Is It Good To Horrify Children?

The Sydney Morning Herald has a fascenating article titled: "Why it's good to horrify children." The thesis is: "Reading frightening books helps youngsters deal with their fears."

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Irish author John Connolly describes arguing with his friend about which Stephen King book was scariest. His friend said the Shining while he held true to Salem's Lot. What's unusual about that? He was 11. ELVEN, and reading Salem's Lot.

.Danny Torrance Shines on

Connolly writes, "Current wisdom may suggest that 11 is a little young to be tackling a great deal, if not all, of the King oeuvre, but books such as Salem's Lot were but one element of a pre-adolescent appetite for the uncanny that encompassed novelisations of old Hammer films, dodgy Pan anthologies of horror fiction edited by the delightfully named Herbert Van Thal, and classics of the genre from Bram Stoker's Dracula to the short stories of M.R. James."

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So, is it good for children to read horror? Personally, I think King is best left to adults. I'm lstening to Under the Dome, but only once my kids are dropped off at school. But here's an interesting quote I do identify with: "Like a lot of boys, I was curious about the darkness, and I quite liked being scared a little, as long as I was in control of the medium."

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If I can list his main thoughts, I would summerize this way:

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1. Reading horror allows children to admit the reality that the world is not always kind.

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2. Reading horror allows children to "control the medium."

.Danny Torrance Shine's On

3. Reading horror allows children to sense a little bit of rebellion, without really going too far.

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4. Reading horror allows children to identify with their need for justice. It doesn't dumb the world down.

.Look for oy in the next Dark Tower novel

I hope this is a fair summery of his argument.

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One more quote: "Children have a hardwired sense of justice, and of right and wrong. It's adults who engage in games of moral compromise, who seek to justify their sins and the sins of others by falling back on pleas of necessity, impotence or that old reliable: ''It's very complicated. You're just a bit too young to be able to understand.''

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(By the way, that we are "hardwired" with a sense of "justice" is an important theological thought.)

.ka Specifically that we are created in God's "image" with a sense of Justice, mercy, love.

Leaves the question: What child friendly books has King composed? My own list:

.Danny Torrance Shines On

1. Eyes of the Dragon.

.Will Roland kill Jake again?

2. The girl who loved tom gordon pop up book

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3. ? I can't think of any more.

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My daughter wanted to read Creepshow with me. My wife objected. Of course, she won out (m wife). . . so my daugther will have to wait. But she' seven and Connolly was 11. That's really a pre-teen. Quite different from little kids.

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I had a copy of "Creepshows" sitting around. On the cover is a skeleton. Our two year old picked it up, and my wife froze. Was this going to scare her? "Mom!" The two year old shouted joyfully, "A dinosaur!"

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I am interested in any thoughts you have on this.

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Check out the full story:

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http://www.smh.com.au/national/why-its-good-to-horrify-children-20091122-isw6.html