From: Perry Nodelman <perry_nodelman>
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2009 12:45:57 -0500

On 21-Jul-09, at 10:17 AM, Klein, Cheryl wrote:

>
> 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.

Yes, i think you're right--but with a proviso. In the texts I'd like to consider at least a little less manipulative (texts for both adults and children), there tends to be less focus on just one way of understanding the changing character's story arc. What seems at first glance to be nothing but a change for the better is, in fact, more confusing than that, and might be viewed less positively or as less clearly a change for the better. I think that happens, in fact and despite Aristotle, in a lot of plays by Aeschylus, Euripides, etc.-- you can see the hero's triumph as either a heroic move to the good or a depressing failure of spirit and submission to repressive convention. And indeed, most good drama still, and a lot of what strikes me as the most interesting fiction (both for children and adults), is inherently dialogical--it outlines the grounds for a conflict but works in a way that doesn't allow either side of the conflict to emerge completely triumphant. Good is not merely good, but possibly interpretable as in some ways possibly evil--and vice versa.

But I think that's contrary to the most typical conventions of writing for young people, which do tend to be built on binary oppositions and do tend to firmly choose one side over the other--most usually the side that favour parental views of how reality is and should operate. In these most typical books, a change for the better is in fact nothing but a change for the better and usually, as in Artistotle, a confirmation of mainstream societal values that help to restrain dissent (or undesirable forms of childishness) and hold the community together. And because they are often so much more simple and straightforward than adult drama or literary fiction, I think these texts are in fact more singlemindedly manipulative. (Not necessarily more so, though, than a lot of pop lit for adults--I discuss the similarities and difference of children's lit and poplit generally in the third section of The Hidden Adult.)
>
> (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.)

As i recall, our conscious thoughts and discussion of the books before and as we were writing them had more to do with "story ideas' than potential effects on readers. We'd been presented with an old book written by the grandfather of a friend (and also our agent at the time) back in England in the thirties in which he tried to investigate the scientific evidence for the existence of life after death by recording all the reliable accounts of apparitions he could find. We were sure there and to be a story there, and after tossing around ideas for a while, we ended up with two contemporary children with a grandfather who wanted to prove the existence of ghosts--except that our grandfather is already dead and a ghost and doesn't even realize he is himself all the proof he needs. And also there's an ancient curse and another evil ghost intent on taking over the world. It didn't occur to us that our child characters didn't learn anything psychological or therapeutic until after we'd finished volume three-- and then only because I was telling Carol about how annoyed I was about a bunch of papers I'd heard at a grad student's conference I'd attended which all were determined to turn every kind of book or theory into something of therapeutic value for young readers--at which point, Carol said, "Hey, maybe that's why the ghosts aren't selling better, they're just for fun" and I said, "Of course. How dumb of us."

But as i said before, maybe the Ghosthunter books really are therapeutic and we ourselves just don't realize it. There's only one good way to find out, folks. Read the books. Maybe get all your friends and relations to read them and have a discussion about their messages with you. Buy a few hundred copies or so each, maybe. They're published by Key Porter in Canada and distributed by PGW in the US and readily available from Amazon, B and N, etc. See my utterly amateurish book trailers listed below.

Perry
_____________ Perry Nodelman http://pernodel.wordpress.com/

Book Trailers: The Hidden Adult: Defining Children's Literature http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3t7JAfPQeA The Ghosthunters2: The Curse of the Evening Eye http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qapDE1Kwnis The Ghosthunters I: The Proof that Ghosts Exist http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw0ow7oQV7k
Received on Wed 22 Jul 2009 12:45:57 PM CDT