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From: Claudia Pearson <pearsoncrz>
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2009 11:17:41 -0500
> Do others remember having this sort of communal childhood
> consciousness--a sense of being not just you and young but actually
> something you understood as childlike in specific ways you assumed
> were shared by other children? For me, that possibility suggests a
> level of acculturation in individual children into a specific cultural
> idea of childhood that I would never have suspected. Children who
> believe they are childlike in the ways adults understand what
> childhood is--fascinating.
>
> Perry
I did not sense being a member of a communal childhood consciousness. In fact, I always felt I was different from most children. One of the things on which this sense was based was that I was always reading and was fascinated with words and with books. I read everything, every biography I could find, Bobsey Twins and Little House and Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys, Shakespere and Kahil Gilbran, The Count of Monte Christo and The Scarlet Pimpernil, Great Expectations and Huck Finn, Pompei and Hiroshima. I remember reading many things that I can not now say why I read, I can't recall what I found fascinating about the stories or series that led me to read them all. It was like I consumed them, had an insatiable appetite for books.
In some ways it seems as though I was claiming and possessing the books, not connecting with the characters or feeling that the author was talking to me specifically. I never found a character like me any any book I ever read, although I did like Jo and Harriet.
Maybe I thought of myself as unusual because I identified with these
"unusual" characters more closely than other children portrayed in these books, but I don't think so, because almost all books are stories about unusual characters, especially girl characters, who eventually find their place and purpose. I hated it when Jo got married.
Maybe I thought of myself as different because I did not fit the patterns I observed in the books I read. I don't know. Perhaps most children feel they are "different" from the norm like I did. Perhaps this sense is generated by the idea books convey, that most children are childlike in specific universal ways.
Claudi
Received on Wed 22 Jul 2009 11:17:41 AM CDT
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2009 11:17:41 -0500
> Do others remember having this sort of communal childhood
> consciousness--a sense of being not just you and young but actually
> something you understood as childlike in specific ways you assumed
> were shared by other children? For me, that possibility suggests a
> level of acculturation in individual children into a specific cultural
> idea of childhood that I would never have suspected. Children who
> believe they are childlike in the ways adults understand what
> childhood is--fascinating.
>
> Perry
I did not sense being a member of a communal childhood consciousness. In fact, I always felt I was different from most children. One of the things on which this sense was based was that I was always reading and was fascinated with words and with books. I read everything, every biography I could find, Bobsey Twins and Little House and Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys, Shakespere and Kahil Gilbran, The Count of Monte Christo and The Scarlet Pimpernil, Great Expectations and Huck Finn, Pompei and Hiroshima. I remember reading many things that I can not now say why I read, I can't recall what I found fascinating about the stories or series that led me to read them all. It was like I consumed them, had an insatiable appetite for books.
In some ways it seems as though I was claiming and possessing the books, not connecting with the characters or feeling that the author was talking to me specifically. I never found a character like me any any book I ever read, although I did like Jo and Harriet.
Maybe I thought of myself as unusual because I identified with these
"unusual" characters more closely than other children portrayed in these books, but I don't think so, because almost all books are stories about unusual characters, especially girl characters, who eventually find their place and purpose. I hated it when Jo got married.
Maybe I thought of myself as different because I did not fit the patterns I observed in the books I read. I don't know. Perhaps most children feel they are "different" from the norm like I did. Perhaps this sense is generated by the idea books convey, that most children are childlike in specific universal ways.
Claudi
Received on Wed 22 Jul 2009 11:17:41 AM CDT
