KidLit Forum

Hello!I couldn't be on our seminar last Friday and I was curious what you discussed.Reading Ruskin I had the feeling that I was reading a novel with few magic elements.This feeling came from the very very long descriptions of places,of objects (such as Gluck's drinking mug) and the long portraits (S-W Wind Esquire's portrait).I also felt that Ruskin was verry attentive with details:the description of Black Brothers physic is closely related to their personalities,and Gluck "was completely opposed,in both appearance and character".I also understood Ruskin's campain against alcohol:drinking was one of the reasons why Black Brothers couldn't gather any money,why they became ugly and violent peoples but especially heartless peoples. MacDonald was different:I had a strong feeling of irony and the many many short episodes looked to me like a serial movie.I'm curious what you liked on those two!

Hi there!

I noticed the endless descriptions too and the long phrase made my reading sometimes dull, but there are also elements of the fairy tale pattern. First we have the introduction of the three brothers and we can see the last one, as usual, is much gifted, in this case Gluck, the hero, completely opposed to his brothers, is patient, handy, and, has a good soul. There is a clear line between right and wrong, and the fairy tale skeleton is also obvious.
I didn't enjoy so much reading this.

Hello,girls! I've also read Ruskin's tale and it seemed to me like everything was personified, I mean the forces of nature; the author talks about the wind, the water, the river, like he was describing people and the water was the kind of a force that "makes" and "unmakes" things. It also let me the impression of a fight between good and evil and I reached the conclusion that there were two paradises, one lost and the other one regained, lost because of selfishness and regained because of love.It was also interesting the meaning of names used to describe somehow the people for ex. Schwartz which means black he's evil, Gluck means luck(german) or happiness, he's the good one.

What about MacDonald?

I enjoyed reading "The Light Princess" because the writing style is dynamic and almost... journalistic. The phrases are short and the chapter titles also seem to be written for a tabloid: "What! No children?" (chapter 1) "What is to be done?" (chapter 5). There are already exploited motifs, as the one of the inability/difficulty of making children, (clearly set in the mini-introduction sequence: "Once upon a time, so long ago that I have quite forgotten the date, there lived a king and queen who had no children"), the fury of the uninvited (princess) at the baptism, the spell, or the princess who didn't stop laughing (that reminds us of the prince who won't stop crying), etc.
I loved the original subject, as for me, a gravity-deprived-princess it is indeed an original issue, and what I liked most was the irony and the punning, the story-teller seems to be playful and witty. I also think this is a layered writing (like "Animal Farm" or "Gulliver's Travels")

I also enjoyed reading The light princess especially since my son joined me. He was all eyes and ears when I read the passage with the curse, he asked me about the meaning of gravity and I had to tell him that you could see it not only from the physical point of view but also from the seriousness of the problem of their daughter being cursed. I noticed also a bit of irony and sarcasm in the king's words when he found his queen crying because she couldn't eat her honey. He said: "No wonder- you've just eaten your breakfast- two turkey eggs and three anchoives", it seemed they didn't care about the gravity of the situation but continued doing the usual. You could sense the lack of education if we think also about the fact they thought Princess Makemnoit being a wise woman, even a philosopher knowing all about gravitation. The use of puns also got my attention, the word" light" used many times: light-handed, light-fingered, light-footed, light-bodied. All in all, my son was very happy, it all ended well! So there goes the saying: "All's well that ends well!" See you

Is our princess from this story a parody of Sleeping Beauty?
Normally a princess is beautiful, patient, obedient, needs to be rescued, and doesn’t need to be smart or brave. But as the title of the story is ,,The light princess”, we find out that our princess has the following qualities:

light-hearted (cheerful) and also light-headed (dizzy, irresponsible)
light-handed (skillful, handy) and also light-fingered (thief)
light-footed (quick) but sometimes light-bodied (thin); light- minded (careless).
light-haired (blonde) or she is in fact a light- heired (as she could not be the heir the throne).

How can someone like her run a kindom?
Our princess needs to learn the way life is. She makes all the forbidden things, she does not respect her parents and to prove herself a princess she needs to learn it but hard way. She is laughing too much, gets everything she wants, but she has no feelings. Only when she falls in love with a prince and when he sacrifices himself, for her, then she starts crying and gains gravity.