honor, courage, and laughter). The children's books I love may include those same themes, but with plots and settings and characters that children, who have more limited experience of the world than adults, can readily understand.
As human beings we love stories in part because they help us write the stories of our own lives, and perhaps especially when those stories also "entertain and delight," we learn from them. There's no question that as children or adults, we identify with and are influenced by the characters and authors we love. When I had my first children's book published, my publicist told me that in the office of HarperCollins there is a framed letter from a child that reads:
"Dear Laura Ingalls Wilder,
I know you're dead. Please write back anyway." That letter never fails to remind me that discussions like this one in which thoughtful people are deliberating about how they might best bring good books and children together is important work. Thanks to all who have responded.
Valiska Gregory http://www.valiskagregory.com Through the Mickle Woods Kate's Giants When Stories Fell Like Shooting Stars Babysitting for Benjamin A Valentine for Norman Noggs Forthcoming: Heroes
Received on Wed 22 Jul 2009 07:57:23 AM CDT
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2009 08:57:23 -0400
As Cheryl Klein reminds us in her succinct discussion of Aristotle, this whole topic of just how human beings are influenced by stories is an old one. Horace in his Satires comments, "Change the name, and it's about you, that story." My academic spouse in explaining how stories influence the people we become says that "Stories are a kind of narrative cradle for the formation of the human soul." (See http://undpress
,nd.edu/bookP01318 for his forthcoming book that addresses many of the issues we've been discussing: Shaped by Stories: the Ethical Influence of Narratives.)
As a writer, I am not interested in manipulating my readers in the same ways that television ads or preachers do, but I am writing because I have something to say. Whether I am writing for adults or for children, I am aware that the stories I write have a theme, an underlying idea that informs the story's structure and characters.
I'm not sure that thoughtful writers are unconsciously trying to preserve an idyllic view of childhood, so much as they are trying to discover new ways of exploring those universal themes which interest us as human beings within the context of a child's sensibilities and experience. The novels I love as an adult invariably contain great themes (e.g., love, loss, death friendship, fear, honor, courage, and laughter). The children's books I love may include those same themes, but with plots and settings and characters that children, who have more limited experience of the world than adults, can readily understand.
As human beings we love stories in part because they help us write the stories of our own lives, and perhaps especially when those stories also "entertain and delight," we learn from them. There's no question that as children or adults, we identify with and are influenced by the characters and authors we love. When I had my first children's book published, my publicist told me that in the office of HarperCollins there is a framed letter from a child that reads:
"Dear Laura Ingalls Wilder,
I know you're dead. Please write back anyway." That letter never fails to remind me that discussions like this one in which thoughtful people are deliberating about how they might best bring good books and children together is important work. Thanks to all who have responded.
Valiska Gregory http://www.valiskagregory.com Through the Mickle Woods Kate's Giants When Stories Fell Like Shooting Stars Babysitting for Benjamin A Valentine for Norman Noggs Forthcoming: Heroes
Received on Wed 22 Jul 2009 07:57:23 AM CDT
