Journal 57

[Lucky Star]

44, Robert? I didn't think any of us on here were older than 14.

That's just our mental age.

[Rob Houghton]

my mental age might be younger than 14...

[Tony Summerfield]

That's lucky as most Enid Blyton books seem to be aimed at 8 year-olds now!

[Rob Houghton]

I'm still a bit young for them then!

[Chrissie777]

...I too love to just stand and look at all the lovely dust jackets on my collection and the pictorial spines. I wondered John, do you protect your collection of books with the clear protective coverings as I do?

Julie, I've noticed in the past that without the clear protective covers the dust wrappers deteriorate over time just from pulling them out from the shelf in-between the others.

[Chrissie777]

I can well imagine how you had to struggle Tony, and knew that the type had been set, with nothing you could do, as you set things out in the Journal so very well, and choose the right pictures to go with the scripts that have been sent in, which for me, makes the Journal so enjoyable and pleasant on the eye.

I checked my Journal and will read Charles Brands' article with our magnifying glass.

[Julie2owlsdene]

Another good read is Journal 57.

Enjoyed it all, so a great thank you to all the contributors.

It was interesting to read on Tony's editorial letter that Hodder are relaunching the Secret Series next January, but are going to omit The Secret Mountain because it's not PC.

How sad, it's a shame as I think has been mentioned on here before, that some sort of 'note' can't be written in the front pages that the reader must remember these books were first published in.... and state the year!

[Nick]

I must say that I really enjoyed The Famous Five Reunited by Nicky Wheeliker. I can well imagine that is exactly how the five turned out as adults!

[MJE]

     I haven't read my Journal yet, although it did recently arrive - so I may have to leave more detailed comment until I've read it. But I feel impelled to express my disapproval of this ridiculous decision not to print "The Secret Mountain" any more - I was told privately that the new Journal discussed this, so I will be interested to actually read the comments when I get home in an hour or two. I assume it's to do with political correctness, which seems to be hobbling our thinking more and more. I really think the human race is becoming more and more irrational as the years go by.

I'm guessing the publishers want it forgotten, and wouldn't rewrite it because it deals with tribes in Africa, pagan superstitions and gods, stereotypical tribal rituals etc, including sacrificing people to sun gods.

     What's the problem? Aren't these sorts of things actually characteristic of many African tribes? I always thought they were, especially in former decades before television, the Internet, and so on. (Not sure if such modernisms have made much impact on such people in recent years.)

It's a lot like dozens of Indiana Jones movies, or 'Romancing the Stone' or 'King Solomon's Mines' or scenes in films like King Kong etc, and yet obviously the publishers would never have produced any of these films for fear of offending some little known African tribe! :shock: .

     As I understand it, there are many, many African tribes with different cultures, although many of them may have certain features in common. Enid Blyton did not name a tribe, or even name the country where the story was set - so why would any real-life group in Africa take it as applying to them? That would be like writing a story in some unnamed white Western country and depicting unfavourable things about that society (and indeed I think there are many unfavourable things about many Western societies, including my own), and then some specific country like Australia or the U.S. protesting and taking offence because they took the depiction as applying to them. Well, if the cap fits, wear it, I would be tempted to reply.

Such a pity it's not going to be published any more...but at least that means my spare first edition copy (without DW), modern Award edition from 2006, and two paperback versions, will all be shortly going up in price! ;-)

     Hmmm... that is of no use at all to owners of the book unless they are planning to sell their copies. And would any real Enid Blyton enthusiast sell their copies of a book that's about to become rarer and rarer? (I think that, if I want any copy beyond the late-1960s Armada edition I already have, I'd better look for and buy it soon.)

Regards, Michael.

[MJE]

As Tony said in his editorial this one had added pathos as it seems that the book is now consigned to history. :(

     Could it at least be hoped for that, since the publishers no longer have an interest in publishing the book, they might at least relinquish ownership of or copyright in it, and so allow the possibility that someone else who doesn't feel quite the same way might be able to publish it?
     To do otherwise would surely be a "dog in the manger" attitude, wouldn't it?

Regards, Michael.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Enid Blyton did not name a tribe, or even name the country where the story was set - so why would any real-life group in Africa take it as applying to them?

And have any readers from Africa actually complained to the publisher? We know that Enid Blyton books are/have been popular in a number of African countries such as Uganda, the Republic of South Africa, Morocco and maybe others as well.

It was interesting to read on Tony's editorial letter that Hodder are relaunching the Secret Series next January, but are going to omit The Secret Mountain because it's not PC.

How sad, it's a shame as I think has been mentioned on here before, that some sort of 'note' can't be written in the front pages that the reader must remember these books were first published in.... and state the year!

Yes, I agree. Why not add a short introduction putting the story into context, and continue publishing the book with the words as Enid Blyton wrote them?!

[Courtenay]

Tintin in the Congo, one of the first Tintin books, is still in print and available - it contains some depictions of African people and some patronising colonial attitudes that would now be thought outdated and offensive, but it certainly hasn't been banned (although I believe it wasn't published in English for a long time because of fear of controversy, but it is now). It was first published in 1930s Belgium (which had colonial interests in Africa) and reflects attitudes of that era.

I believe author/artist Hergé was once asked about it in an interview years later; I can't remember exactly what he said, but I'm pretty sure it was essentially that, while his own attitudes had changed since then, that was simply the way everyone in his society thought at that time. There was absolutely no intention on his part to be offensive. I'm pretty sure most modern readers of Tintin (including young readers) are smart enough to understand that. But apparently publishers don't grant readers of Enid Blyton the same level of intelligence and discernment.

[Rob Houghton]

I think it's ridiculous that The Secret Mountain isn't going to be published again (although from the quotes used, it might look like I agree, LOL!) I'm sure it has more to do with ethnic readers in the UK and other 'white European' countries, and the fear that they might feel offended, rather than offending any modern day African tribal people. It almost seems as if the publishers dislike anything remotely 'unsavoury' being said about any character unless they have white skin. This is why Jo-Jo has been whitened and turned into Joe in The Island of Adventure. If the tribe in question were white, and threw people off a mountain, and the young boy Mafumu, who makes himself 'slave' to Jack, was also white, then they would have undoubtedly continued to publish the book.

The problem, as I see it, is that publishers seem to think the tribal characters in The Secret Mountain are representative of all black people and how they behave. They seem to imagine Enid is saying Africans regularly enjoy throwing sacrifices off mountains, do war dances, and bend their knee to be the slaves of white people, whereas all she is saying is that just one particular tribe do this, and Mafumu, as an individual, chooses to make himself a slave to a white boy. As usual, the publishers (themselves much more racist than Enid ever was!) seem to be assuming that all African people must behave like this!

[Wolfgang]

About Tintin, the first four books consisted mostly of clichés, but when he started to write "Le Lotus bleu", Hergé was asked to get proper information about China first. From this time on the Tintin comics were more serious though Capitaine Haddock and Professeur Tryphon Tournesol and Dupont et Dupond deliver some comic relief.

[Moonraker]

I was told privately that the new Journal discussed this

Are you privy to the Journal before it is published?