"The Sound of the Willows" is a classic in the history of children's literature in the world, and many people are not unfamiliar with it. From the earliest introduction of the book to the famous Chinese writer Zhou Zuoren, almost all book reviews have emphasized its elegant and meticulous, beautiful and smooth writing, as well as the warmth, kindness and fraternity conveyed throughout the storyline. But I want to talk about what I see as the preciousness of this book—the sense of absurdity.
I found an interesting phenomenon: almost all parents, when reading this book to their children, always prefer the kind, well-behaved mole, and will also praise the shrewd and tolerant river rat. But children always have a soft spot for the personality, adventurous toad. Even if it is conceited and competitive, even if it is in frequent condition.
This seems absurd and incomprehensible.
Yes, what children love is the absurd, the absurd storyline, the absurd characters. There is a special subdivision of literature called "absurd literature". Literature in this field looks particularly nonsensical, out of tune, and behaves like nonsense. But under the absurdity, there is the pursuit of sincerity, kindness, bravery and all other good characters. The book "The Sound of the Wind in the Willows" is one of the masterpieces.
1. The Wind in the Willows: Toad Todd's Absurd Journey
The story of "The Wind in the Willow Forest" takes place in a large forest, and the protagonist of the story is four animal companions in the forest, moles, river rats, toads and badgers. If there is no toad, then the other protagonists should live a calm life. Party and chat, eat something good, and play around. As soon as this toad appears, there will be big trouble.
Toad tod loves to show off, and as soon as he appears on the scene, he shows off the mansion and shows off the luxury car. He also invites his friends to experience the trip with him. I didn't expect to be sad. The luxury cars driven by humans roared by, startling the toad's big carriages, and the luxurious open-top carriages were scrapped.
I thought Todd was very sad, but I didn't expect that this would arouse his fighting spirit and want to change to a more windy luxury car. It bought seven large cars in succession, one more luxurious than the other. But its driving skills are too bad, but it likes to drag racing, so there are car accidents again and again. The three good friends, Mr. Mole, River Rat, and Badger, did not want to watch Todd die in vain, put him under house arrest, and resolutely refused to let him touch the car.
Later, Todd finally figured out a way to escape victoriously and sneaked to a small town. It saw a latest car and couldn't resist trying to experience it. As a result, the toad who stole the car and raced the car was caught by the police and put in prison. Fortunately, the prison guard's daughter enjoys chatting with Todd and helps him escape from prison in disguise. While it cheers for its freedom, it also has to face a trip of many tribulations.
He eventually returned home and, with the help of his friends, recaptured his mansion from the weasels. Recognizing the absurdity of the past, and the greatness of friendship, he finally became a respectable Mr. Toad.
2. Why is the more absurd the storyline, the more children like it?
The whole story of "The Wind in the Willow Forest" has two main lines, one is the story of moles, river rats and badgers living by the river, and the other is the story of Todd's wandering around and absurd adventures. The former main line is for adults, and the latter is the topic that children talk about.
(1) The pursuit of novelty is human nature
Babies can respond with laughter to other people's movements at about 4 months. They like exaggerated movements and sounds, and they laugh when they see their mother's funny behavior. Absurd things, like the exaggerated behavior of adults to tease children, arouse children's curiosity, interest and concentration.
How can a toad be so obsessed with cars? The way he was thrown on the side of the road by a carriage was hilarious! He wasn't scared and went to buy so many cars! How can freedom be so important to toads? What is freedom... It is in these absurd plots that children capture a sense of novelty.
Japanese absurdist writer Yoshishi Hasegawa said that children like and books the most. Looking at his work "Bedwetting God", and then think about the popular "Diary of a Little Fart", I seem to understand that maybe children are born as readers of avant-garde literature!
If you think about it, most of the top and enduring works of children's literature have a bizarre, humorous, fresh and absurd beauty. This may be just in line with human nature. Children don't care how complete and logical the storyline is, their cognition is fragmented, what they need is novel enough, interesting enough.
(2) The excitement of challenging authority
Psychological research suggests that children have three rebellious periods. At the age of 2-3, there will be the first rebellious period in life; 6-8 years old will usher in the "children's rebellion period"; at the age of 12, it is the common "adolescent rebellion period".
It can be seen that the word "rebellion" runs through the entire growth process of children.
Todd in "The Sound of the Willow Forest" is guarded by badgers and moles and river rats in turn, just like a child who is restrained and disciplined by many parents. Every minute I want to break free. When Todd jumped off the train and fled the hunt, even though he was penniless, far from home, cold and hungry, he was still quite excited.
Because he is free! The word "freedom" is worth 50 blankets for Todd, making him warm and hopeful! Freedom for children means whimsical and unrestrained.
The previous article mentioned in "Terrible Science" by author Nick . Arnold often gave bad ideas to young children, asking them to test their parents and teachers with all kinds of strange questions. He told the children that scientists can do stupid things, and there are many problems that cannot be solved. Whenever children hear this, they are always inexplicably excited.
Perhaps, it is in the process of challenging authority and deviating from the scriptures again and again that children gradually recognize themselves and find their way.
(3) Pinning a vision of the world
Children don't like to tell a story. The more jumpy and imaginative the plot is, the more it attracts children. Because they want to see the bigger world in the story faster. They are full of visions for the world.
