The hidden messages in children’s books | Hacker News Reader

The hidden messages in children’s books

bbc.com

15 pointswesti12 comments

The "Werner Hertzog reads..." series on Youtube is pretty amazing. It ranges from a kinda silly, rambling take on Where's Waldo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvWh6PMi9Ek through a pretty thoughtful version of Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Z1R5vDG2Tg to an incredibly deep interpretation of Madeline https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57EDxvldLD4

I should point out that the reader in these videos is not actually Wernor Herzog. Which you might think goes without saying, but it wouldn't be that out of character for him, given his views on professional wrestling, for example.

http://therickbarry.com/2010/08/26/youre-welcome-world-werne...

Thanks for sharing those; they are delightful.

I must have been some highly developed child growing up. When I was around 4 or 5 my parents read to a lot of Shel Silverstein and of course plenty of Dr. Seuss.

When I saw the Lorax film, I immediately knew it was about over consumption of resources and a little later on (ages 8 or 9) felt a strong environmental pull during the whole movie.

Even the Sliverstein books made me sad. Take for instance, the Giving Tree. People to this day talk about what the meaning really is:

https://www.mtholyoke.edu/omc/kidsphil/questions/Givingtree/...

When my parents read it to me, I was saddened by the fact the tree gave everything to the child, and the child never seemed appreciative of the gifts. On the one hand, I felt it was about being selfish and even when life has handed you everything, happiness was still elusive. On the other hand, it also spoke to me about generosity, and giving to others who don't have as much as you.

Other books just confused me. Alice in Wonderland just gave me nightmares, never mind what the actual meaning of the story was. I'm content to think it was just some crazy acid trip Carroll was recounting.

I feel like the more depressing themes seemed to connect with me as a child, while some of the deeper meanings (The LOTR series and Wizard of Oz) I totally missed. Even after seeing the Star Wars movies, a friend had point out all the biblical parallels. Like Darth Vader being his father. Father in German is Vater. Vader, Vater, it's so very close, but once pointed out, so obvious.

I rarely see the deeper meanings that people claim are in these stories . . . I highly doubt many are put there deliberately. However, I do find it interesting what meanings people find. In the first instance, it is an interesting commentary on the way their minds work, but also, it is fascinating how ideas and new lines if thinking can be generated from truly unrelated material (which, in my opinion, is usually a good thing as long as you don't claim those ideas were put there by some sort of conspiracy).

One way of cutting through the BS is to see whether people agree with each other about the message. On one extreme, the Lorax clearly has an environmental message, and you'd be hard pressed to find an adult to read it and disagree with that. On the other extreme, the sheer variety of suggestions about what Alice in Wonderland is "really" about suggests that the vast bulk of them are quite wrong.

Somehow related, i reminds me about this article:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/8554...

People in the UK can't read this... Now I want to know more

For UK readers: http://web.archive.org/web/20140413055133/http://www.bbc.com...

  > BBC Worldwide (International Site)
  > We're sorry but this site is not accessible
  > from the UK ...

This article is talking about "lit crit" (literary criticism) and deconstruction, presented in a light and superficial way so the reader doesn't notice the depth of the topic.

Ironic!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deconstruction

Well, it was until you pulled back the curtain.

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