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Originally Posted by Bookpossum
The issue of the teacher and pupil mentioned by some is I suppose an example of something which to our modern minds has more potentially sinister overtones than I think was intended by Montgomery at the time she wrote the book. Not that predatory behaviour didn't happen back then, but that it wasn't seen or expected.
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I agree completely. I know I had a 9th grade English teacher who quite openly favoured the boys in the class. Everyone knew, but made sure to never know officially. I sincerely doubt that LMM intended any more than she actually wrote, and it wasn't the sort of thing that would have been picked up by most children at the time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bookpossum
Last year when we read The Graveyard Book, which I enjoyed very much, I was prompted to go back and read Kipling's Jungle Books to pick up on the way in which Gaiman had paid tribute to those books. I had read them as a child and loved them. I enjoyed rereading them after such a long time, perhaps with that childhood memory affecting me. These days of course Kipling is much criticised for his colonial attitudes towards "the natives", but I can accept that he was of his time.
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I quite surprised myself by enjoying
The Graveyard Book, given that Gaiman isn't one of my favourites. And I suspect it was the references back to the Kipling that was read to me at bedtime every night. (My father was an Anglophile, and a devoted reader of Kipling.) That being said, I haven't read Kipling since I was an adult, though I've been tempted. But even allowing for his time, I suspect I'd have some trouble with it. (OTOH, I read much about Colonial British East Africa before our trip to Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in the late 90's, and found much to enjoy, while understanding all too well what the costs were (and are). But I was able to put it in the context of the time.) IAC, I am glad the club finally got me to read
Anne, and that I now have the Canadian context to enjoy it more than I would otherwise.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bookpossum
Probably very good reasons for not discussing books from childhood in a book club! However, especially for those of us who didn't read Montgomery when we were young, what else can we do but state our honest reactions to the book when it is put up for discussion?
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As well you should! And, I might add, it's why I've often avoided re-reading some of my childhood books. Though some (not all
) that I have read have stood up to the test.