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derailing for beginners
Aug. 1st, 2009 12:04 amI read Black Beauty to Whitebird this winter, starting when she was almost 5. (Many, many, times. We made up stories about the characters. Do they count as fanfic if one acts them out with little plastic ponies instead of writing them down?) We read the abridged version by Robin McKinley, which simplifies the plot and makes it less racially specific (and leaves out the rape imagery), but keeps most of the rest. The pictures are great.
The book is so popular I expect everybody to be vaguely familiar with it, but it's often abridged or only regarded as suitable for horse-mad little girls (ie, fewer people are more than vaguely familiar with it.) It's a sentimental Victorian story of a horse who has a hard life despite his good looks and noble character. It's also a parable, preaching against animal cruelty, slavery, fox hunting, exploiting poor workers, drunkenness, laziness, and breaking the sabbath. I used to love it uncritically, seeing only the horses and a passionate general opposition to hurting the powerless. Now...I can see something cringeworthy in the equation of wage-slaves, slaves, and animals; even as I appreciate compassionate efforts to make powerful people stop hurting all of them through cruelty or irresponsibility. The ideal of social justice has changed so much since Anna Sewell died 130 years ago. Condescension and othering didn't used to be recognized as so problematic.
Anyhow, Whitebird *loved* it. She wanted to hear it over and over. The toy ponies became Black Beauty and Ginger, or Black Beauty and her mommy. ("Beauty" sounds like a girl's name to her, and "Ginger" like a boy's name. She reversed the pronouns so persistently I started doing it by accident. Confusing, when reading aloud.) Another point of confusion was that she very much wanted to see each bout of trouble as punishment for bad behavior, and each respite as reward. That's how stories work! But this story is about exploitation, so it didn't work that way. (Why did Black Beauty hurt her knees? What did she do wrong?) Then she asked if there was a movie, and we checked it out of the library. In my limited experience of movies...the horses are pretty. So are Sean Bean and David Thewlis, if one likes that sort of thing. The relationship between Black Beauty and Ginger looks a lot more like sexual pursuit than the friendship of the book. The child abruptly started calling BB "he" and Ginger "she."
A few days later, she asked if movies were always better than books. No. She meant when there was a movie and a book of the same story. I explained that even for those, I usually liked books better than movies because the book tells more of the story.
WB: But with a movie, you can see exactly what it's supposed to look like, with the people and everything. You don't have to imagine it for yourself.
A: Sometimes that's not so good. With a book, you can imagine it yourself, and see it the way YOU want it, not the way the movie-maker wanted it.
WB: How do you know which way is right?
A: Well, you're the one reading the book. If you like the story you imagine when you read it, you're ok, even if it's different from the movie. I mean, when somebody reads it to you.
WB: I mean, how do you know if the movie looks really right? Was the Black Beauty movie right?
A: Sometimes you can ask the author who wrote the book if the movie looks right. We can't do that with the Black Beauty movie, because the book was written a long time ago and the author died before they started making the movie.
WB: *shock* DIED?
A: She lived a very long time ago, before cars were invented. In the cities where she writes about horses and carriages everywhere, people drive cars now. I'm sure she'd be happy if she knew people were still reading her book after so many years.
WB: Do you think he would have liked the movie?
A: Probably. The movie-makers found some very pretty horses to play Beauty and Ginger. I'm sure they did the best they could. There's another author...do you know Harry Potter book your sister is reading, about the wizard school?
WB: Oh, sure.
A: When they made a movie of that book, the author helped them choose the actors and the scenery, so it would look exactly right.
WB: What's scenery?
A: All the background stuff in a movie or play. But authors don't usually have anything to do with making movies. Usually the movie-makers say, "We know how to do movies, so let us decide how it should look." There was another book about a wizard school, where the movie got it all wrong.
WB: What happened?
A: Well, the book was called "A Wizard of Earthsea," and a lot of the main characters had dark skin. When they made a movie of it, a few years ago, all the actors had light skin. The author, whose name is Ursula LeGuin, got very upset. She said it was an important part of the story that those characters had dark skin, and they should have African-American actors playing them.
(My mind was racing ahead, wondering if she would ask "What happened next?" or "Why does it matter?" or "How do you know?" What level of explanation should I give her?)
WB: What do you mean, girls can write books?!
A: *gasp* *sputter* *stay in lane* Yes, dear. Of course. Lots of girls do. Ursula LeGuin was a grown up woman when she wrote her books, but she used to be a girl. You could write books someday, if you wanted to, but you have to learn to read first.
