Girls and Knowledge

In thinking about comparisons between Pippi Longstocking and The Moorchild as we have done in the most recent writing assignment and in class today, I began thinking about the skills and talents of Pippi and Saaski. These girls are parentless, but they have some unique talents that bring excitement, and sometimes power, into their lives. Pippi is, after all, the world's strongest girl, and always has a way of making something normal new and exciting. Saaski has talents that come from her folk heritage. She is something of a bagpipe prodigy, and she can both see and read messages left by the folk in the town. I think it is interesting that in a time when the education of children, and especially girls, would have been quite different from what we are now used to, Saaski is privileged to some secret knowledge. I propose that perhaps her knowledge of these writings and of the bagpipes is more subversive because of her gender.

The villagers treatment of Saaski reminds me of the Salem witch trials and the tendency to fear women who are outsiders or exhibit difference. McGraw hints that gender did possibly play a part in the general conception of Saaski when she describes how Saaski was blamed for the birth of a two headed calf despite that there were also two boys present at the birth (40). Perhaps the villagers would have had the same reaction if Saaski had been accompanied by two girls, but I can't help wonder if McGraw is purposefully coding this account as an instance of gender-bias. It is not just that Saaski looks odd and happens to be around when weird things happen; she is also female.

Saaski's knowledge, like previously mentioned, is secret and mysterious. She can't explain how she knows how to play the bagpipes or where she has heard the songs before. She also does not know why she can read the signs. Tam, however, has some unusual skills, but they are not mysterious or secret. He knows how to juggle, a talent that Saaski finds so unique she declares it to be "wizardly," but he has gained this knowledge through traditional means (63). His dad has taught him how to juggle. Perhaps, then, boys can have unique skills through accepted, standard means of learning and education, but for a girl to have a profound knowledge or skill it must have mysterious origins.

Pippi Longstocking is comin into your world...

Maybe some of you watched this movie as a child. I know my sister and I did, and then braided our hair and held it out and marched around our house singing this song.

Pippi the Lady

Pippi Longstocking at first seems to be merely a comical, ridiculous story about a little girl living out the fantasy of having no parents at home and remarkable strength. The plot is episodic, and while I was reading it for the first time I did not think I was encountering any remarkable themes or comments on childhood. Laura Hoffeld's article on Pippi from some thirty years ago, however, convinced me of the uniqueness of this novel and Lindgren's heroine. Hoffeld discusses Pippi's comedy and joy, and in her article she emphasizes Pippi's unique freedom as a female in children's literature. It is not just the Tom Sawyers that get to have fantastic adventures away from the eyes of their parents; Pippi shows that little girls can have all kinds of fun and trouble away from mom and dad as well.

Pippi does show awareness of society and society's view of her, although in trying to fit into society and norms she is hampered by ignorance. She may try to understand school or circuses, but she can hardly get around the unimportant and important intricacies of these events when she does not understand their basic components (such as the meaning of the word arithmetic or the concept of paying to see a show). Pippi most earnestly tries to fit into society when she is invited to Mrs. Settergren's coffee party.

I think Lindgren effectively and humorously satirizes ideas about society and socialization in this chapter through Pippi's misunderstanding of expectations. Pippi earnestly wants to fit in and behave just as she knows she should, but she simply cannot do it properly. Her "very stylish" appearance mocks style itself and the adolescent's first attempts to dress oneself like an adult. Normal little girls make a big mess of their mother's makeup, but Pippi makes a big mess of red crayon, thus further emphasizing her youth and ignorance. Pippi literally does not have the tools to grow up and look like a grown up is expected too. Instead, like in many other instances in the novel, she uses her resources and seems quite satisfied with the results.

Throughout this episode, Pippi does her best but messes everything up. Even her attempts to behave by shouting orders to herself only point out her lack of understanding of social custom. Despite behavior that would certainly frustrate and appall in real life (throwing sugar on the floor, eating all the cake), Lindgren maintains that Pippi is the sympathetic character just trying to make the most of the situation. Pippi's desire to conform shows us the comedy in our own efforts to fit in.

Hoffeld, Laura. "Pippi Longstocking: The Comedy of the Natural Girl." The Lion and the Unicorn 1977: 1.1 (47-53).

"Let us now kill a pirate": The Intrusive Narrator of Peter Pan

I should probably begin this post with the disclaimer that I find Peter Pan, and especially the novel's unconventional narrator, exceedingly satisfying and delightful. In fact, the first word that comes to mind is "delicious," but perhaps that is a bit too sensual. I state all this at the beginning to let you know that my enjoyment of this novel perhaps may cloud my judgment of it, just as if it were a friend, so I will gladly accept criticism of the opinions I will now express.

In fact, let's (see? I'm copying Barrie already) start with what other critics have said. Peter Hunt agrees with other critics that the narrator's age and relation to the reader is problematic. He writes, "Barrie's mode of address... constantly moves between that of the knowing but sympathetic adult and the bitter and cynical adult, and both voices address adults and children... Barrie has no sense of balance" (Hunt 204). He continues to link this problem to the transfer of the story from drama to novel: "It may well be that what works on stage does not work on the page; it is the narrator who brings with him the serpent into the simple Eden of wish-fulfillment" (204).

