Comments on: Wild Rumpus

By: Henitsirk

Henitsirk — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 06:37:48 +0000

Maurice Meilleur said: “By the way, don’t believe Farrar, Straus & Giroux when they say the reading level for the stories is 4-8. Most parents would not want to read the title story (for example) to any four-year-old I know. Or the original versions of ‘Snow White’ or ‘Hansel & Gretel’, for that matter, also included in the collection.”

Au contraire. While 4 is a bit young for many Grimm’s tales, 5-8 is the prime time for these stories. For example, many Waldorf teachers have lists of tales with suggested ages, because the tales are seen as psychologically and developmentally appropriate.

Children see the justice in these stories—the bad are punished, but mercy can also be shown. The heroes and heroines receive help from the spiritual world (the duck that carries Hansel and Gretel across the stream). The prince and princess, representing the earthly and the higher self, must be integrated. Children respond to that (if subconsciously), despite adults’ squeamishness over some of the stories’ details. The Bettelheim view of the symbolic value of fairy tales fits right in with this, but from a Freudian perspective.

By: R Gould-Saltman

R Gould-Saltman — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 19:35:37 +0000

My recollection, from my 1950’s New York City childhood which included Sendak’s “A Hole is To Dig” illustrations, was that Sendak’s kids, even in those tiny scratchy black ink line illustrations, were recognizably the kids around me in Queens, and not “Dick and Jane”; they were city kids, and looked like they were from a “neighborhood of mixed ethnicities”. Fifty years later, they’re still wonderful and energetic “kids”.

By: bdbd

bdbd — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 13:47:51 +0000

I heard an engaging interview with Sendak a while ago, conducted by Terry Gross, in which he talked about growing up in Brooklyn (or some other part of NY, I forget which) with all those uncles and aunts. It was a neighborhood of mixed ethnicities—Jews and Italians, and of course when he was young Sendak wasn’t able to distinguish too well between the groups. He knew he was a Jew, and he thought the Italians were “happy Jews” unlike his own cohort of more dour Jews.

By: Maurice Meilleur

Maurice Meilleur — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 12:43:21 +0000

Slightly OT but regarding Sendak: If you have not seen Sendak's illustrations for The Juniper Tree and Other Tales from Grimm (Powell's), you're in for a real treat. If you know a kid--or an adult--who loved books like Wild Things or Night Kitchen and is ready for some Grimm tales in all their original violence and gore, this is the book. There are about two dozen Sendak illustrations throughout, and most of the twenty-seven stories (translated by Lore Segal) are not well-known (or known at all) to English-speaking readers. I haven't seen and can't speak to the quality of the in-print one-volume edition, but the 1973 two-volume slipcased edition is really wonderful and reasonably-priced on the used market. By the way, don't believe Farrar, Straus & Giroux when they say the reading level for the stories is 4-8. Most parents would not want to read the title story (for example) to any four-year-old I know. Or the original versions of 'Snow White' or 'Hansel & Gretel', for that matter, also included in the collection.

By: ejh

ejh — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 11:04:07 +0000

In dutch it is called “Max en de Maximonsters”. Somehow I was sure it was translated from German. In Spanish, Donde Viven Los Monstruos (Where Monsters Live) which lacks the subtleties of "wild things". I'm reminded of the recent cover version of A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall by Zaragoza rock band Amaral, who translated it as Llegará La Tormenta ..."The Storm Is Coming".

By: Chris Armstrong

Chris Armstrong — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 10:52:46 +0000

It’s a wonderful story, but my abiding memory of it as a child was of how very sad it was – that he renounced the kingdom of the Wild Things and returned home. It seemed unbearably wrong at the time for him to do that, but oddly my kids now don’t seem to think it’s a sad story at all – they’re just impressed that his dinner is still hot when he gets home. Putting my psychoanalyst’s hat on, I presume that my children feel more secure at home than I did, about which I guess I should feel glad.

By: bobfrombrockley

bobfrombrockley — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 08:44:11 +0000

Jholbo-
Tzippy (same as Tzipi, as in Livni) is short for Tziporah/Zipora/however you want to spell it, which means bird
Bloix-
What are ‘Jewish features’? Horns presumably? :)

By: reason

reason — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 07:36:56 +0000

Lunar eclipse (just finishing)?

By: jholbo

jholbo — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 04:07:06 +0000

I think if your name is Tzippy you tend to come pre-packaged as self-parody. Tzippy? I hope that was a nickname.

By: richard

richard — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 00:00:32 +0000

…and it was still warm.

For me the defining moment is where the walls are no longer there: somehow in the preceding panel the forest is decorated onto the room, but when the walls fade out the room is finally quite lost.

And what of the moon in Harold and the Purple Crayon (a psychodrama of control and self-definition if ever I saw one)?

By: Emma

Emma — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 23:01:19 +0000

More serious academic research on this: Desmond Manderson, “Where the Wild Things Really Are: Children’s Literature and Law” in Michael Freeman, ed., Law and Popular Culture (Oxford Univ. Press, 2005), 47-70
Speaking as a parent, I agree it is one of the vanishingly few books (which also include Sendak’s In the Night Kitchen) that can be read an infinite number of times without diminution of its considerable power.

By: Watson Aname

Watson Aname — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 22:08:35 +0000

I’ve always thought one of the nice things about CT is the depth and breadth of familiarity here with canonical literature.

By: Zeba

Zeba — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 21:58:53 +0000

Oh, and yes, the world he returns to is subtly changed – as is Max. Now he knows where the Wild things are. He knows what they are. And he can rule the impulse that makes him become like them. This is why it is a work of genius – Max is at the heart of the story, and Max overcomes all dangers, those without and those within, and best of all, gains control. Not in a manipulative way, but in a way that shows that he can be in charge of himself.

By: Zeba

Zeba — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 21:54:39 +0000

Where the Wild Things Are was the first book I really remember, and it was the first book that I bought for my first child. The best find we ever made was the video/DVD version of the story which uses the Sendak stills and a lovely narration with accompanying music to tell the story, along with In the Night Kitchen (a book which I still find bizarrely lingers on lists of books that people have tried to have banned from public libraries) and other Sendak work.

Both my boys know the story by heart now, and I think it is a serious contender for best ever illustrated book for children. I will be interested to see the Spike Jonze version of the book which apparently had to be entirely reshot because the original director’s cut was too scary.

By: Henry

Henry — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 21:50:30 +0000

Absolutely no reason why they shouldn’t – but it adds new resonances (in the same way as Eoin O’Brien’s book, The Beckett Country does a good job in tracing out how much of Beckett’s apparently placeless landscapes can be traced back to specific locales and kinds of locale in Ireland).