Reading, February 27

This week, I'm lucky enough to be reading several short stories and essays:

• "The Duration of Life" by the Brothers Grimm
• "Parrot Land" from The Brazilian Fairy Book
• "The Fisherman and His Wife" by the Brothers Grimm
• excerpt from "Darkness Too Visible" by Megan Cox Gurdon and "Why the Best Children's Books are Written in Blood" by Sherman Alexie

These are mostly children's stories or are about children's stories, so the differences between them are very interesting. 

The first, "The Duration of Life," is a folk tale about the stages of human life. It is simplistic, but with the ring of truth that folk tales usually have. Being by the Brothers Grimm, it is, of course, dark. The themes seem to revolve around punishment for human greed and knowing when to be happy with what you have. Good lessons for children, I suppose. I expect the discussion about this one to be either very minimal or pretty intense. 

"Parrot Land" felt familiar in the same way that "The Duration of Life" did. It is a frame narrative in which a princess who is apparently friends with a parrot that tells stories is being courted (?) by her evil cousin. The cousin sets up a failed parrot sale outside the princess's home to get her attention, but she asks for the storytelling parrot to distract her. It tells her about a prince who runs a bunch of errands to get his father his sight back and ends up with a shiny sword and a nice horse. I don't have a lot to say about it. Maybe discussion will prove the story to have more depth than what I see now. 

"The Fisherman and His Wife" is about how women are greedy and wrathful and don't know what they want. What else would it be about?

And finally, three cheers for Sherman Alexie. I'm sure this is the popular opinion, but I'm no hipster. The juxtaposition of these two excerpts highlights a lot of issues surrounding writing and librarianship, chief among them that literature is highly personal, and a lot of people feel that their way of thinking about it is the one true way. I can never condone censorship or book-banning (clutching my petticoat as we speak), but I can sympathize with a parent who sees the dark world of contemporary (or any?) teenagers and worries. Thanks to Mollie and Krista, though, for giving us the Alexie piece to calm our nerves. I think I know the direction this discussion will take. 

- K