I argue, however, that Barrie has created a narrator that creates a similar magic and interaction on the printed page as one finds in a theater. The audience is an active participant in a stage production; no show is exactly the same from one night to the next because no two audiences are exactly the same. Barrie creates interaction between the narrator and the reader, or the listening child, through an intrusive narrator. From the very beginning the narrator charges the reader to be engaged with the text. The narrator says, "You always know after you are two." The child reading or hearing this must think, "Did I?" and is thus engaged by asking her/himself questions while experiencing the story.

The narrator also frequently employs the first person plural to include the reader in the story. When the narrator is describing the Neverland and all its inhabitants, he or she (although, really, I think it's a he, but I'm open-minded) describes Hook's claw and then suggests, "Let us now kill a pirate, to show Hook's method. Skylights will do" (Griffith 750). When the narrator includes us in this interjection, he or she includes us into the murder of one of Hook's pirates. Putting the horror of actually committing murder aside, the fact that we feel like we have an impact on the characters is unique and rather thrilling. Just as in a theater, our laughter and applause can get a response out of the actors, the narrator here allows, or at least gives the illusion of, our participation in the story. Throughout the novel, it is not entirely clear if the narrator is reporting a story or creating one. This simulates the experience in a theater because, while watching a play, we know that the story has already been fixed and is destined for only one ending, but the actors are alive and present, we could reach out to touch/kiss/trip them at will, and thus their course seems more malleable.

Essentially, in transferring his story from acted drama to the immortalized printed word, I think Barrie bottles some of the magic of the drama and the Neverland through a creative narrator. Let us... (?) The possibilities are not limited by genre.

Works Cited:

Griffith, John W. and Charles H. Frey, eds. Classics of Children's Literature. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc., 2005.

Hunt, Peter. Children's Literature. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers, 2001.

Peter Pan Fun

My "real" post of the week (on The Golden Compass) is below, but I also wanted to share a video with you all.

This is Sing Alliance's 2007 SING act "The Second Star to the Right." It is essentially a 7 minute musical interpretation of Peter Pan.

SING is a Baylor tradition in which organizations perform what are essentially 7 minute musicals, each with its own theme. It is highly competetive. For this act, Sing Alliance won one of the coveted top 8 spots and were invited to perform the act again at the subsequent homecoming.

Enjoy!
The Second Star to the Right

Also: I am the obnoxiously loud pirate.

The Golden Compass

There are so many questions left unanswered at the end of The Golden Compass that it is hard to narrow discussion enough for a blog posting. I decided to let criticism on Pullman guide me with my topic, and although I had some frustration with a lack of available criticism in the TCU library, I did find an article relating Plato to Pullman. What grabbed me in this article was not further enlightenment on Pullman's use of Plato's analogy of the cave as we briefly discussed in class, but a phrase the author of the article used to explain intercision. He describes it as "a kind of spiritual castration, the soul being severed from the body" (Haldane 273). I am quite intrigued by this analogy because of the light it sheds on daemons's relationship to the body, the soul, and sexuality. By relating intercision to the sexual organs, I think Haldane rightly identifies part of the complex nature of the daemon. Again and again the book emphasizes puberty as a crucial point in the development of the daemon because of its stability at that time. I think our familiarity with the word castration helps us have a concept for the enormity and inhumanity of intercision, which can be difficult at first as we try to comprehend the complexities of an entirely foreign concept--having a daemon.

When I read the word castration here I also thought of the different implications for males and females. Male castration is a fairly familiar concept, and as the Oxford English Dictionary defines it simply as "the removing of the testicles," it seems to only apply to males. Female genital mutilation, however, has been in practice in various parts of the world for years, and although it is difficult to compare the two practices, just as it is comparing apples to oranges to compare the different sexual organs, an understanding of the implications of "castration" for females may help our understanding of intercision as well. Often the motive behind female genital mutilation is that after the procedure women will either not be able to have sex (perhaps until the procedure is reversed in some sense) or that she will have no pleasure in sex. The goal is the repression of female sexuality and sexual exploration. Clearly this is at least part of the motive behind intercision in Pullman's book as well. Mrs. Coulter says to Lyra, "but at the age we call puberty... daemons bring all sort of troublesome thoughts and feelings, and that's what lets Dust in. A quick little operation before that, and you're never troubled again" (Pullman 283).

My understanding of intercision is enhanced through this exploration by the possibility that detachment from one's daemon is as violent and horrific as castration. What, then, is Pullman trying to have us question? Not simply "castration is wrong." Pullman asks us to question the links between our sexuality, our bodies, and our soul. He also forces us to think about general acceptances of "right" and "wrong" in regards to sexuality and our bodies.

Finally, I would simply add that, in case you were uninformed before about female genital mutilation, it is a serious human rights issue. If you would like to learn more, you can go to the Amnesty International website.

Works Cited:
Haldane, Michael. "From Plato to Pullman--The Circle of Invisibility and Parallel Worlds: Fortunatus, Mercury, and the Wishing-Hat, Part II." Folklore 117.3 (2006): 261-278.

Pullman, Philip. The Golden Compass. London: Scholastic, 2007.