tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28103455.post2082801381277398451..comments2024-03-09T05:53:59.542-05:00Comments on Oz and Ends: Story Museum Tells Half of the Story?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28103455.post-88653053129456527082009-12-13T18:38:24.889-05:002009-12-13T18:38:24.889-05:00The Story Museum has chosen a location in Oxford, ...The Story Museum has chosen a location in Oxford, and according to its own literature that’s not just because it’s an upscale university city that also functions as a bedroom community for West London. It’s because of the local children’s literature tradition, which will no doubt bring in tourists from elsewhere as well, including America. <br /><br />The local tradition the museum is invoking, as far as its material reflects, consists almost entirely of Carroll, Tolkien, and Lewis, with Grahame as addendum and Pullman as modern-day representative. When the <i>Guardian</i> reported on the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/nov/19/museum-of-storytelling-oxford" rel="nofollow">museum’s acquisition of a building in Oxford</a>, based on interviews with its supporters, the article dropped Carroll’s name four times, Tolkien’s and Lewis’s names three times, and Grahame’s twice. Pullman got three mentions and a quote, with nearby authors Mary Hoffman and William Horwood each quoted once.<br /><br />That’s a fine pantheon, but it reflects only part of the Oxford children’s literature tradition, and that tradition is only one slice of British children’s literature. If the museum’s ultimate focus is children’s storytelling as a whole, then the Oxford dons become an even smaller portion. Right now the museum website has several mentions of Tolkien and none of Mother Goose or Aesop.<br /><br />(I mentioned the “Alice Day” pamphlet because it’s one of two items on the museum website that name Grahame, a children’s author who lived in the Oxford region. That brochure was actually an example of the museum reaching <i>beyond</i> the firm of Carroll, Tolkien, Lewis & Pullman—but of course it invokes all those names as well.)J. L. Bellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15405157000473731801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28103455.post-72864501831068284782009-12-13T07:04:39.834-05:002009-12-13T07:04:39.834-05:00"But right now the Story Museum gives short s..."But right now the Story Museum gives short shrift to part of that heritage: the female side." <br /><br />Hmm, I think you are jumping the gun on this one. So far, I don't see them telling the history of children's literature around Oxford at all. I mean, I may not looking in the right places on their website, but I'm just not seeing a focus on authors, male or female. My impression is that they are focused on storytelling and working toward a children's museum featuring stories. The school offerings, for instance, are for myths and such, not particular authors and their stories. <br /><br />And that July 2009 handout is not a general one for the museum, but a flyer for their Alice day which seems to have beautifully organized and must have been terrific. To fault the whole museum because the section on the history of Alice ends with a paragraph on how it started the modern age of children's literature and then a reference to children's authors most associated with Oxford seems a stretch to me.Monica Edingerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03924540264341924291noreply@blogger.com