Normally when we write this post it ’s to talk about a Sung dynasty that we ’ve been listening to , and what it means to us . Tonight I ’m break down to apply it as an alibi to write about Maurice Sendak . I ’ll be abbreviated .
When most people suppose of Sendak they recall of Where the Wild Things Are , and they ’re right-hand to . It ’s brainy and enduring and honest and good . It ’s dependable about childhood in a way of life that only a world full of fear and self - realization can be . We ’ve all been Max at one point or another .
When I recall of Sendak , though , I believe of In the Night Kitchen . If you ’re not intimate , the basic structure is similar to Wild thing : Young boy gets transported to antic world , overcomes challenges , heads back home . Except Mickey does n’t run aside like Max does ; he float involuntarily . rather of monsters he finds three bakers ( all of whom search like Oliver Hardy ) whose batter he lands in . He avoid death - by - oven by building an airplane out of bread : a triumph of ingeniousness that ’s a far rallying cry from Max ’s ferocity . He even assist the baker — who had been ready to fix him alive — on his way back to rubber .
Growing up , I related to Mickey more than I ever did to Max . Night Kitchen said look , yes . The universe can crush you without even meaning to . Not all danger descend from malevolence , and not all concern can be overwhelm by yelling louder than the fiend next to you . The ripe we can do is laugh , and mean , and aid . I ’m 31 years old now . That ’s still the effective I can do .
Here ’s the smartest affair I ’ve ever read about reading , fromAlan Bennett :
The best moments in reading are when you come across something — a thought , a feeling , a path of take care at things — which you had thought special and particular to you . And now , here it is , set down by someone else , a person you have never match , someone even who is long dead . And it is as if a hired hand has come out , and take yours .
Maurice Sendak ’s was the first hand I ever took . And he will be for my children , and for theirs , and for theirs .
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