After a friend challenged me to write a book for her very young son, I started looking at picture books to see what’s already out there. It’s probably been five years since I’ve read anything beyond the basals we use at work, so asking one of my fellow teachers to show me around the children’s area of the bookstore she works at was an eye-opening experience.
She ran me through the traditional books, the ones so many of us remember from our own childhoods, and then she introduced me to Zen Shorts and Zen Ties, two charming books by Jon J. Muth.
In Zen Shorts, a panda named Stillwater meets three children, each having a problem. He helps each one think through their problem with an old folk tale. The three find their solutions and befriend Stillwater in the process.
In Zen Ties, Stillwater is joined by his nephew Koo, who speaks only in haiku. Together, the pandas and the children from Zen Shorts find out what happens when you’re friendly to someone who hasn’t been friendly to you.
The stories are well-written and are accompanied by Muth’s beautiful artwork. At the end of each book, Muth includes a bit on Zen and the ideas he included in that particular book. They’re definitely a secret treasure among picture books.
Posted by Rebecca as anthropology, book love at 2:46 PM EDT
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When asked why they write, many authors and poets start talking about how they either hear voices in their head or how they love the language.
I can relate to the ones who hear voices in their head (and I’m so grateful to know I’m not the only one). Trying to capture the random bits of story that fly through my head sometimes can be tricky. As much as I’d love to have a way to record the idea electronically, I keep notebooks stashed around my room and go bag for quick capture. Even with those, characters often deliver bits of dialogue or introduce themselves when I’m not in a position to write it down, and then I have to repeat the information to myself over and over until I get to one of my notebooks.
While the ones who hear voices make sense to me, the ones who extemporize for hours on end about their love for words don’t. I’ve read interviews where authors go on about loving how words roll around in their mouth and being obsessed with language. Some of them talk about the texture or rhythm of language. For me, words are a tool. I don’t think much about them beyond trying to get my point across.
For a while, I thought I wasn’t a true writer because while I hear flashes of characters in my head, I don’t have this odd obsession with words. I don’t have a favorite word. I don’t compare words with wine or truffles. I started thinking I don’t care about words at all.
Except I do. I may not be fascinated by the feel, texture, rhythm of words, but I love learning about etymologies. I enjoy finding out where a word or phrase came from, and using that to help me down the road. I use these etymologies when I’m talking with international friends or teaching my students (more and more of whom are international) to help them better understand our idiomatic language.
I figure that’s close enough to an odd obsession with language to allow me to say I’m a “true writer”.
Posted by Rebecca as anthropology, writing at 8:03 AM EDT
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I was watching Avatar: The Last Airbender episode “The Puppetmaster” tonight and thinking about how Avatar’s writers seem to approach the elements. While they present the four traditional elements- air, fire, earth, and water- they seem to work with them in a nearly Chinese way at times.
For example, Earthbender Toph can also manipulate metal, something not really covered by the classical elements. It makes sense, though. Metals (as we work with them) as mined from the ground and galvanized or blended with other metal ores. It’s just interesting to note she can bend both earth and metal, and that it’s been presented that way.
Waterbenders, as you find out in “The Puppetmaster”, can draw their water from anywhere, including plants and animals. It’s this universal way of thinking that ends up being truly disturbing by the time Avatar is done exploring the possibilities of waterbenders controlling the people around them simply by bending the water inside them.
The writers, in effect, bend traditional interpretations to create their stories.
Edit: This was written before I learned the series was ending.
Posted by Rebecca as animation, anthropology, symbolism at 7:53 PM EDT
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