Sadly, EW doesn't share the love; or, rather, some of it's writers don't.
From the review of the Beowulf DVD, written by Ken Tucker:
"Zemeckis says in a making-of that this film has 'nothing to do with the Beowulf you were forced to read in junior high - it's all about eating, drinking, killing, and fornicating.' To which I can only respond, Oh, you poor, deluded baby boomer: Bob, do you think young people in 2008 have an Old English epic poem on the syllabus? American literacy is lucky if junior high schoolers get a stray Hemingway short story into their diet of crappy young-adult novels."
Wow. What, does Tucker get paid for how many groups he can insult at one time?
Excuse me. I'm going back to reading some young-adult novels.
In the grad course on fairy tales I’m currently co- teaching we just finished a lively discussion on multiculturalism. One of the books we considered was John Steptoe’s Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters, a beautiful Caldecott honor book that is often used in lessons about Africa because it is mistakenly thought to be an authentic folktale from Zimbabwe. In fact, it is not. Steptoe himself is honest by writing that the book, “was inspired by a folktale collected by G. M. Theal and published in 1895 in his book, Kaffir Folktales. Details of the illustrations were inspired by the ruins of an ancient city found in Zimbabwe, and the flora and fauna of that region.” Unfortunately, few seem to have investigated to see if it really is an appropriate choice to help American children learn about a place that is very far away and unfamiliar to them.
One who has is Eliot A. Singer who writes in his article, “Fakelore and the Ethics of Children’s Literature“:
In The Horn Book Magazine (July/August 1987, p. 478), a reviewer notes of Steptoe’s (1987) celebrated and award winning Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters that the story is a “polished retelling of one from G. M. Theal’s Kaffir Folktales.” The actual title is Kaffir Folklore(Theal 1886), and there is no tale in that collection that remotely resembles the one in the picture book. Maybe getting a title right is a scholarly hang-up, but it does seem reasonable to expect a reviewer who claims something is a “polished retelling” at least to look in the card catalog. To his credit, Steptoe (1988) points out that he was simply inspired by Theal’s book to explore Zimbabwe tradition and come up with his own story, that he “did not write and illustrate a special interest picture book,” one “said to be based on an African tale.” Yet, Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters is reviewed, sold, classified, and, awarded, I presume, as an “African” tale.
One of our students, Jenny Schwartzberg of the Newberry Library, tracked down an on-line copy of Kaffir Folk-lore and after reading through all the tales, I feel the one that probably inspired Steptoe was “The Story of Five Heads.” However, the commonalities are minor; Steptoe’s story is really an original, his alone. Additionally, information about Great Zimbabwe (found here and here) indicates a far more tangled history than can possibly be deduced from Steptoe’s story and illustrations.
Our students agreed by the end of our discussions that this book was better used within a language arts unit than in a social studies unit. I agree wholeheartedly!
After having read about and listened to their music I finally got to see the documentary film, Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars when it was aired on PBS recently.
It was personally hard for me at times (especially the footage of Freetown when it was invaded), but it was also wonderful. The film tells the story of a group of Sierra Leonean musicians who connect at a refugee camp in Guinea and become a band — Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars. Their individual histories are heartrending. While some of them are willing to return to Sierra Leone, one (with the most horrific story) is unable to. They will be touring in the US in August and September. And here is a small not-very-good video I made with some clips from the film.
Colleen Mondor at Chasing Ray alerted me to Vanity Fair’s special issue on Africa. I’m of two minds about it.
On the one hand (or mind) it does reinforce my previous post on Africa being the hot continent du jour. Looking through the Table of Contents, I see a lot of articles from the point of view of outsiders — Bono, Christopher Hitchens, Brad Pitt, Sebastian Junger, and Bill Clinton to name a few. And let’s not forget Madonna; Punch Hutton has a very kind piece about her work in Malawi, “Raising Malawi: Madonna Lends a Hand.” Having not yet read the other articles, I can’t speak for the other outsiders, but this one on Madonna? Simplistic, glowing, and you’d never know that some did not think so highly of Madonna and her efforts in Malawi. Chimanada Ngozi Adichie, for one. Check out the Orange Prize winner’s interview, “Madonna’s not our saviour” for an insider’s perspective on all these outsiders. (Thanks to Linda Lowe for the link.)
On the other hand (or mind), I do appreciate the in-depth articles in Vanity Fair and assume there are plenty in this issue. And maybe, just maybe some readers of this issue will decide to learn more. That is always a good thing, isn’t it?
Asia, move over. It’s official; Africa is the current hot exotic continent. Writes Amanda Craig in her reviews of three new teen adventure books in today’s Times:
AFRICA HAS BECOME the most fashionable setting for film and, now, for children’s fiction. Perhaps it took the delightful Alexander McCall Smith’s The No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series to remind us that the continent doesn’t have to be all doom and Joseph Conrad. It can also be a place of modern adventure.
I’m sorry, but this rubs me the wrong way. So sure, the continent is certainly not all doom and “Mistah Kurtz — he dead.” And Smith’s Botswana-set stories do provide an authentic feel for one tiny place in that very large and diverse continent. But is the fact that some new thrillers of the Alex Rider/James Bond school are set in Africa what is most significant about them? (Of the three books reviewed, the only one that does sounds as if kids might deepen their understanding of things African is Sarah Mussi’s Door of No Return.)
Yes, Africa is hot. (Well, actually it is the rainy season in Sierra Leone and less hot than other times of the year, but whatever.) Hot here being a state of cultural consciousness or popularity or something like that. And as far as I can tell, that hotness has yet to translate into those of us on the North American continent (and that island across the pond) having a more nuanced understanding of Africa and a stronger consciousness of our propensity to be, shall we say, arrogant in our feeling of superiority over those whose history has created a very different way of being.
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I read Beowulf in college, and I am a baby boomer. I would be suprised to see it on a junior high syllabus and not because I think junior high students are busy reading crappy YA novels. Depending on the version you're reading, it can be demanding. I also think it's rather an adult story, even without Grendel's mom seducing everyone in sight.
I've been trying to remember whether I read Beowulf in college or high school; either way, not Jr. High.
One of the reason this sentence is so fabulous is that there is just so much going on. Beowulf, in junior high, is one of them.
America literacy doesn't seem well served by force-feeding Hemingway on a bunch of unsuspecting kids.
In Middle School I was forced to read "Tom Sawyer Abroad" by Mark Twain and I have never recovered. Heningway, taken at that age, might have done me in completely.
I read Beowulf in college -- but I was an English major, and it was a choice. I think there should be some challenges you can choose, and others that are brought to you to meet and conquer. Some YA novels? Are challenging. If a kid meets a challenge and succeeds, won't that make him or her more willing to push further? YA novels have their place within classrooms and so does Beowulf; everything in its time.
Having said that maturely and with great constraint, that comment about 'crappy YA novels' DOES make me want to give the writer a right swift smack upside the head.
I read selections from ye olde Beowulf in 10th grade. Our teacher summarized the bits in between the bits we had to read.
And... I recall it being a really long poem about eating, drinking, killing, and fornicating.
I read that and had the same reaction, Liz. It's hard to take someone who would write that very seriously.