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Back to School: Robert Louis Stevenson– Yet Another Reason to Read the Classics

When you think of classics in the horror genre– and by classics here I mean mostly horror titles that are no longer under copyright– there are names that come easily to mind. Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, and Mary Shelley, or at least the movies based on their books, are surely familiar to most people. H.P. Lovecraft, in spite of his influence, is a little more obscure to the general public, but most people with even a passing knowledge of horror fiction probably recognize his name. Chances are you can find their works easily, if not actually in the high school classroom, at least in the high school library… and certainly, you should be able to get them at the local public library!

But there are also authors that might surprise you, at least a little. My introduction to Robert Louis Stevenson was A Child’s Garden of Verses. You know,

How do you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!

That the author of idyllic children’s verse and such boys’ adventure novels (yes, I know girls read them and love them, too) as Treasure Island and Kidnapped could take the turn of imagination he did to write “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” intrigues me, but as with many other iconic monsters that have taken hold in our own imaginations, Jekyll and Hyde have taken on life of their own, and I suspect the average person hasn’t noticed the author is the same, if they’ve read the original story at all. Stevenson’s imagination turned in this direction more than once, though, and I thought I’d share a story today that the folks at HorrorHomework.com posted online, which illustrates the perils and horrors of trying to impress the wrong teacher, and of bowing to peer pressure. And so I present to you Robert Louis Stevenson’s gruesome and disturbing “The Bodysnatcher”(It’s possible that you may have to listen to Christopher Walken reading “The Raven” as well, but, while it distracts from the reading experience, it’s definitely worth a listen).

Enjoy!

 

A Classic Takes On New Life: “The Raven” Is Hard to Handle.

As October proceeds and Halloween approaches, it’s the perfect time to pull out the works of Edgar Allan Poe, and that usually means the appearance of what is probably his most famous poem, “The Raven”. It’s not easy trying to convince a bunch of middle schoolers that it’s worth it to conquer the language of literary classics. Or even adults. Or even librarians. Thank goodness that the Stand-Up Librarian has come to the rescue with a rockin’ musical version of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”. Click here to read her confession about reading Poe… or trying to… and what a difference the music makes.

Is Any Book A Good Book?

Well, the answer to that question is obvious, I think. Of course not. Some books are just not very good. As a review site, of course we discriminate between what makes a story worth reading, and what doesn’t. Otherwise, what good would we be as a resource for readers and librarians? We all have limited time and money for books.

But MonsterLibrarian.com is just that. A resource. People see what we have to say and make their own choices based on that, and probably also recommendations from friends, colleagues, Goodreads, and other review sites, advertisements on the Internet, catalogs and flyers in your mailbox (if you’re a librarian) and reviews in magazines and publications of various kinds. You choose where you’ll go for recommendations, and who you’ll trust to direct you to the “next good book” as we like to say here. I hope you choose to come here and take advantage of our hard work.

To go a little further, is any book that gets people reading a “good book”? I think Dylan, the Monster Librarian, would say yes. And this is a philosophy that I see a lot. Are the Twilight books good books? They got a lot of people reading. That’s a good thing… but are they good books? I think the writing is pretty bad, so I’m going to say no, I don’t think they are. Would I buy them for my YA collection, if I were buying for one? With such high demand, you’ve gotta give them what they want. You don’t take books out of the hands of people who are desperate to read them, especially if this is the first time they’ve ever really wanted to read a book. And I do know people for whom Twilight was the first book they read from cover to cover. But not the last.

I don’t especially like the school of thought that says “well, it’s okay to let them get the bug with R.L. Stine, because at least they’re reading, and that will transfer into a love of great literature in the future”. Maybe, but that’s condescending to those kids. Stine doesn’t even pretend that his books have classic literary value. Like a lot of series books, his books use fairly simple language, predictable structure, and cliffhangers at the endings of chapters to keep kids going. Not everything kids read is great literature, even in the classroom. If you have seen some of the little phonics readers kids use you know that is not even expected. “I put my hat in the van. I put the map in the van. Dad gets in the van”. Simple language, predictable structure (no cliffhangers, though, sadly). We can share the cool books that aren’t Goosebumps or Twilight without seeing them as just a stepping stone. They’re where the reader IS. And maybe the reader will be there for a long time. There are enough Goosebumps books and knockoffs to last the kid who wants them or needs them for a very long time.

But there are also a lot of other books– fiction, nonfiction, and graphic novels for kids that are funny and suspenseful and unbelievable. And someday kids will be done with Goosebumps, just like kids from 30 years ago eventually outgrew the series adventures of Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield and kids from 60 years ago eventually outgrew Nancy Drew to go on to other kinds of books. Maybe their interests will take them in the direction of new, similar series and genre fiction(which is often, despite its disreputable status in literary circles, extremely good) and maybe their reading will be shaped by other interests and experiences. Some of those books might be food for thought– but maybe not the ones we might expect. And some may be pure escapism (also maybe not the ones we might expect).

Not every book is a good book. But sometimes it’s enough to tell a good story, one that fits readers at their particular time and place. But those books don’t exist in isolation, even if the reader has a narrow view. Put those stories in the midst of many, and let serendipity take us on its meandering course on the shelves and through the stacks, whether that’s in the classroom, in the library, or at home.