Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Where the Wild Things Still Are





I grew up with Maurice Sendak's 'Where the Wild Things are'. There's probably a little or a lot of Max in me. I love the Wild Rumpus, but I also love the coming home to the hot dinner. When did I fall in love with the line: 'and he sailed off thorugh night and day and in and out of weeks and almost over a year to where the wild things are'? Was I five or twenty five? I was without the book for many years, but I always remebered that the last five words were: 'and it was still hot'.
So Floppy Moo. Well the other day she was in here with her reading group and they were reading it. Did she read it because she had heard me claiming it was my favourite book of all time a couple of days before? I don't know, but the group sat and read it and pulled it apart to reconstruct meaning and then she did it, she ruined it. The book has been around all my life and never has anyone asked: 'What happened to Max?'. She asked with such persistence over and over that finally she provided her own answer. And every cell in my body screamed out NO!
As a child with big eyes and slightly open mouth, I just believed. As an adult I still believe in Max. Maybe I believe now more than ever. Maybe as a writer I have to believe. So my plea is just believe in Max.
And would someone somewhere please end my nightmare with France Telecom. I am at work using their phone and their internet connection in the hope of sorting out this rubbish SOON.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think one has to carry that belief and magic with one always - and hold to it, no matter what anyone else says. It's your magic after all, created between you and the book - no one can ever take that away. Besides, other people's interpretations and opinions are just that - theirs - doesn't make them real or true!

Anonymous said...

Tell Floppy Moo I'm still here, I'm still wild, and it's still hot.

Love and kisses to all the adults who hang on to their inner child.

Marie said...

I agree - it's your 'magic'. Don't let anyone ruin this for you.

Unknown said...

You know Max with me it's more a case of my inner adult! I may be knocking on in years but I certainly don't feel any less of a kid. And Marie, I will follow your advice, because I figured in years to come I will forget what Floppy Moo said but if I wrote it down exactly it would stay in my head.

Unknown said...

"The night Max wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind or another...." - and we still do!

Anonymous said...

Just wait to see the mischief Minx and I get up to on Tuesday. We're gonna redefine 'wild'!

Unknown said...

Heh heh

S. Kearney said...

Verilion, I sympathise about the France telecom thing. I had the same hassles. Now I have nothing to do with me. I have cable for phone and internet and tv. Best thing I did. An much cheaper. I pay 10 euros a month for unlimited phone calls anywhere in France. Maybe you could find the same kind of deal in paris. Numericable?

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