Enid Blyton

[beanie]

my kids have told me they have to call it a chalk board in school now not a black board
you are not allowed to say short anymore they are vertically challenged.
why the f**k cant dads go to iceland!!!
oh and i have just given myself an afro caribean pinch!!

I think political correctness is way more than raceism, its now that you cant open your mouth without saying something you arnt allowed anymore.

and those are all examples of where it is over the top (and usually thought up by white middle class men) but I still don't accept all PC is bullshit. And the dads going to iceland is being PC isn't it??

 

[Jade&Evie]

i got a book for xmas of politically correct bedtime stories: thet are hilarious.

Enid Blyton isn't un-PC as such it's more the fact that the girls were expected to stay at home and iron etc while the boys did the 'hard work'.... TBH though thats how our house works anyway!

 

[hennaly]

my kids have told me they have to call it a chalk board in school now not a black board
you are not allowed to say short anymore they are vertically challenged.
why the f**k cant dads go to iceland!!!
oh and i have just given myself an afro caribean pinch!!

I think political correctness is way more than raceism, its now that you cant open your mouth without saying something you arnt allowed anymore.

and those are all examples of where it is over the top (and usually thought up by white middle class men) but I still don't accept all PC is bullsh*t. And the dads going to iceland is being PC isn't it??

i was actually being a bit sarcastic about dads going to iceland but my hubby says it every time the advert comes on, 'why is it only mums go to iceland and not dads?'
So in that respect it is sexist.

Oh i also agree some correctness is needed but as you say the ones i have mentioned are all OTT ones.

 

[zebrastripes]

PC is there to make things run smoothly. Whilst to some people it may be going too far, for others it is a little more important. For instance, I wouldn't call anyone a "blacky", but i wouldn't really care if someone called me a "whitey". However, I and my ancestors haven't been either enslaved or suffering under apartheid for the last 500 years or so.

Just the way, if a man ever told me that I should stay home in the kitchen, I'd be angry, but if someone told my OH he shouldn't be changing a nappy because it's woman's work, he wouldn't care but would just ignore them.

But then, he isn't the one whose sex is only just emancipated, and still faces lots of inequality...rape convictions,low pay...

So at the minute, yes, the whole PC brigade is treading carefully, but that is because so many things are still quite raw...the American Civil Rights Movement was only 40 odd years ago,people are still going to remember

Anyway back to the original question...I'd still read enid Blyton to DD because, like me, she should be able to differentiate between people's opinions 50 years ago, and how things have changed now. When i was 7 I read all the EB books, I knew not to call a black person a negro, and I knew that girls were "just as good" as boys. But I still read them and enjoyed them

 

[Suzie and Faith]

I LOVE ENID BLYTON

The first malory towers book was the first 'proper' book i ever read myself (at quite a young age) i have them all, and th faraway tree, and famous 5 and secret 7 and. well most of them!

I re-read the malory towers books during my pregnancy! took me less than an hour a book.lol

Fi will grow up like i did, wanting to go down the slippery slip!

 

[maybebaby]

I've got a book of Enid Blyton Brer Rabbit stories that we've read a couple of times as bedtime stories. Yes they're old fashioned but I love them and Austin loves to look at the pictures. I'd have no problem with him reading the secret seven.faraway tree novels when he's older (he probably won't be into mallory towers though...). They were dated when I read them, but having said that so is Beatrix Potter and noone seems to have a problem with her!

 

[debecca]

Hmm I'm the only one who voted 'no' then...

Me and my ridiculously overly liberal politics

 

[budge]

i had a cheap bonfire last year with all my old Enid Blyton books. What a load of old tripe her writing is.
Silly cow -

 

[evemarie8]

There is no way I will let Clark grow up without reading him The Folk of the Faraway Tree!! It's probably my favorite childhood book and I don't find Enid Blyton offensive at all!

 

[Urchin]

Blyton wasn't the only one:

 

[beanie]

blimey Just shows how far we have come (thankfully)

 

[zebrastripes]

The title of that was changed to And Then There Were None..

i know cause mum has both copies

 

[widowwadman]

I loved Mallory Towers when I was a kid (and weirdly in German there exist 8 more volumes than in the original English, as some ghostwriter apparently has written more when there was nothing left to translate). But even though I loved them I already found them slightly dated. I don't know much of the rest of her works - never read Famous Five and only a couple of St. Clare's and don't remember overly racist content, apart from the complete absence of any other ethnic group than caucasians, which I only now realise in retrospective. But this might be because I don't know any of the other books.

