At 8:53 PM +0100 24/4/02, Douglas Clark wrote:
>As he
>points out it is in children's fiction that the big questions
>are asked nowadays, not the contemporary novel. That is where
>Ursula Le Guin feels that Joanne Rowling is weak limiting herself
>to writing purely for children.
I read a lot of children's fiction. And contemporary children's
authors (like Pulman, but also brilliant authors like David Almond
and others, has anyone here read Heaven Eyes?) seem to be writing
subversive and often directly political books, many of them drawing
on poets like Blake - Pulman isn't the only one - to talk about
things like freedom. I've also noticed that adults in contemporary
children's books play a different role than the distant outsiders
they once did - they are characters deeply involved in the book, with
real relationships with the child protagonists. Which seems to
suggest a changing place for children, who are more closely connected
with and implicit in the adult world, and maybe have more agency...
don't know.
Nevertheless, I wouldn't dismiss the contemporary adult novel!
Best
A
--
"The only real revolt is the revolt against war."
Albert Camus
Alison Croggon
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