China at the Guardian’s barricades

China Mieville has a great post on the Guardian’s blog regarding politics in children’s literature. Now Un Lun Dun is next on my books to be read (currently reading Garry Kilworth’s Jigsaw) so I’m not commenting on that but politics in children’s literature? It has always been there.

If you think about George MacDonald in the Princess and Curdie books or Charles Kingsley in the Water Babies, both authors are preaching Christian Socialism. Kingsley, despite his enthusiasm for science, is interested in Natural Theology. It is a far cry from Pullman’s rhetoric against religion.

By its nature, writing for children tends towards politics since it often deals with imagining a better world than the current one. Adult fears of industrialisation, the war of science and religion often drive their imaginations toward a better world. Jose Monleon argues that the fantastic is the dark underside of Enlightenment, allowing for a release of fear and apprehension. Perhaps the children’s fantastic draws on this but with a more optimistic perspective?

Its something that I’m currently writing about elsewhere but I will be posting to expand on this.