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Why Do We Love Children In Peril?
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Casquivana
06/18/09

In reply to Why Do We Love Children In Peril?
I guess it has to do a lot with the fact that it is a good sell, as a storyline, because most of the time we're talking about happy endings and "oh, the child thrives, against all odds".

I've personally always disliked children-in-peril stories. Which is why I hated Marco, Remy and all those animes about orphans that were so popular among my peers (I liked Candy Candy, but that was kind of mandatory). And I actually remember that of the reasons I loved the movie Empire of the Sun so much when I first saw it when I was 10-years-old was the fact that it was so bleak, in the sense that this kid had suddenly been left alone and had to do a lot of things to survive, the same way an adult would do, but at the same time you never forgot that he was a kid, although not in a "oh, that innocent child" kind of way, since he couldn't rely on the grown-ups around him. And I guess you could say it has a happy ending, but I've never seen it that way. Christian Bale's face at the end is not one of a happy child in a happy ending.
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portia_sue
06/18/09

@Casquivana: That's a great example of a child in peril story that has some real resonance, not the manufactured, torturous twisty crap that a lot of YA lit is. I loved the look on his face! I always thought he was thinking, These are the people I've been hoping to see again? Really?
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colormeroutine
06/18/09

In reply to Why Do We Love Children In Peril?
Children are innocent the same way animals are innocent. They brutally slaughter each other and they aren't murderers because they don't have the capacity for murderous intention- they're just doing what they do to survive. Kid's aren't born knowing how to play by the rules of society, they need to be taught that, and in the meantime they do things adults would consider cruel.
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hippichx sez PEACE PLEASE
06/18/09

In reply to Why Do We Love Children In Peril?
i believe in many ways, using a child-like character in a book such as this is a way of showing that life is unfair... even in the extreme example of innocence. we do not ask for this unfairness, and yet it is life and we struggle to survive.

that being said, i am not a fan of picoult.
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FarleyDrexel is crossing the Rubicon
06/18/09

In reply to Why Do We Love Children In Peril?
I loathe films about children in trouble. Why? Because child actors will be involved. This means a grotesquerie of adorableness, mugging for the camera, fake tears, and general crap acting. Spare me.
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Uncommon Whore
06/18/09

@FarleyDrexel is crossing the Rubicon: hearted for "a grotesquerie of adorableness." Can we have an uplifting musical montage please?
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tailfeather
06/18/09

@FarleyDrexel is crossing the Rubicon: Ha! Completely agree. My sole exception is "In America," which had the most brilliant child-acting, by BOTH kids, that I've ever seen.

(I have accidentally referenced this same thing and said the film was "Coming to America." No, that was not what I meant. V different, whoops.)
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Fate'sBitch
06/18/09

In reply to Why Do We Love Children In Peril?
I think also children embody the concept of change. A five year old might act like an asshole but we all hopefully assume that he/she will grow out of it. We see children as not fully formed, not done and thus we are able to imagine a thousand different futures for them, and I think we're fixated on protecting them because we see all the promise a young life has. We punish them so severely when they make "grown-up" mistakes (commit sever crimes)because they've let us down for all the hope that (whether they wanted it or not) we've forced upon them, and when you view someone as an innocent and not culpable for their actions and they do something incredibly violent I think we, as a society, don't know what the proper reaction should be so we go overboard.

I think fiction is fascinated by this because it's so easy to encapsulate a life in a 300 page novel. We can watch them suffer/be rewarded for the decisions they've made without having to wait the 40 years.
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mommy_dearest
06/18/09

In reply to Why Do We Love Children In Peril?
I actually think that these kind of stories allow people to ask, "What kind of terrible parent would do that?" In Jodi Picoult, you ask, what kind of mother would give birth to another child just to farm their organs?

