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Path: utzoo!linus!cv
From: cv@linus.UUCP (Chris J. Valas)
Newsgroups: net.books
Subject: Re: Query regarding author.
Message-ID: <527@linus.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 28-Aug-85 13:13:49 EDT
Article-I.D.: linus.527
Posted: Wed Aug 28 13:13:49 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 29-Aug-85 22:34:47 EDT
References: <497@linus.UUCP> <1839@mnetor.UUCP>
Reply-To: cv@linus.UUCP (Chris J. Valas)
Organization: The MITRE Corporation, Bedford, MA
Lines: 48

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In article <1839@mnetor.UUCP> sophie@mnetor.UUCP (Sophie Quigley) writes:
>In article <497@linus.UUCP> cv@linus.UUCP (Chris J. Valas) writes:
>>In article <751@asgb.UUCP> gupta@asgb.UUCP (Yogesh K Gupta) writes:
>>>I think I read books by an author named "Enid Blayton" (or Blyton) when
>>>I was a kid.  One of the titles that comes to mind is "Tuppenny, Fifo &
>>>Jinks" (It was a tale with fairies and witches and gnomes and goblins ...).
>>>The author also wrote some juvenile mysteries with kids as detectives
>>>(the Secret Seven series, the Famous Five series etc).  I may be confusing
>>>two authors here, but I do not think I am.  The author is probably British.
>>>Does any of the above ring a bell, or is my mind going?
>>
>>No, you are still relatively sane.  I read some of the Famous Five series
>>when I was a kid, living in England.  The name was Enid Blyton.  I was
>>rooting around in my parent's basement a few years ago and came across a
>>few of these books.  What crap!  I wish I had just spent my time on
>>multiple re-readings of Lord of the Rings and Dune.  Still, it was ok
>>stuff at the time.
>
>Hmmm, I used to love Enid Blyton's stuff too when I was a child.  I have 
>heard something about those books being banned in some libraries in Sweden
>because they were considered worthless.   I remember them as being quite
>racist and sexist, but apart from that pretty ok.  What's wrong with them?
>
>I think Dune is pretty racist and sexist too.  Why is it better than Enid
>Blyton?
>-- 
>Sophie Quigley
>{allegra|decvax|ihnp4|linus|watmath}!utzoo!mnetor!sophie


Excuse me, but are racism and sexism the only two criteria you use in
judging the merits of literature?   I hope not.

I prefer Dune and Lord of the Rings (among various other reasons) to
Blytons' works because both Herbert and Tolkien display cogent and
sweeping imagination, enough to create complete worlds and universes from
scratch and bring them to life on paper.  A child reading either of these
books will have his mind stretched in several directions, something
Blytons' books are too simplistic to provoke.  On the other hand, if the
objective is to keep the little darlings away from the television until
after they've had din-din, then Blyton will suffice ....


Chris J. Valas         {decvax,utzoo,philabs,security,allegra,genrad}!linus!cv
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