Pseudo Literature for Children  1060 words

By Mehdi Hejvani

Translated by H.S. Zahedi

   

I propose to discuss in this article the topic of books that are supposedly written for children and young adults but disregard the basic criteria for creation of works suitable for young people. Consequently this type of books, which fail to communicate with their intended audiences, could be called pseudo literature for children.

 

There was a time when children were not recognized as an independent group of human beings, and no literature was produced specifically for them. At best, books for young people were accidental and haphazard events and were usually ignored as an independent category in literary surveys. Nowadays children enjoy specifically recognized rights and they have their own special art and literature. All the same, one encounters now and then works in which the boundary line between childhood and adulthood is blurred.

 

Some writers divide children's literature in two groups: books written for children and those that are written about children.(1)

 

This is one way of drawing a demarcation line between books that are suitable for children and those that are not. In my view this classification could be presented in a more perfect form. There are books that are neither about children, in the sense that they offer no information about children, and nor are they suitable reading materials for children. Such books fall outside the category of `children's books' not just  because they are not about children. Therefore, literary works could be classified in the following form:

 

 

 

1. Adult Books that Address Grownups and Contain No Element Related to Children

 

 

No child, for instance, would read William Falkner's `Sound and Fury' and nowhere in the world would such a book be considered as related to children.

 

 

2. Books that Are Written from Children's Point of View, Taking into Consideration Principal Features of Literature for Children

 

 

Such books may contain informative or entertaining aspects that interest grownups, but they do not include points that are  meant to please grownups and are incomprehensible to children. In other words, these  books manage to communicate with children, and may at the same time interest grownups and have something to say to them. It doesn't mean of course that such books are confusing jumbles of parts that interest children and other parts that attract grownups. The tale of The Grammarian and the Captain in Rumi's  Mathnawi, for instance, is quite understandable to children in the upper grades of primary school, but adults interested in philosophy and mysticism could also discover profound ideas in it.

 

 

 

3. Pseudo-Childish Book (Books Written from an Adult Point of View, Incorporating Childish Attractions)

 

 

So far the issues were clear-cut. We have been dealing with books that are suitable either for children or for adults.

 

A third group of books that form the topic of discussion in this article, are those that are written from an adult point of view but contain nevertheless elements that are childish. They are usually ignored both by grownups and children.

 

The group of books classified as books about children in the previous classification is one - and only one - of the instances of books that pretend to be children's literature.

 

Books could be considered pseudo-childish for reasons other than being about the children. Presenting ideas that are only suitable for adults, heavy-handed and complex prose, and inordinately voluminous stories that are beyond children's capacity are other features of pseudo literature for children. It now remains to examine elements of attraction that impart a childish appearance to books. The following are the major elements:

 

 

 

A. Child Characters

 

 

The hero in Antoine de Saint-Exupery's book `The Little Prince' is a little boy who has landed on the earth from a distant planet, but certainly `The Little Prince' is not a childish book.

 

The little prince is a heavenly being, thoughtful and intellectual who has little in common with the earthly children. Unlike ordinary children the little prince is not fond of games and lively activity. In truth he is the materialization of the pilot's alter ego. The little prince lands from the heaven when the pilot's plane has broken down and the pilot has lost all hopes of rescue. Thus it could be said that the little prince represents the pilot's heavenly nature. The boy returns to the heaven when the pilot fixes his plane and regains his trust in technology. The profound mystic and philosophical ideas Saint-Exupery presents in this book are beyond any child's comprehension.

 

I should point out here that pseudo literature for children is not necessarily cheap or commercial writing. `The Little Prince', undoubtedly a great literary work, falls in this category because of a general, and perhaps unavoidable, misunderstanding.

 

 

 

 

B. Book About Children

 

 

The central characters in many novels are children who, far from being a heavenly human being like Saint-Exupery's little prince, are quite down-to-earth and natural persons. And although the story may have been recounted from the child's point of view, it reflects nevertheless a grownup's world view which may make it unappealing to children.

 

One could cite many examples from world literature that would correspond with this category of books. Many of the stories written by the American novelist J.D. Salinger revolve around an innocent child who is the victim of ignorance and violence reigning in the adult world. Salinger did not write his stories for young readers; he only depicted the irrational aspects of the contemporary age through the sad encounter of an innocent child with the adult world.(2)

 

 

C. Cumbersome Prose

 

 

D. Inordinately Voluminous Books that Are Beyond Children's Patience

 

 

E. Deceptively Childish Pictures

 

 

F. Author's Fame as the Creator of Books for Children, with the Resultant Expectation that the Writer's Books Are Always Suitable for Children, Specially When the Books Are Published by a Firm Specializing in Books for Children

 

 

G. Messages or Ideas that Are Comprehensible Only to Adults

 

 

All of the above factors could be summarized under the heading `adult character of some of the determining factors'.

 

 

Pseudo literature for children is an important topic and deserves careful examination. Children who read this type of books (assuming  that they read the books to the end) are usually exposed to two undesirable effects: they may give up book-reading habit altogether, and they may fail to understand the books or they may misunderstand them.

 

 

 

1. Rahgozar, Reza, `And Then...', Tehran, Art Bureau, 1987. pp. 32-42.

 

 

2. Salinger, J.D., `The Painter at 48th Street', translated into Persian by Ahmad Golshiri, Tehran, Papyrus Publications, 1984.