Just like "The Sound of the Willow Forest", the plot is constantly shuttled between the banks of the river in spring, the travel in summer, and the adventures in the wild forest in winter. Toad Adventures is even more exciting, but also funny and fun.
I deeply feel that the greatest value of children's literature is to comfort the hearts of children.
I've seen a lot of picture book stories written according to adult visions and values. Add a little imaginary storyline, but still can't think of the purpose of preaching. Parents want to tell their children all kinds of truths through stories, but in the eyes of children, it is more like a stereotyped life, which cannot arouse any interest.
The truly excellent children's literature pursues precisely the absurd beauty, the childish beauty, and the innocent beauty. This is the aesthetic education that children really need.
Adults reading "The Sound of the Wind in the Willow Forest" may be overwhelmed by mole Mole's words after experiencing wind and rain, "How special a home, such a harbor, has a special value for a person's survival." But children don't. Children can't understand those feelings after the wind and frost, the child's world is filled with bizarre fantasies, all kinds of exciting and interesting visions of this world.
3, the sense of absurdity, you think of the incomprehensible but the child's most precious wealth
Graham, the author of "The Wind in the Willows", once said, "The most precious wealth of a person living in this world is to have a sense of absurdity." Most adults lose this, and only children keep it the best. “
Keeping a little bit of absurdity may make our lives richer and more exciting. For children, it is a valuable asset.
(1) Find the power to grow in the absurd
I read picture books to my daughter, and I thought she would like well-behaved characters like Babe Bear and Qiao Hu, but she loved "Different Carmela". The younger sister does not know the words, and looks at the picture all day long to "comb" the storyline over and over again, and sometimes plays the role in it. My sister's favorite is the mischievous and brave chick sister Carmen.
These long-lasting children's books are actually about the desires in children's hearts, the behaviors they identify with, and what kind of people they want to be.
Maybe they feel weak, so they need to find strength in these favorite characters. Children who read "The Wind in the Willows" like Todd, that is, they like his courage to go the unconventional path, to be unfettered, to challenge authority, and to return triumphantly like Ulysses after going through dangers and obstacles.
Although the behavior of these characters seems exaggerated and the plot is so unrealistic, they always tell children in a unique way: difficulties will always pass, and the use of brains will create infinite possibilities. The seemingly absurd plot actually gives children the courage to face the future.
(2) The source of children's imagination and creativity
In early childhood, every child has no so-called mindset and is not bound by reality. Hence the imagination. Many stories that seem bizarre are difficult for parents to understand, but they can accept them gladly. Those fairy tale scenes and storylines that seem unimaginable seem to be closer to the child's heart.
The Japanese writer Yadama Shiro's "Sunny Days, Sometimes Pigs" describes it this way: The little boy Hated his mother for peeking into his diary and deliberately wrote something in the diary to scare his mother. Who knows that all this has become real: there is a big python hiding in the toilet; Dad ate the "fried pencil" fried by his mother, made a stomach trouble, and had to swallow a lot of rubber to relieve pain; the clear sky began to rain endless piglets, making the street crowded with screaming piglets, then Ann could only panic and quickly wipe off the diary of "Pig under sunny days", everything was calm...
In British writer Luo Dahl's "Giants of Charity", the giant uses the method of catching butterflies with nets to collect hundreds of millions of dreams floating in the air like a light mist, and packs them into hundreds of millions of bottles. Then these beautiful dreams, golden dreams, are blown into the bedrooms of thousands of sleeping children with a dream blower, so that they can sleep sweetly and dream happily.
Although these absurd stories are absurd and far from reality, they contain rich imagination and creativity, and also stimulate children's endless imagination and creativity.
Isn't imagination and creativity the abilities that future societies need most?
(3) Fun is the highest state of life
British writer Wilde said that good-looking skin bags are the same, and interesting souls are one of a thousand.
Zhu Guangqian said: In my life, I am not afraid of being stupid, nor am I afraid of people who are overly intelligent, but I am only afraid of people who are not interesting. It was really painful to reluctantly talk to him.
In the adult world, if there is one person in the team, it can always mobilize the atmosphere, and casually talk about a topic, it can be fascinating. Is it that people are very willing to get along with such people?
In the adult world, interesting people come with attraction. The ability to be "interesting" has been cultivated from an early age.
Absurd fairy tales often contain the ability to be "interesting".
Toad Todd in "The Sound of the Willows" is such an interesting responsibility. His life energy is full of ups and downs, exciting, but also fun. Think of his excited carriage, but was killed by a human luxury car; think of the proud look he looked when he deceived the river rat and sneaked out; think of the thrilling and interesting journey of escaping from prison disguised as a washerwoman... It's really funny.
It is in this joy and joy that children gain knowledge and learn a better attitude towards life. In the face of difficulties, know optimism; in the face of setbacks, know how to be open-minded; in the face of success, know how to be indifferent; live thoroughly and freely.
Write at the end:
The sense of absurdity in children's literature seems ridiculous and counterintuitive. In a fantasy world, it seems that anything can happen. But a good work still has its own internal logic, and will still convey sincerity, fraternity, kindness, integrity, optimism, and strength to children...
Many children's literature in the world is first a dialogue between the author and his own children, and so is The Wind in the Willow Forest. I hope that more and more parents can enter the children's world through these top children's literature works, read their language, understand their preferences, and protect their precious qualities and abilities.