tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post8058746350925518161..comments2024-03-18T17:05:21.126+00:00Comments on An Awfully Big Blog Adventure: “T” is for Tiger?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-68453682294554550622015-07-14T02:14:58.040+01:002015-07-14T02:14:58.040+01:00Very Interesting .. had to share it with my collea...Very Interesting .. had to share it with my colleagues at work <br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.relationshipeguide.com/the-drama-method-review/" rel="nofollow">The Drama Method</a> ladyAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01874180177956061140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-27339640757258609362015-07-12T09:41:59.441+01:002015-07-12T09:41:59.441+01:00However Judith Kerr - or anyone else - understands...However Judith Kerr - or anyone else - understands her tiger, it becomes a unique tiger in the mind of any child who is read the story. And that's why I think they love it - for one child it is a story of taming of unnamed fears, for another it's the unflappable mother, for another it's risking the unbelievable.<br /><br />Which makes it a slightly different story for every child - that, surely, is a huge part of its magic.JOhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03127111575563904349noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-86747806520206198022015-07-11T19:24:17.688+01:002015-07-11T19:24:17.688+01:00This is a story about a totally unflappable mum wh... This is a story about a totally unflappable mum who can make good, calm stuff out of difficult and extraordinary situations. The language, the illustrations, are unforgettable. We all need mums like that one (bet she lived in North London, though - we're like that).<br />Enid Richemonthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17218197995089241666noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-10566218365752494672015-07-11T18:35:01.157+01:002015-07-11T18:35:01.157+01:00I for one will not be putting Frosties in my petro...I for one will not be putting Frosties in my petrol tank again.Nick Greenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08191176209084540085noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-31010686740793287252015-07-11T17:19:13.452+01:002015-07-11T17:19:13.452+01:00Oh, that's interesting! I'd read that deta...Oh, that's interesting! I'd read that detail (about the lights) as something a young child unused to being out after dark would notice and find exciting. But your reading works too.<br /><br />I suppose I'd have been about the right age for this book when it was published, though I don't think I read it then. At that time the tigers who loomed largest in my consciousness were probably Tony of Kellog's fame and the Esso tiger ("Put a tiger in your tank!"). I think I believed they were one and the same, in fact.Catherine Butlerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17693526864905868829noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-30897121664571214502015-07-11T17:07:52.821+01:002015-07-11T17:07:52.821+01:00This comment has been removed by the author.Nick Greenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08191176209084540085noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-43944935891293603142015-07-11T17:07:51.544+01:002015-07-11T17:07:51.544+01:00This comment has been removed by the author.Nick Greenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08191176209084540085noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-40229161305973643662015-07-11T17:05:38.043+01:002015-07-11T17:05:38.043+01:00I often think TTWCTT contains a WW2 subtext, but n...I often think TTWCTT contains a WW2 subtext, but not the Gestapo. For me it seems to be about wartime austerity and rationing. The Tiger eats all the food and - significantly - also drinks all the water in the tap (absurd) which to me suggests a way of explaining to a small child, amusingly, why the water is off.<br />Even more notable is the final scene, where they go out to a cafe and 'all the street lamps were lit and all the cars had their lights on.' Why draw attention to this? Is this the end of the blackout? The restoration of normality?Nick Greenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08191176209084540085noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-23238087242531073302015-07-11T13:36:37.953+01:002015-07-11T13:36:37.953+01:00There could be many life events which prompted Jud...There could be many life events which prompted Judith Kerr to write the book almost certainly unconsciously. We can all give our own reading of how it might tie in with or derive from specific situations in what we know of her life or our own. I think what is far more interesting are the ways it taps into our more fundamental, universal emotions which it undoubtedly does.SarahLhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00836845927840900397noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-87889216874669739802015-07-11T12:03:45.510+01:002015-07-11T12:03:45.510+01:00Like most good stories this one admits of many int...Like most good stories this one admits of many interpretations. I was musing the other day (in another place) on <i>The Tiger Who Came to Tea</i>'s susceptibility to being read as a fable of contemporary anxieties about immigration: it was, after all, published in the same year Enoch Powell delivered his "rivers of blood" speech. A subcontinental visitor knocks on the door of a hospitable British family asking for food and drink, but shows no restraint and continues eating and drinking until they have run out of food entirely, and are forced to flee their own house in order to eat. The fact that they later buy a tin of Tiger Food (in case the tiger should ever reappear), despite the tiger's being perfectly happy with buns, hints at a wish to re-establish the divide between Us (who eat good human fare) and Them (with their strange foreign food). Happily, for this family money seems to be no object and they are able to eat at cafes and restock with food without a care, but an adult reader might well wonder what would happen if the tiger turned out to be the first of many.