"Writing in the New Yorker, Calvin Tompkins once suggested that stories by Belloc and others are not appropriate for children and are really meant for the grown-ups. To test his hypothesis, I suggest reading one of these classics aloud to a seven-year-old. In my experience, the child very quickly understands that she’s being told a sophisticated joke, and the butt of the joke is the parent who is constantly urging her toward upright behavior. I want to suggest that Gothic nonsense should be a part of every child’s upbringing."
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"In Defense of Whimsy, Nonsense, and Barbaric Balderdash in Children’s Books", Literary Hub (January 24, 2023)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tim_DeRoche
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Tim DeRoche
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