Literary fathers for Fathers' Day, via NPR
06/19/09 11:30
So
yesterday we’re driving along to soccer practice, and
this woman on NPR starts telling us about the 3
literary father characters she’s picked to highlight
for readers, since we’re so close to
Fathers’
Day (is
it Father’s
Day? It
probably is. But it should be plural---there are nine
zillion fathers out there). Who did she pick?
Atticus Finch--he’s the good father, from TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (my friend Kristin’s favorite book in the universe). He and Scout learn about prejudice/racism, and they fight it. Excellent.
Jack Torrance--he’s the bad dad from THE SHINING, or the Good Dad Gone Awry, so to speak, made worse by Jack Nicholson’s indelible film images. Fair enough. Drinking crazily while residing in an insane hotel (while working on your novel, don’t forget that!) will send anyone over the edge.
AND . . . this really surprised me . . .
Vladek Spiegelman--he’s the in-between dad from MAUS, the most excellent graphic novel ever ever ever. I didn’t get to hear her reasoning (damn soccer practice), but my thought is this: Vladek loves Artie, his son, so he does his best to relate his horrific survival tale within the Holocaust so Artie may document it in an incredible way (Artie/Vladek are real people, and this is a true story) and eventually win a Pulitzer Prize for it. As he is doing this difficult and loving task, Vladek is also miserly, rude, racist, and a general pain in the ass. Artie loves Vladek, too, but their relationship is uneasy, to say the least. The struggle seems representative of fathers/sons in general, but it includes the awful tension of one of the worst events in history. Through it all, they manage not to give up on each other---even when they want to.
Happy Father’s Day, to literary dads and real dads everywhere. Being a dad is not an easy job.
Atticus Finch--he’s the good father, from TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (my friend Kristin’s favorite book in the universe). He and Scout learn about prejudice/racism, and they fight it. Excellent.
Jack Torrance--he’s the bad dad from THE SHINING, or the Good Dad Gone Awry, so to speak, made worse by Jack Nicholson’s indelible film images. Fair enough. Drinking crazily while residing in an insane hotel (while working on your novel, don’t forget that!) will send anyone over the edge.
AND . . . this really surprised me . . .
Vladek Spiegelman--he’s the in-between dad from MAUS, the most excellent graphic novel ever ever ever. I didn’t get to hear her reasoning (damn soccer practice), but my thought is this: Vladek loves Artie, his son, so he does his best to relate his horrific survival tale within the Holocaust so Artie may document it in an incredible way (Artie/Vladek are real people, and this is a true story) and eventually win a Pulitzer Prize for it. As he is doing this difficult and loving task, Vladek is also miserly, rude, racist, and a general pain in the ass. Artie loves Vladek, too, but their relationship is uneasy, to say the least. The struggle seems representative of fathers/sons in general, but it includes the awful tension of one of the worst events in history. Through it all, they manage not to give up on each other---even when they want to.
Happy Father’s Day, to literary dads and real dads everywhere. Being a dad is not an easy job.