From: Judith Ridge <judith.ridge_at_gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 23 Nov 2011 19:06:34 +1100

On 23 November 2011 01:52, K.T. Horning wrote:

If a picture book biography of Lincoln or King (or JFK or Malcolm X, for that matter) omitted his assassination, would it be acceptable by today's standards?

My initial response to KT's questions was, of course! But then, having read some of the responses, and remembering an experience of my own, I began to revise my opinion...

Some years ago, when I was on the editorial staff of the NSW School Magazine (a magazine for primary school-aged children comparable to Cricket) I wrote a "creative non-fiction" article about Trim, a ship's cat belonging to, and beloved of Matthew Flinders, the man who circumnavigated Australia, proving it was an island continent, and who gave our country its name (from Terra Australia).

Trim was a remarkable cat and we know quite a lot abut him, because Flinders wrote a book about him. He was quite a character--would catch flying fish in the air, and climb up the ship's ropes after he inevitably fell overboard in the attempt. There's also an anecdote of a sailor who was notorious for speaking with his mouth full, until Trim ran up his coat front and stole food from his mouth!

Fliners was so attached to Trim that when he was shipwrecked off the coast of Queensland, he took Trim with him in a smaller vessel to get help. They landed in Mauritius, not knowing, because he had been away from England for so many years, that England and France were at war, and Flinders was imprisoned. Trim was sent to live with a French colonial family, but disappeared--possibly going in search of Flinders. Flinders' theory was that he was popped in a cooking pot by some of the locals. Awful, perhaps, but probably true (cats being neither native nor valued for their fine feline qualities by the Mauritians, who quite reasonably would have seen him as a source of food).

Now, I wrote the story of Trim from the cat's point of view, so not only was it difficult to write his own ending, but frankly, I thought the theory of his demise far too upsetting for young readers (it was for kids about 9 years old), especially as the narrative encouraged them to grow to love this remarkable creature. So I finished the story by having Trim set off in search of Flinders, in a kind of Kipling-esque Cat Who Walks Alone thing. I wrote an afterword, but just noted that Trim disappeared and was never seen again, but also with the postscript that the NSW State Library has a statue of Matthew Flinders standing out the front, with a smaller statue of Trim on a windowlefdge behind him, keeping an eye on his Captain: "There they are together forever."

So I guess, given that, I AM in favour of modifying the nastier parts of history, depending on the age of the audience and the mode of storytelling!

(I just dug out a copy of my story, and it stands up pretty well after all these years!)

Judith

-- Judith Ridge Western Sydney Young People's Literature Officer

Arts and Cultural Development Blacktown City Council PO Box 63 (62 Flushcombe Road) Blacktown NSW 2148 AUSTRALIA

-- My work blog: http://westword.wordpress.com/ My personal blog: http://www.misrule.com.au/s9y/ My personal website: http://www.misrule.com.au
Received on Wed 23 Nov 2011 07:06:34 PM CST