# children?

*The Urth list — 2 messages, 2 voices, 26 Oct 1999*

<https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1864>

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### shannon wilde
*26 Oct 1999, 16:13*

> --- shannon wilde <swilde_99 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 16:07:26 -0700 (PDT)
> From: shannon wilde <swilde_99 at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: children?
> To: urth at best.lists.com
> 
> Forgive me, all, I couldn't resist replying to the
> "survival as kiddy lit" bit. I myself was turned
> onto
> _Fahrenheit 451_, first the book, then the movie,
> when
> I was approx 5-6 yrs old. By third grade, I had read
> all of _The Lord of the Rings_ and had read both
> _Dune_ and _The Dispossessed_ by age 11. Of course
> that goes for _The Metamorphosis_ and some of
> Borges,
> too. Not bragging, really. My point is that good,and
> great, literature is both timeless and ageless for
> those with the mind's eye to see. Heck, I read
> Grimm's
> and Calvino's collected fairytales, and Rudyard
> Kipling, with even more pleasure than I did as a
> child. Admittedly, Proust et al might be a bit much
> for most youngsters (and adults) but if TBOTNS had
> been published when I waas shorter, it would surely
> have been "gold" to me, even as _The Dying Earth_
> and
> so much of Vance was. You all were probably pretty
> exceptional folk throughout your lives, so you know
> what I mean. Like Bryan Cholfin (formerly editor of
> Crank! mag) Wolfe was formative to my critical and
> aesthetic appreciation of modern literature. I
> wonder
> how those solitary tots of today will be entranced
> by
> the many wonders of Urth and sky...presumably w/o
> the
> tall, grey-robed figures abducting them.      
> 
> 
> =====
> 
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=====

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### Daniel Fusch
*26 Oct 1999, 23:32 · follows shannon wilde*

Shannon,

(snip)
My point is that good,and

> great, literature is both timeless and ageless for
> those with the mind's eye to see.

Good point! I also discovered many of my favorite books at an early 
age...Lord of the Rings at age 8, A Wrinkle in Time at age 7 or 8, Kipling 
shortly afterward, and so on.

Great literature IS ageless/timeless! Maybe, then, we should hope that all 
the great novels--past and present--survive into the future as children's 
lit!

Daniel

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