My main issue with the books I've read is the traditional male/female genderstereotyping, which surely is to do with the times they've been written in. I wouldn't read them to my kids, but I wouldn't keep them from pinching them of my bookshelf (I can't throw books away) either. If they want to read for themselves then that's absolutely fine by me. I would probably talk to them about the context and explain that the books have a quite old-fashioned outlook due to their age. My parents tought me critical reading and thinking from early on and I intend to do the same.

Btw. the gender stereotype issues I've got with the Blyton stuff I know also apply to Disney movies, which I would not feed to my kids without giving them context either.

 

[Minxy]

Blyton stories were a major part of my childhood. I enjoyed Noddy, Famous Five et al but it was the stories of wishing chairs, magic trees, fairies and goblins that really fired my imagination.

I was lucky enough to get a collection of 30-odd of the hardback story books on Freecycle of all places and hope to offer Stanley the same experience. In truth though, I think he'll find them far too twee and they need a fair bit of translation. I read a story last night about a little girl who had to take a candle to bed and it was full of references to shillings, spankings and ginger beer.

The politics in them don't bother me a jot. It's a small part of a child's influence and I would always offer a context. If anything they might raise stuff up for discussion, but I'd want them to be fun.

 

[mrs_metal]

I loved the Enid Blighton books and if we have kids I'll read the books to them. Growing up I was always aware of how dated they were and I would let my children know how much values have changed for the better. (although I do have a big problem with the OTT political correctness)

She wasn't alone in being racist, practically every white person, whatever class they were, was racist back then. We know now how wrong that was but they didn't, not that it excuses anything.

There is some good stuff to learn in the books as well as the bad and I hope any children I have are smart enough to work it out, if they aren't I'll help them understand.

 

[Noor~ul~Usman]

I used to read these and at the time I had no idea either about gollywogs being black or anything like that....I just thought they were ugly mean toys

I vaugly rememember the wishing chair series and the enchanted wood and the magic faraway tree Although to be honest I don't remember too much of the content! But again I'd read them under the covers.

I actually hadn't thought too much about what I'd read as bedtime stories as it all seems so far away
I've got some very basic brightly coloured 10 page books which are religious about the garden of eden and stuff from an Islamic point of view And I have a book which condenses the moral values of several disney films with lots of pretty pictures edited by a vicar But nothing else so far.

I'm not sure if Enid Blyton would really be relevent to my kids - as said Betty and Fanny etc seemed a bit out dated when I read it But I wouldn't ban my mum from reading it to them or anything.



As for the comments about the worlds PC madness - I agree that quite a bit of it is uncalled for
Like you say though a lot of it is personal interpretation. Like for instance....when our kid asks.....he's half-cast! Not multi-cultural or multi-racial Half-cast wasn't considered offensive (as far as I was aware) until recently and I really don't see the need to use a different term for it (unless someone who's sensetive specifically asks you to)
I must admit that although I wouldn't consider myself racist and have a lot of asian friends - I did grow up in a family with "how many paki's can you fit in a mini" type jokes And it was never meant maliciously it was just that some of the things they did as a culture and some of the names seemed really funny....but we didn't really have anything against them as people at all!
I try to play down any racist comments at home as it can get too much sometimes but occasionally in jest if hubby does something really 'odd' or is really annoying I'll be like "pffftt...paki! " and he'll respond with something like "...better than ghorie " (in a really fake eastern accent) (ghorie literally means 'pale' for a femanin object - but most asians use it to refer to white girls )
Because they're the same...a lot of them think white people do funny things and they have their own jokes about us. But at the end of the day if there's no ill will and the jokes are private between people who aren't sensetive about it then it's ok Just wouldn't do somat like sit in the middle of the bus and start telling them

 

[Krystal]

awwww I love Enid Blyton! Will defo read to Jack as he gets older. The wishing chair was my favourite! in fact OH bought me it last xmas cos I used to tell him how much I loved it

 

[widowwadman]

There was an article about Blyton and her influence in the Guardian today:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/au ... abookaward

 

[newmum]

Lessons learnt from Enid Blyton....

1. The bad guy always has a limp
2. girls are better than boys
3. glasses make you ugly


anymore? There must be loads about farming and boarding school!!

 

[Jade&Evie]

Lessons learnt from Enid Blyton....

1. The bad guy always has a limp
2. girls are better than boys
3. glasses make you ugly


anymore? There must be loads about farming and boarding school!!

4. Do something wrong and you get a spanking!