childhood | ZETEO

I never followed Oz because it seemed unreal

April 21, 2014 by Alexia Raynal

The difference between fairy and wonder tales I recently stumbled upon an old print of Lyman Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz (1944). I’ve never been interested enough in the book to finish it, but the introduction is an exciting thing to read. In it, Baum distinguishes between fairy tales and wonder tales, and places Oz in the latter. The classic fairy tale, he says (almost in a prophetic tone), filled many “childish” hearts with joy, Yet the old time fairy tale, having served for generations, […]

Categories: Alexia Raynal, ZiR • Tags: childhood, fairy tales

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A name that tells a story

April 14, 2014 by Alexia Raynal

There’s a lesson to be learned in Ernesto Quiñonez’s Bodega Dreams (New York: A Vintage Contemporaries Original, 2000). Namely, that nicknames, other than forming an annoying part of growing up, are also a testimony of a person’s life and actions. In the first pages of the book, one of the main characters classifies real names as trivial and nicknames as achievements: To have a name other than the one your parents had given you meant you had status in school, had […]

Categories: Alexia Raynal, ZiR • Tags: adolescence, childhood

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Idealized Childhoods

March 10, 2014 by Alexia Raynal

If Charles Dickens was alive today, I think he would agree: childhood doesn’t have to be the best time of life People like to think that childhood is the best time of life. They see children as being carefree and happy. This has always made me uncomfortable. As I read the first chapters of Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, I couldn’t help but thinking that many people have forgotten how painful, frustrating and disempowering the life of a child can be. In the opening […]

Categories: Alexia Raynal, ZiR • Tags: Charles Dickens, childhood, children, education, Great Expectations, literature

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Childhood: the value of secrecy

January 20, 2014 by Alexia Raynal

(Or “Everybody is entitled to dream, even those who came before MLK”) Eugene Field was an American writer best known for his children’s poetry, reports Wikipedia. I, on the other hand, report that translating a poem of his can be quite a challenge. Mr. Field—no doubt—had his own understanding of what childhood meant. And in this particular case, I am sure he sensed that children value secrecy—perhaps just as much as we do. These are the last three verses of […]

Categories: Alexia Raynal, ZiR • Tags: childhood, children, dreams, literature, Martin Luther King, poetry, secrecy

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The dark side of childhood: 3-9 Nov 2013 (ZiR)

November 6, 2013 by Alexia Raynal

A week of reading about childhood: 3-9 November 2013 By Alexia Raynal, Zeteo Managing Editor [One in an ongoing series of posts. For the full series see Zeteo is Reading.] 3 November 2013 I think the Metropolitan Museum of Art missed an opportunity to challenge modern constructions of childhood by naming its solo exhibition on Balthus Cats and Girls: Paintings and Provocations. Cats were, indeed, a big part of the painter’s persona. But I would never say that Balthus’s works are deep and […]

Categories: ZiR • Tags: art, Balthus, childhood, Metropolitan Museum of Art, parenting, poetry, reading, sexuality

ZETEO

Zeteo (ζητέω): to challenge, question, dispute, explore the forgotten and ignored

Tag: childhood

I never followed Oz because it seemed unreal

A name that tells a story

Idealized Childhoods

Childhood: the value of secrecy

The dark side of childhood: 3-9 Nov 2013 (ZiR)