Children's Poetry

I was finally catching up with my website reading and came across this article on the New York Times website:


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/08/arts/spare-times-for-children-for-april-8-14.html?_r=1

I have to say that adults (including high brow literary critics) continue to delude themselves when it comes to what children can and can't handle.  The first article discusses the adaptation of Roald Dahl's subversive poems on to the stage and suggests that one shouldn't "take timid preschoolers" in fear of them being scarred or emotionally stunted due to the horrifying picture that Dahl's words create....puhleese!!  It is, I would argue, the fact that there is some horrible outcome or 'revolting' aspect in character and setting that attracts children.  Let's face it, children are horrible.  The more stomach churning or disgusting the topic then the more engaged they are.  They find the humour in the revolting - just like many adults do, so why should we censor their visual stimulation and label them as timid and unable to deal with the 'reality'?  Isn't this what we've done with Disney?  Sure there are aspects of old versions of Disney's work that have some dark imagery, but today it's all fluff and sweetness.  The villains are now humourous and clownish, not foreboding or worrying to the audience...we are all cotton-woolled and kept from the realities of life.


So remember, fairy tales are not a Disney interpretation, hell they're not even the Grimms!  They are dark, violent and didn't always have a HEA.  Just look at Charles Perrault's Little Red Riding Hood - she's eaten by the wolf in the end!!  There is NO saviour, and the villain is really quite Machiavellian.  For all those adults that want to dummify children and not give them the credit of adapting - censorship has been taken too far - GROW UP!!