<br /><br />How far would I wish to push such a reading? Not very. Does it mean I think Judith Kerr was consciously or unconsciously rehearsing patterns of thought about immigration that were very much "in the air" at the time she wrote the book? I've no idea. Quite possibly not: but I don't find the idea ludicrous.Catherine Butlerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17693526864905868829noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-85207747373633566372015-07-11T11:40:15.407+01:002015-07-11T11:40:15.407+01:00I've always thought of the 'tiger who came...I've always thought of the 'tiger who came to tea' as a way to acknowledge the unpredictability of our animal appetites at a safe remove à la Bettelheim whether it's our own appetites or those of strangers which can seem both beguiling and terrifying at the same time. This would seem also to be the case in the other stories you cite about big cats and indeed wolves like Little Red Riding Hood. As with all the enduring picture books it taps into this visceral puzzle we all face. 'Where the wild things are' is another perfect example of the incomprehensible attraction for chaos and unbridled desire we all have within us while acknowledging the need to keep this at bay.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-90535559818616448872015-07-11T10:52:40.278+01:002015-07-11T10:52:40.278+01:00Thanks for those links, Michael. I see you had alr...Thanks for those links, Michael. I see you had already made the point about its being a storybook tiger, which perhaps makes this post otiose, though I was glad of the opportunity to think about this tiger's literary genealogy.<br /><br />As for to the extent to which authors can or should control interpretations of their work, that's a question I doubt we'll solve definitely today - but I'm interested to hear what the writers and readers here have to say on the matter!Catherine Butlerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17693526864905868829noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-66103547270497914492015-07-11T10:35:55.155+01:002015-07-11T10:35:55.155+01:002 short blogs on this in June on my blog.
http://...2 short blogs on this in June on my blog.<br /><br />http://michaelrosenblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015_06_01_archive.htmlMichael Rosennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-71577092649719157832015-07-11T10:34:17.638+01:002015-07-11T10:34:17.638+01:00I can see why Kerr might be irritated - she's ...I can see why Kerr might be irritated - she's written about her own childhood directly in her autobiographical novels (When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit and sequels) but that doesn't mean those events have to be at the root of everything she's written, and The Tiger Who Came To Tea sounds as if it were very much a story about, and for, her own daughter. The slight scariness (as well as humour) of having a tiger in the house is surely because the threat of being eaten when any ferocious animal appears is always on the child reader's mind due to familiarity with fairy tales and the other children's books you've mentioned. A tiger does not need to represent the gestapo to be frightening!Emma Barneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02718171070716804800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-2161694777821458472015-07-11T10:20:44.520+01:002015-07-11T10:20:44.520+01:00You're not always fully aware of the resonance...You're not always fully aware of the resonances behind the words and images you choose, are you? (To put it mildly!) I once talked to Serena de la Hey, who created the iconic Willow Man which stands beside the M5 near Somerset (I was writing a book of the same name), and I asked her if she minded about the different associations people made with the figure (the Whicker Man, a symbol of fertility/rebirth, a logo for Somerset County Council) - and she said no: as far as she was concerned, she'd made it, and then it was out in the world to make its own way - she fully accepted that others would ascribe meanings to it which hadn't occurred to her.Sue Purkisshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09084528571944803477noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-8091551227042327332015-07-11T09:57:57.007+01:002015-07-11T09:57:57.007+01:00That's really interesting! Such a great post. ...That's really interesting! Such a great post. I hadn't seen the 'debate'. Maybe it's just me, but I find it weirdly distasteful to have someone talking about someone else's work 'representing' early childhood experiences (especially traumatic ones) when that other person *is still alive*. Creepy, no? It's fair game on dead writers, but quite rude on live ones...Clémentine Beauvaishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03115567199751033932noreply@blogger.com