<
https://theconversation.com/how-tove-janssons-moomins-illustrations-taught-us-to-imagine-resist-and-belong-254631>
"There is a world beyond our own, where imagination and reality meet, and
where, for 80 years, Tove Jansson’s Moomins illustrations have offered readers
a way to recognise themselves.
Before
Moomin books began to be published in 1945, early Moomin characters
appeared, grumpily, in publications like the Finnish satirical magazine
Garm.
Jansson had started her career there in 1929. Her witty caricatures led to her
making a name for herself, relishing the opportunity to be “beastly to Stalin
and Hitler”.
But as war engulfed the world in the 1940s, Jansson turned away from direct
satire. Instead, she took the Moomins to the soft refuge of her newly imagined
Moominvalley, to live more safely, simply and happily, where they continued to
grapple with serious issues. She later recalled that at the time she “felt that
the only thing one could do was to write fairy tales”.
Since then, her creations have provided a haven where melancholy, joy and
wonder can exist side by side. Through their soft, contrary, strange and heavy
lightness, the Moomins’ theorise and share wisdom.
Illustrated children’s books like the Moomins can turn into our forever books.
For this reason, children’s literature should always be taken seriously, as
former children’s laureate Lauren Child has argued.
But in today’s publishing world, illustrations often seem designed simply to
fatten pages up. They look like something but can feel like nothing."
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
