children's literature

occupation / innovator as

science writer

journalist

nationality

American

literary critic

philosopher

mathematician

magician

science fiction writer

scientific organization

American Academy of Arts and Sciences

World War II

innovator in the field of

mathematics

popular science

is often violent, but the normal child can handle it. It is the adults that can't. Alice in Wonderland should not be allowed to circulate indiscriminately among adults who are undergoing analysis.

Her constant orders for beheading are shocking to those modern critics of children's literature who feel that juvenile fiction should be free of all violence and especially violence with Freudian undertones. Even the Oz books of L. Frank Baum, so singularly free of the horrors to be found in Grimm and Andersen, contain many scenes of decapitation. As far as I know, there have been no empirical studies of how children react to such scenes and what harm if any is done to their psyche. My guess is that the normal child finds it all very amusing and is not damaged in the least, but that books like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz should not be allowed to circulate indiscriminately among adults who are undergoing analysis.

Martin Gardner

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Martin Gardner