In the news, we are bombarded by vulnerable kid stories- kidnapping, child abuse, left in the car, murder, you name it. The media is obsessed with stories that allow us to judge the mothers while we mourn children (white children only, though- there is no fun in accusing women of color of being bad mothers, since that is a given). No matter what happens it always turns into a question of "Where was the mother? What kind of mother would do that?"

So yes, there is some anxious parenting in it, but I think it is more about judging moms.
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LaComtesse
06/18/09

In reply to Why Do We Love Children In Peril?
"The truth is, children are plenty evil."

Anyone who read "Nineteen Minutes" by Jodi Piccoult should know she's not interested in doing anything realistic or truthful. A judge who's daughter was best friends with the kid on trial DOESN'T recuse herself or isn't taken off the case by the prosecution? Riiiiiight.
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lalaland13
06/18/09

@LaComtesse: Once, after reading Plain Truth, I decided to go spoil myself for many other Picoult books. Some of the endings-my God. Look, I read romance novels so I'm obviously not one to judge on realistic stuff, but some of those endings...sheesh. I don't know if she's a bad writer or just not suited to my tastes.
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hortense
06/18/09

In reply to Why Do We Love Children In Peril?
Hello!

This reminds me of my favorite Twilight Zone episode, "The Incredible World of Horace Ford," which centers around a toymaker who will not shut up about how great childhood was. Well, of course, he gets to go back, and he sees that it actually really, really sucked and the other kids were heartless jerks.

Sometimes I think parents idealize childhood so much that they are only on the lookout for the BIG perils kids face, and I think the smaller, perhaps more lasting troubles of childhood are brushed aside as a result. When a kid ends up "going bad" we tend to blame him, or his parents, instead of the system itself.
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schweppes
06/18/09

In reply to Why Do We Love Children In Peril?
Point 1: Jodi Picoult is one of the worst writers I've ever encountered. I feel stupider every time I read one of her books.

Point 2: With children in peril, it is easier to illicit a quick-reaction emotion from your readers than a complicated, flawed adult in peril.
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tscheese
06/18/09

@schweppes: Thank you. Good God. I had to suffer through The Pact in a book club of readers who could barely get through 100 pages a week. I wanted to stab my own eyes out.
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LaComtesse
06/18/09

@schweppes: Yes, See my comment below re "Nineteen Minutes." I can understand taking an hour to NOT think while watching Law and Order or something, but 300 pages of not thinking? That's called "Being dead."
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Fate'sBitch
06/18/09

@schweppes: When you read the back of a Judi Picoult book, you think "heeeeey, that sounds cool" and then you start reading it and realize about 30 pages in that it's a piece of shit. I am totally impressed by whoever rights the descriptions on the back of her books. They do a great job.
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Cole23
06/18/09

@schweppes: I really enjoyed My Sister's Keeper (it is the only book I read by her). But then again, she didn't misuse words like stupid (properly, it's "more stupid" not "stupider" despite what dictionary.com says) so I can understand why she wasn't your "thing".
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Uncommon Whore
06/18/09

@LaComtesse: "Being Dead"? Who writes that one? It sound compelling!
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AtomiClash: humanitarian misanthrope
06/18/09

@schweppes: exactly! I totally group her with Nicholas Sparks - they write SOLELY for emotional reaction, rather than literary quality. Blerg.
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schweppes
06/18/09

@Cole23: ACTUALLY!!!!!!!!!!

Check out Page 131 of the her book, The Tenth Circle. She uses the word "stupider." So, who's stupider now? :)
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hortense
06/18/09

@schweppes: @Cole23: OK, let's get back to the post, please.
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MizJenkins
06/18/09

@schweppes: Amen. I'd like to drown her and Nicolas Sparks in a giant pink kiddie pool filled with saccharine and the tears of Precious Moments figurines.
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MizJenkins
06/18/09

@AtomiClash: also! What you said!
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tscheese
06/18/09

In reply to Why Do We Love Children In Peril?
Is there really any argument that children aren't vulnerable?

