Children's author jailed for abuse

[Tim Regan (Intl Vendor)]

Hi All,

Michele posted this on the Rutgers' KidLit list, but I thought it may be
of interest here

http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/features/story.jsp?story=515896

http://tinyurl.com/3ytw4

It's an article by Nicholas Tucker about the jailing of childrens'
writer William Mayne for assaults on his young readers. Tucker contrasts
the success of JK Rowling, Philip Pullman, Jacqueline Wilson et al with
the spectre of paedophilia hanging, unsubstantiated, over Charles
Dodgson and JM Barrie. He goes on to explain why such allegations are
(probably) unfounded, and ends with a plea that this doesn't become a
witch-hunt.

It's a strange article. I haven't seen any evidence of a witch-hunt, so
calling on us to resist it seems counter-productive. It's also
unsettling, the evidence he recounts against Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll)
does make one wonder if Dodgson, or at least the age he lived in, had a
healthy attitude towards children.

I think this quote from the article best characterises my disquiet:
<Tucker>
It is a dismal commentary on current post-Freudian psychological
theorising that love of small children and pleasure in their company is
still often viewed as necessarily pathological unless that love is
expressed by another family member, when it is seen as entirely natural
and desirable.
</Tucker>
This may be true, but having planted a link between the love of small
children and pathology, I found it hard to shake.

Cheers,

Dumbledad.