Hi everyone!
What a mad few weeks it's been! It would seem that a lot more things are approaching going back to some kind of normal, and the lockdown is easing up, which is super news! I personally can't wait to see my family again!
In other news I have taken a job as an online English Lit tutor! So I have been cramming Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson for my first lessons! I forgot how complicated the plot is! There are mutinies all over the place!!
Today however, I wanted to talk to you about a book I have a love/hate relationship with, Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce.
This book is a classic example of what is know in literature as 'time-slip fantasy'. This is a genre that uses the manipulation of time and chronology as the main feature of the plot. This usually happens through time-travel or dreaming. For me there are two definite types of 'time-slip fantasy', one that uses historical time periods, and another that uses fantasy worlds. The first category includes books such as Tom's Midnight Garden, A Traveller in Time by Allison Uttley, and The Greene Knowe books by Lucy Boston. The second kind of 'time-slips' can be found in books like Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Wizard of Oz and of course The Phantom Tollbooth. These are much more dream-like and are much less rooted in reality. They deal in kairos, or mythical time. They also usually hide some kind of moral or didactic theme.
I think Tom's Midnight Garden fits into both of these categories. It mixes the ideas of memory and dreaming, with time-travel back to the Victorian period. Let me tell you a bit more about the story.
Now quite fittingly for our times, Tom is effectively sent away to his aunt and uncles' flat to self-isolate! His brother has measles, and until they are sure Tom doesn't have it too he must stay in their flat in quarantine! Moving into a little flat is a bit of a shock for Tom who is used to running around his garden and climbing trees. He must content himself with reading books and gazing out of the window. The flats have no garden to explore you see, much to Tom's disappointment. Then one night he hears the clock in the hall downstairs strike thirteen! This becomes the signal for Kairos, or mystical time, to begin. Tom sneaks out the flat and downstairs into the entrance hall of the big house (which has been divided up into flats), and when he opens the back door he discovers a huge, wonderful, verdant garden. A garden that existed when the house was a family home. In this kairos garden Tom can fulfill all his outdoor fantasies, and some critics have likened it to Eden or Paradise. Tom can climb all the trees, run across the lawn and paddle in the passing river. And the most brilliant thing is he can't be seen! Or can he? Enter Hatty, a little girl contemporary with the garden. She can see Tom, and together them embark on a variety of garden based adventures. Now all this sounds quite exciting doesn't it, and from an analytical point of view this book is brilliant! It has it's feet firmly in an interesting genre, there are loads of comparisions to be made with other books, and there is lots of scope for deeper reading and theorising too. Something that, as you probably all know by now, I love! But don't get your hopes up! Tom's Midnight Garden would be the perfect book if the plot wasn't so dull!
Now, I'm really sorry to have to say that! I'm not often too negative about books on here, but I find Tom's Midnight Garden a bit meh, as the kids say! Every time I read it I hope it will be more lively than it is! And I feel awful because I know it's won awards! It won the Carnegie Medal in 1958 for heavens sake! Maybe I'm missing something? I just find the whole things a little pallid. The characters are very 2D, and despite the beautiful, engaging descriptions of the garden I never really feel like I am there. There is the risk that because I am familiar with other 'time-slip' books, it all feels a bit samey. As the story progresses we begin to see the link between the garden and time, and Tom discovers that in the real world no time passes while he is in the garden! Like in Alice in Wonderland, or Peter Pan, kairos has no effect on chronos (real chronological time). In my opinion, there is nothing exceptional about the way Pearce uses the 'time-slip' genre, so you can why I've been a little reluctant to get excited about this book.
The kairos finally reveals itself as dream and memory at the end of the book. Every night when Tom goes to bed he is sharing his dreams with the old lady upstairs. Sounds odd doesn't it! But the old lady upstairs is Hatty! It makes sense, yet no sense at all, and we only find out in the very last few chapters. It almost feels like an add on, an extra bit of information to try and keep the reader hooked that little bit longer. Yes, all the loose ends tie up, but they just don't seem strong enough to me. The critic Peter Hollindale suggests that it is bringing the story back to a more rational adult perspective, something he says is not in keeping with the childhood spirit of the story*, and I agree.
As interesting as some of the theories about this book are, for example the garden as means for prolonging childhood, the concepts of kairos and chronos, I think these are explored just as well in other examples of the 'time-slip fantasy' genre. If you are after an example of the genre that will also capture a child's imagination, I'm afraid to say Tom's Midnight Garden would not be my first pick. Instead I would choose Boston or Uttley's books, or even Alice in Wonderland.
Thanks for reading, L x
*Peter Hollindale in AA300 Children Literature Study Guide for the Open University.
Next up, The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goodge.
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