I was introduced to the horror genre early in life. In fact, if you grew up with readings of Where the Wild Things Are before bed, then so were you. The darkness of Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s book is simultaneously subtle and glaringly obvious. On the surface, there are the beautifully garish illustrations of “rumpusing” monsters. What lies beneath – as is often the case with horror – is that chilling childhood feeling of “what if?”. “What if I ran away from home and ended up marooned with giant parading beasts for parents? I’m four. I don’t know the rules. It could happen.” This isn’t to say that Where the Wild Things Are wasn’t (and still is) one of my all-time favourite books.
I’m not a parent (although I have a small niece and nephew), so I say this mostly as someone who used to be a kid: children love the dark stuff. So the reintroduction of the “thieving, murderous” Reynard the fox (deemed too sinister for Disney) into the children’s canon is bound to infuriate cautious parents while both terrifying and thrilling their offspring. The medieval tale currently being revived in a project by the Bodleian library will – apparently – not go particularly easy on the whole “disturbing our children” thing. And, especially in an increasingly dark and terrifying world, why should it?
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