W is for work. Not
work as opposed to text in reader-oriented semiotics, but work as
labour. I was once asked to contribute to a special issue of a
journal on work in children's literature, and the main argument of my
contribution was that very few children's literature children know
what work is. When the issue appeared it was briefly reviewed online,
and somebody who had only read the review emailed me in rage,
enumerating all the examples of work... that I examined in my
article. They didn't, however, mention the very best: Tom Sawyer
whitewashing the fence, where Mark Twain explains the difference
between work and play better than anyone.
Work is not an exciting
action in a story because is it monotonous and repetitive, and unless
the text really needs to emphasise how monotonous, repetitive and
exhausting it is, it may just mention that it took thirty years to
build a city or three hours to hem a dress, but it won't describe
every brick and every stitch, because it is boring. Most classical
children's literature children are privileged middle class children
and don't have to work. Even when they are poor they still have
servants to do menial work. Today's children's literature children
don't have to work because they go to school. There are many
exceptions which I pointed out in my article that my opponent
criticised without having read it.
W is also for witches
and wizards, abundant in the kind of literature I have written
extensively about, and mind, they had been around long before
Hogwarts was invented.
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