Not long ago, I was waiting in hospital for doctor, and I tend to dislike the lame women's magazines and horrible gossip mags they leave for patient to browse. As if their pains & misery wasn't enough!
So, I tend to grab children books, and often very surprised about the surreal and even dark themes of them.
I fail to remember the name of book, or artists, but book was from east europe, and looking like pretty obvious criticism for totalitarian communist regime. State would kidnap the grandparents and put them into camps of elderly. Everybody would be unhappy until they manage to build themselves wings & rotors to escape and make return. Story was much more complex, but in the slightly clumsy drawings and simplified storytelling, it still brough some wibes of movies like BRAZIL.
I wish I would have taken the name of author & the book, but no...
I was pretty much unaware of "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak, which was recently done as movie. It seemed pretty strange film, but clearly for kids, so I didn't pay much attention. Few months ago, happened to drive to small village to see very messy 2nd hand shop, filled with lots of obscure junk, and just by accident, pulled out book illustrated by Sendak. Finnish version, which came out same time as worldwide version. It was the long lost very short fairytale by younger of Grimm brothers, and I simply bought it solely for the amazing artwork (and that it was just 2,50€). Not until I read the dark story, I could appreciate it in full glory. Lets cut & paste the info:
QuotePreserved in a letter written to a young girl, Mili, in 1816 and not discovered until 1983, the Grimm story is prefaced by a tender address in which he underscores the story's message: although there are many obstacles that can prevent people from being together, "one human heart can go out to another, undeterred by what lies between." The story that follows implies that love transcends even death. Like many fairy tales, this one deals with extraordinary events. A widow sends her child into the forest to protect her from an approaching war. The girl is led by her guardian angel past menacing cliffs and chasms to the house of Saint Joseph with whom she lives for three days. Before she goes back to the village, Saint Joseph gives her a rosebud as a symbol of her return to paradise; when the girl reaches her home, she finds that the three days have been in reality 30 years. "God has granted the widow's last wish" to see her daughter once again. In the morning, mother and child are found dead, with Saint Joseph's rose "in full bloom." Sendak's haunting interpretation of this stark tale is often more emotionally compelling than the story itself. Dear Mili is a variation on the themes of loss, separation and love that Sendak has explored before, most recently in Outside Over There . In the tradition of 19th century Sunday school literature, the plot and language of the text are often predictable and obviously preachy. For example, after Mili's long journey and prayer, a cleansing rain falls: "God and my heart are weeping together," she says. In an attempt to transcend the limitations of the religious story, Sendak infuses it with images that are both nonsectarian and universal. Trees and roots in the valley of death become grasping, whitened bones scattered beneath an outline reminiscent of buildings at Auschwitz. The images are rich: dark clouds of war are etched with claws of yellow fire, and paradise is filled not only with music, but with lush flowers that burst, like those of Van Gogh or O'Keeffe, with passionate life. The volume may have more appeal for adults than for children, but nonetheless it contains unforgettable artwork of resonant power.
When it says this has "more appeal for adults than for children", I can say oh really?? I can't imagine worse bedtime story to kid, than story of losing all her brothers & sisters early on, living in struggle, escaping war, live life for 3 days, return home for your old mother and die together in sleep. It has religious tones of course, the guardian angels and all that, but it is very dark tale with exceptionally good artwork. I'd post some if would find online, but couldn't. Cover ain't anything special.
World is full of children's books, which seems to be work of deranged people or people who use them as methods of hidden messages or strange morals. And advices, feel free to post on topic!