Physically they're smaller and weaker than adults. Mentally their brains aren't fully formed yet. Sure, there are some very, very bright kids, but most children don't have the reserves of knowledge, experience, and know-how that come from years of living. No, they're not all innocent--kids can be jerks--but without some basic protections, kids would have it rough.

Also, I am glad that I can now think of Jodi Picault books as Gashlycrumb Tinies episodes, because most of what I've read from her is pretty horrible otherwise.
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stoprobbers
06/18/09

In reply to Why Do We Love Children In Peril?
I hope someone can help me, because this is driving me crazy.

The first part of the plot of this book -- kid born specifically to donate organ to older sibling with severe medical problem -- was definitly done before as an episode of, I THINK, a TV show. Law & Order? CSI? Does this ring a bell with anyone please?

As soon as I read the plot synopsis I became so distracted by this half-memory that I couldn't focus on the rest of the article.
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annebreal
06/18/09

@stoprobbers: Private Practice or Grey's Anatomy did a variation of this well after the book came out. Kate Walsh was involved, I forget which show.
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Ailatan
06/18/09

@stoprobbers: CSI, I'm certain it was the original one.

Lemme check.
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Ailatan
06/18/09

@stoprobbers:

[www.tv.com]
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stealthird
06/18/09

@stoprobbers: I remember seeing something like that on ER once. The donor girl was hiding out in one of the hospital corridors and one of the doctors (Dr. Green?) found her, and the girl said "[My sister] always needs something...she's always sick..." and it was clear that the donor girl felt devalued in that she was made to feel that all she was was spare parts for her sister. And the Dr. (I think it was Dr. Green but can't remember for sure) confronted the parents and the mother got all batshit and bitchy about it.

Shit I can't believe I remembered all that. And yet, I couldn't remember what the Monroe Doctrine was.
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Casquivana
06/18/09

@Ailatan Hearts BabyJane: Yeah, I remember the one in CSI, I think the donor sibling was the crime victim. And Grissom showed emotions and everything.
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Ailatan
06/18/09

@Casquivana: Yeah, he moved two muscles!
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stoprobbers
06/18/09

@annebreal: @Ailatan Hearts BabyJane: @LucilleMcGillicuddy: @romasun: @Ailatan Hearts BabyJane: @stealthird: @Casquivana: THANK YOU. I thought it was going to drill a hole in my brain.

I vaguely remember the ER one, but I think I was thinking of CSI. YOU RULE.
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AJ
06/18/09

In reply to Why Do We Love Children In Peril?
Every time I see a preview for this movie I regress back to my teen years when I used to devour Lurlene McDaniel's books about kids and young adults struggling with serious/terminal illnesses and traumatic life events. I think that, as a teen, it made me appreciate that no matter how much I thought my life sucked, there were worse things going on with people my age.
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lalaland13
06/18/09

@AJ: Don't Die, My Love! Noo! Damnit! I love you, and you had to go and die. You suck.
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inabook
06/18/09

@AJ: Horrible confession: As a preteen suffering with depression, I loved those books, and wanted desparatetly to get cancer so i could die without any guilt, and in the vaugely glamorous setting that hospitals seemed to be at the time.

Yes, I was totally fucked up, doing much better now though.
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lalaland13
06/18/09

In reply to Why Do We Love Children In Peril?
We think we love children in peril, but then a twist ending! tells us otherwise.

