tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2303338240948428759.post5081082312635830978..comments2024-03-24T18:32:45.563-04:00Comments on Black and White: Fantasy MothersAnne E.G. Nydamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02406524149458743460noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2303338240948428759.post-86071017045129727562011-05-20T16:46:29.209-04:002011-05-20T16:46:29.209-04:00Ahh, but now we get into questions of actual child...Ahh, but now we get into questions of actual child-rearing, not just in writing. Are the only options absence or helicopter-hovering? I feel sure there's some middle ground that can be depicted in fiction as well as put into practice in real life. Of course, in lots of ways fantasy isn't supposed to be like real life, but I hate to see it perpetuating stereotypes. It's undoubtedly an interesting puzzle: how to put our young heroes into the sort of trouble that no good parents would willingly leave their children in!Anne E.G. Nydamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02406524149458743460noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2303338240948428759.post-44828398196445245392011-05-20T15:22:46.532-04:002011-05-20T15:22:46.532-04:00I don't think mothers have to be wicked or dea...I don't think mothers have to be wicked or dead, just marginalized to the point that the children take center stage. The children have to be able to make their own choices and decisions, something that may not be easy with an engaged, active, supportive mother hovering too near?Paxnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2303338240948428759.post-79759589403191306432011-05-09T16:55:35.843-04:002011-05-09T16:55:35.843-04:00I don't see smart, interesting, sympathetic ch...I don't see smart, interesting, sympathetic characters as a zero sum game. Surely there's no intrinsic reason why good parents can't be secondary characters. I'm also not convinced that all young readers relate more to abused orphans than they do to characters with intact, supportive families. But I agree that it's certainly easier for a writer to make a mother wicked or kill her off than to find a place for her among the heroes.Anne E.G. Nydamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02406524149458743460noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2303338240948428759.post-79378482320834153482011-05-09T09:23:34.125-04:002011-05-09T09:23:34.125-04:00I wonder if the absence of mothers has less to do ...I wonder if the absence of mothers has less to do with the authors' personal memories of their own mothers, and more to do with the requirements of a story written for children? If a mother is present who is "smart, interesting, sympathetic", then she becomes a major character and is in danger of over-shadowing the children. There is a subtle shift, I suspect, so that the book becomes more interesting to adults who relate to the mother, than to children who want to relate to their peers? For children's adventures to get under way, parents have to be out of the picture one way or another--unless the adventure ends at supper time.Paxnoreply@blogger.com