How Do Dinosaurs Go To Boskone and convince children they exist and write children's books? It's hard to get back to Earthsea from there. I didn't try. Then again, I don't have a time fairy. *grin*
The book is so popular I expect everybody to be vaguely familiar with it, but it's often abridged or only regarded as suitable for horse-mad little girls (ie, fewer people are more than vaguely familiar with it.) It's a sentimental Victorian story of a horse who has a hard life despite his good looks and noble character. It's also a parable, preaching against animal cruelty, slavery, fox hunting, exploiting poor workers, drunkenness, laziness, and breaking the sabbath. I used to love it uncritically, seeing only the horses and a passionate general opposition to hurting the powerless. Now...I can see something cringeworthy in the equation of wage-slaves, slaves, and animals; even as I appreciate compassionate efforts to make powerful people stop hurting all of them through cruelty or irresponsibility. The ideal of social justice has changed so much since Anna Sewell died 130 years ago. Condescension and othering didn't used to be recognized as so problematic.
Anyhow, Whitebird *loved* it. She wanted to hear it over and over. The toy ponies became Black Beauty and Ginger, or Black Beauty and her mommy. ("Beauty" sounds like a girl's name to her, and "Ginger" like a boy's name. She reversed the pronouns so persistently I started doing it by accident. Confusing, when reading aloud.) Another point of confusion was that she very much wanted to see each bout of trouble as punishment for bad behavior, and each respite as reward. That's how stories work! But this story is about exploitation, so it didn't work that way. (Why did Black Beauty hurt her knees? What did she do wrong?) Then she asked if there was a movie, and we checked it out of the library. In my limited experience of movies...the horses are pretty. So are Sean Bean and David Thewlis, if one likes that sort of thing. The relationship between Black Beauty and Ginger looks a lot more like sexual pursuit than the friendship of the book. The child abruptly started calling BB "he" and Ginger "she."
A few days later, she asked if movies were always better than books. No. She meant when there was a movie and a book of the same story. I explained that even for those, I usually liked books better than movies because the book tells more of the story.
WB: But with a movie, you can see exactly what it's supposed to look like, with the people and everything. You don't have to imagine it for yourself.
A: Sometimes that's not so good. With a book, you can imagine it yourself, and see it the way YOU want it, not the way the movie-maker wanted it.
WB: How do you know which way is right?
A: Well, you're the one reading the book. If you like the story you imagine when you read it, you're ok, even if it's different from the movie. I mean, when somebody reads it to you.
WB: I mean, how do you know if the movie looks really right? Was the Black Beauty movie right?
A: Sometimes you can ask the author who wrote the book if the movie looks right. We can't do that with the Black Beauty movie, because the book was written a long time ago and the author died before they started making the movie.
WB: *shock* DIED?
A: She lived a very long time ago, before cars were invented. In the cities where she writes about horses and carriages everywhere, people drive cars now. I'm sure she'd be happy if she knew people were still reading her book after so many years.
WB: Do you think he would have liked the movie?
A: Probably. The movie-makers found some very pretty horses to play Beauty and Ginger. I'm sure they did the best they could. There's another author...do you know Harry Potter book your sister is reading, about the wizard school?
WB: Oh, sure.
A: When they made a movie of that book, the author helped them choose the actors and the scenery, so it would look exactly right.
WB: What's scenery?
A: All the background stuff in a movie or play. But authors don't usually have anything to do with making movies. Usually the movie-makers say, "We know how to do movies, so let us decide how it should look." There was another book about a wizard school, where the movie got it all wrong.
WB: What happened?
A: Well, the book was called "A Wizard of Earthsea," and a lot of the main characters had dark skin. When they made a movie of it, a few years ago, all the actors had light skin. The author, whose name is Ursula LeGuin, got very upset. She said it was an important part of the story that those characters had dark skin, and they should have African-American actors playing them.
(My mind was racing ahead, wondering if she would ask "What happened next?" or "Why does it matter?" or "How do you know?" What level of explanation should I give her?)
WB: What do you mean, girls can write books?!
A: *gasp* *sputter* *stay in lane* Yes, dear. Of course. Lots of girls do. Ursula LeGuin was a grown up woman when she wrote her books, but she used to be a girl. You could write books someday, if you wanted to, but you have to learn to read first.
How Do Dinosaurs Go To Boskone and convince children they exist and write children's books? It's hard to get back to Earthsea from there. I didn't try. Then again, I don't have a time fairy. *grin*