I have heard they redid the ending from the book. I'm wondering how. Even though I never read the book. Plain Truth pissed me off and I have more or less sworn her off forever.
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OldEnough2BYourMama
06/18/09

@lalaland13: I threw this book against the wall when I got to the end. The twist ending was completely unrealistic, and because the book had dealt with some complicated moral issues, pissed me off to no end. It was like she got bored and the end and needed to wrap it up quickly. Argh!
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BeckyIva
06/18/09

@OldEnough2BYourMama: Now I'm curious... How does it end? I guess I could google...
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Uncommon Whore
06/18/09

@BeckyIva: Yeah, throw down some spoilers here. I'm curious too.
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colormeroutine
06/18/09

@lalaland13: Ugh that is my biggest problem with Jodi Piccoult. All of her books start off interesting and engaging enough, but then as they go on she just heaps on more and more unrealistic surprise details until finally you start to wonder if this story was done round-robin style at a girl scout sleepover. drunk.
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lalaland13
06/18/09

@OldEnough2BYourMama: @chocolatecoffeebeans: Are we discussing Plain Truth or My Sister's Keeper. Because I've looked up the MSK ending and yeah, that one doesn't thrill me either.

On Plain Truth, for @BeckyIva: the Amish girl finally decides to plead guilty or maybe no contest, gets home detention and electronic monitoring. At the end, though, the pregnant lawyer defending her finds out the teen girl's mom killed the bebeh.
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chocolatecoffeebeans
06/18/09

@lalaland13: I was discussing MSK. I don't have any idea why I keep reading this shit because I hated Plain Truth and I really really really hated Nineteen Minutes. I guess it's because my 16 year old keeps buying them and I read them when I run out of other books.

Can posting something spoilery about this get me into trouble? Anyway, if you don't wanna know...stop reading.

In My Sister's Keeper, the entire book revolves around Anna's desire to get medical emancipation from her parents because they want her to donate a kidney to her sister, who she has already given cord blood, leukocytes, bone marrow, and other stuff. Basically at the end of the book, when a judge grants her the emancipation after finding out that it was her sister who asked her not to donate the kidney( she was sick of fighting and wanted to give up), Anna and her lawyer get in a horrible wreck while leaving the courthouse and she dies. So after her mom worrying her entire life about her sister dying, she loses the other "healthy" daughter. The sister gets the kidney, it works, blah blah blah. I fucking HATED it.
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saintbernadette
06/18/09

@chocolatecoffeebeans: I hated this book so much, and felt it to be such a waste of my time, that every time this trailer comes on TV I get angry.

Unrelated to the ending, I hated it because, although the book is supposed to be told in different people's voices, those voices never change -- only the fucking typeface does.

So lame.
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jemandtheholograms
06/18/09

@OldEnough2BYourMama: I was totally fine with the book until like the last 20 pages...when I wanted to stab her for such a cop-out ending. I've heard they changed the ending in the movie, but because I'm mad at the original ending, I won't go see the movie or read any of her other books.
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rofling_medusa
06/18/09

@OldEnough2BYourMama: Oh my, I know, it seemed like she couldn't face having to actually say 'Well, hey, there is no solution to this, sometimes life is just fucked up', so she just *did the thing that she did* for an easy ride.
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sequined
06/18/09

@OldEnough2BYourMama: I agree! Like she chickened out of making a hard ethical choice for her characters. It was infuriating.
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sequined
06/18/09

@rofling_medusa, jemandtheholograms, Piranha426: Exactly! Exactly what I hated about that ending. It was a total cop out and made all the emotional, ethical set-up come to nothing.
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Trulymadlyme
06/18/09

In reply to Why Do We Love Children In Peril?
People's fascination with children in peril is that, oftentimes, it's a tough, difficult, unfair world we bring them into and our collective understanding that despite one's best preparations and intentions, we too will likely fail our own kids at some point. Just like our own parents did. It might be a small failure. But that sense of helplessness and fear, well...it's part and parcel of being alive and bringing someone else into the world.
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Ailanthus-altissima
06/18/09

In reply to Why Do We Love Children In Peril?
I think more than anything it is the possibility of redemption and change that propels this genre. Children are portrayed as resilient and capable of change in a way adults are not. Kids are not necessarily stuck in their ways, they are still exploring who they are and how they fit and how their experiences can shape them. The ability to overcome and respond to adversity makes every story tinged with hope.
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