Liz ([info]lzz) wrote,
@ 2006-02-07 22:41:00
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Reading
I fear I may have forgotten some things here, for ages I hardly seemed to have read anything and then all of a sudden I had read lots and couldn't remember it all.

Empire Windrush: fifty years of writing about Black Britain - Onyekachi Wambu (ed.)
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis
Ordinary Jack - Helen Cresswell
Absolute Zero - Helen Cresswell
The Olive Readers - Christine Aziz
Bagthorpes Unlimited - Helen Cresswell
Close Range: Wyoming Stories - Annie Proulx (this included Brokeback Mountain, which I read twice)
The Leto Bundle - Marina Warner
Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis - Wendy Cope

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[info]oedipamaas49
2006-02-18 03:38 pm UTC (link)
I'd be interested to hear what you thought of the Bagthorpe books. They've been one of my guilty pleasures for many years, comfort reading that I return to whenever I'm feeling down. And over that time they've become completely worn down and smoothed out - by now I know every plot twist and every joke, so reading them is more like turning a prayer wheel or reciting an incantation.

But I came to the bagthorpes in the first place for peculiarly personal reasons, and I've stayed with them because those personal associations let the books pull me out of mental holes, and make me think that everything bad is just a crazy joke waking to be revealed. So I don't have the slightest handle on what the books are like as books. I *think* that if I was coming to them for the first time I'd still find them fun, clever, and well-paced, and good at pointing children towards odd little ideas. If I came to them in a different mood, though, I might just find them painfully English Middle Class, without much appeal to somebody who hasn't known that kind of family, and relying too much on caricatures and running jokes. And on the third hand, I might figure that they're children's books, so those faults are entirely excusable.

And as I've never had much success in persuading friends to read the Bagthorpes books, I've not been able to soak up their views on it all. So, as I said, interested to know what you think.

Since I've just trampled into your livejournal, I'd probably better confirm the obvious: I ended up here by flitting through friends of friends. I don't think I know you, although we obviously have a few mutual friends, and I suspect we may have met briefly at a livejournal picnic last year. Either way, hi!

...and by now it must be about time for me to shut up.

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[info]lzz
2006-02-27 09:20 pm UTC (link)
Hello! Sorry it took me so long to reply to this... I recognise your username, but I don't think we've ever actually met!

anyway, the Bagthorpes: I read them for comfort reading, much the same as you do, but I do also think they're really well-written. It's interesting to hear what you say, because as an adult I do think they are extremely English Middle Class, but as a child I don't think I really saw that - we didn't know any families like that, or not enough like that for me to recognise the caricature. In that respect, I get more out of them as an adult.

I also don't think that a book being about a middle-class family (whether caricatured, as here, or a straight story such as Arthur Ransome or something) means that children from other backgrounds can't get something out of it. I've been reading a lot recently about writing for children, and one of the books commented on a fairly recent trend in education (in the 1980s I think) towards gritty, real-life stories about kids on council estates. But the teachers found that many kids didn't actually WANT to read those books, they wanted stories that would put them into the shoes of other people. And I think one of the great things about stories is that they DO allow kids to put themselves into the shoes of other people. And therefore I don't see why newspaper critics and talking heads will criticise a certain book for not being progressive or educational enough, when if children are encouraged to read widely and to enjoy it, then they will be able to put themselves in the shoes of all sorts of people through reading.

Criticising the publishing industry for what it chooses to focus on is a whole different can of worms, though I suspect this may actually be more of an issue in adult fiction than children's. But I wish people wouldn't (however implicitly) deem certain authors to be unsuitable, when they have actually managed to write books that children want to read!

Sorry, that turned into a bit of a rant! Basically I think you are entirely justified in your liking for the bagthorpes! and I think you should continue to encourage all your friends to read them!

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