The Water Babies, by Charles Kingsley
The Water Babies, by Charles Kingsley
“You see,” said the fairy, “what comes of living on a burning mountain.”
“Oh, why did you not warn them?” said little Ellie.
“I did warn them all that I could. I let the smoke come out of the mountain; and wherever there is smoke there is fire. And I laid the ashes and cinders all about; and wherever there are cinders, cinders may be again. But they did not like to face facts, my dears, as very few people do; and so they invented a cock-and-bull story, which, I am sure, I never told them, that the smoke was the breath of a giant, whom some gods or other had buried under the mountain; and that the cinders were what the dwarfs roasted the little pigs whole with; and other nonsense of that kind. And, when folks are in that humour, I cannot teach them, save by the good old birch-rod.”
This one was very frustrating to read. It was absolutely delightful, right up until it started getting racist, and then it wasn't any more. Some parts are wonderful, and I wanted to read it to my kid, except I can't. not until he's old enough to not accept the degrading stereotypes on black people, Jews, the Irish, the rom, and especially the poor. Kingsley meant well, I'm sure, but he was a victim of the age when he lived.
There's a boy, Tom, who is assistant to an abusive chimney sweep; who goes to do a job at a wealthy man's manor, is mistaken for a burglar and chased like a fox across the moors by the whole household, has some adventures, and ends up falling asleep at the bottom of the creek--which causes him to "change from a land baby into a happy water baby" and have more adventures under water, while the silly grownups who find his "shell" in the creek assume he's dead, and mourn, not knowing he's gone on to a happier existence. That's the first creepy part. It's all lighthearted, but I kept imagining impressionable very young readers running off to drown themselves so that they can become happy water babies--the book is full of unhappy people and animals shuffling off their skins and rejoicing, maybe as an analogy for going to Heaven, but eww.
There are neat turns of phrases, whimsical situations, and episodes with morals, as with the kind Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby and the tough-love Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid, who show the wayward the error of their ways by example. One of their stories involves the Doasyoulikes, who flee from the land of hard work to play all day, and who eventually devolve first into n****rs and then into monkeys, so that Tom may resolve not to be like those savages, and instead value being productive. I can't even pretend I didn't read that, it's so offensive.
But then there's the example quoted above, where Kingsley manages to rail against the Global Warming Deniers a century and a half before they came about. Hard to not be impressed by that part.
The Water Babies is deeply flawed, but worth reading once, as an adult or under supervision. The sad part is the wasted potential. Like looking at a five-star meal that you know someone has irreparably poisoned.
“You see,” said the fairy, “what comes of living on a burning mountain.”
“Oh, why did you not warn them?” said little Ellie.
“I did warn them all that I could. I let the smoke come out of the mountain; and wherever there is smoke there is fire. And I laid the ashes and cinders all about; and wherever there are cinders, cinders may be again. But they did not like to face facts, my dears, as very few people do; and so they invented a cock-and-bull story, which, I am sure, I never told them, that the smoke was the breath of a giant, whom some gods or other had buried under the mountain; and that the cinders were what the dwarfs roasted the little pigs whole with; and other nonsense of that kind. And, when folks are in that humour, I cannot teach them, save by the good old birch-rod.”
This one was very frustrating to read. It was absolutely delightful, right up until it started getting racist, and then it wasn't any more. Some parts are wonderful, and I wanted to read it to my kid, except I can't. not until he's old enough to not accept the degrading stereotypes on black people, Jews, the Irish, the rom, and especially the poor. Kingsley meant well, I'm sure, but he was a victim of the age when he lived.
There's a boy, Tom, who is assistant to an abusive chimney sweep; who goes to do a job at a wealthy man's manor, is mistaken for a burglar and chased like a fox across the moors by the whole household, has some adventures, and ends up falling asleep at the bottom of the creek--which causes him to "change from a land baby into a happy water baby" and have more adventures under water, while the silly grownups who find his "shell" in the creek assume he's dead, and mourn, not knowing he's gone on to a happier existence. That's the first creepy part. It's all lighthearted, but I kept imagining impressionable very young readers running off to drown themselves so that they can become happy water babies--the book is full of unhappy people and animals shuffling off their skins and rejoicing, maybe as an analogy for going to Heaven, but eww.
There are neat turns of phrases, whimsical situations, and episodes with morals, as with the kind Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby and the tough-love Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid, who show the wayward the error of their ways by example. One of their stories involves the Doasyoulikes, who flee from the land of hard work to play all day, and who eventually devolve first into n****rs and then into monkeys, so that Tom may resolve not to be like those savages, and instead value being productive. I can't even pretend I didn't read that, it's so offensive.
But then there's the example quoted above, where Kingsley manages to rail against the Global Warming Deniers a century and a half before they came about. Hard to not be impressed by that part.
The Water Babies is deeply flawed, but worth reading once, as an adult or under supervision. The sad part is the wasted potential. Like looking at a five-star meal that you know someone has irreparably poisoned.