Why are Blyton's books so delightfully escapist?

The books! Over seven hundred of them and still counting...
User avatar
MJE
Posts: 2534
Joined: 15 Nov 2006, 12:24
Favourite book/series: Famous Five series
Favourite character: George; Julian; Barney
Location: Victoria, Australia
Contact:

Why are Blyton's books so delightfully escapist?

Post by MJE »

Hallo. I'm back again after a bit of a break. I don't seem to be able to post now at the level I did for years on the Yahoo group (and I've fallen away from that too.)

     I thought I'd like to ask a question that I've been wondering about, which I'd like to hear anyone's thoughts on - I just thought I'd suggest this as a general subject for discussion.
     It's simply this: Why are Enid Blyton's books regarded by so many people as escapist (delightfully by her fans, and irresponsibly or superficially by her detractors)? It is true that almost any fiction (in book form, or on movies or T.V.) can be seen this way - but I think Enid Blyton is associated with escapism perhaps more often than many other authors or styles.
     After all, many of the events in Enid Blyton's books are ones most of us would not at all like to go through - even if we enjoy reading about them.
     If we look at the family stories, the characters are beset by difficulties which at times approach the tragic, and they are forced, with much pain, to change as a result of these problems. I would quake at the prospect if I knew I faced such situations myself - there's some pretty heavy stuff there!
     If we consider the school stories, maybe the issues are not quite so heavy or tragic, although they are often of a generally similar character, if not looming quite so large. Many characters face painful school or family situations that affect their activity at school - and a few, like Gwendoline Mary Lacey, really get it hard.
     And in the mystery/adventure stories, there does not seem to be nearly so much focus on the kind of life-changing difficulties found in the other stories, but the main characters face situations in their conflicts with criminals which must be truly terrifying when they happen. (Perhaps more in the adventure stories than the mystery ones.)
     Then there are the settings: mainly set in Britain. They are often seen as idyllic - but are they any different from normal, standard British settings? (I haven't been to Britain, so I can't compare Blyton's depictions to the reality - but they appear, so far as I can tell, to be realistic, at least with reference to Britain as it was at the time the books were written.) The Famous Five may cycle down attractive lanes on a spring day, or bathe in a beautiful rock pool, or hike over the moors on a moonlit night, and it is made to seem very idyllic - but I don't quite know why I think this. And then there are the stories set in other countries, which I suppose have the attraction of the exotic. But I wouldn't be surprised if her depictions of these exotic settings would be viewed by many as superficial, vague, stereotyped, and even wrong at times. And, whether accurately or not, she often alludes to the grimy, squalid side of those settings, too - when reading books such as the Adventure or Secret series, I've occasionally come across details that I was quite surprised to see in a book by Blyton.
     I appreciate this idyllic, escapist view of Blyton's books myself - so I'm not saying that doing so is wrong or unjustified. But I just wonder why people (both enthusiasts and detractors) see her books in this light, when the events are (considered objectively) not at all idyllic, but quite traumatic or frightening, and the settings are really (considered objectively) quite routine - there seems to be no effort to try to create exaggeratedly idyllic or paradisal settings.
     Is it the happy endings? (Do people whose lives gone well get the same effect from Blyton's books?) Or is it just (in the adventure stories, at least) the sense of freedom where the children can go off camping and do as they please? (So do people who have a lot of freedom to run their own lives as they please get as much enjoyment out of Blyton?) Or maybe one factor is that so often the settings are rural and (these days at least) probably the majority of people live in towns or cities? (In that case, would rural people see Blyton's books as escapist?) Are there other elements I haven't mentioned? And if Blyton's fiction is escapist, is all other fiction just as escapist too? Why is Blyton *more* escapist than most other fiction? *Is* it any more escapist?

     I'm not sure if I've accurately conveyed what I'm trying to say. Do you see what I'm trying to get at? Anyway, does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Regards, Michael.


P.S.:
     I'm interested in science-fiction (books rather than film or T.V.), and that's another fictional area often criticized as escapist by its detractors. A similar question exists with this too: I once read a comment by someone who was into science-fiction, who wondered why on earth anyone could possibly think it was escapist, when quite often it explored in some depth such difficult and painful areas as technological and social change, world wars, ecological catastrophe, the end of the world, and other such things, and speculated on how such things would change society (usually unfavourably).
Society Member
User avatar
Aurélien
Posts: 3205
Joined: 21 Oct 2008, 22:10
Favourite book/series: Book: The Boy Next Door / Series: Famous Five
Favourite character: Noddy
Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Re: Why are Blyton's books so delightfully escapist?

Post by Aurélien »

There is much I could post on this one, Michael, but having a family funeral to go to later this morning I'll stick to two comments:

1) When I was reading Enid Blyton's books during my childhood I wouldn't have seen them (even those with fantasy characters) as 'escapism', but rather as grappling/dealing with real issues that every lad had to think his way through at some time or another. The 'Mr. Pinkwhistle' series are a prime example of this.

2) Nowadays, when re-reading (the original texts of) those Blyton books that I am able to access, if I am escaping it is into my own past, with which memories of Blyton books are inextricably linked/mixed - and from which the :? more asinine absurdities of our modern pc world are, thankfully, absent.

‘Aurélien Arkadiusz’ :)

Yes, Science Fiction books for me, too....better than the films anyday.
User avatar
Daisy
Posts: 16632
Joined: 28 Oct 2006, 22:49
Favourite book/series: Find-Outers, Adventure series.
Location: Stoke-On-Trent, England

Re: Why are Blyton's books so delightfully escapist?

Post by Daisy »

Aurelien has said something of what I was thinking on reading your post Michael. I read Blyton as a child and I read her now as an escape from today with all its pressures etc. It was a picture of my world for I was a child as the books came out (although I didn't read the latest Fives and Find-Outers until I was an adult because I grew up and didn't know there were so many more until I renewed my interest in them when I wanted my children to enjoy Blyton as much as I did). So I would say that in a sense all books of fiction can be an escape for people from their everyday life and in our case, because we're reading books we first read and loved as children it is an escape back to our secure and untroubled childhood. That's my experience anyway.
'Tis loving and giving that makes life worth living.

Society Member
User avatar
Francis
Posts: 7275
Joined: 17 Nov 2009, 21:13
Favourite book/series: Mountain of Adventure / Adventure and Famous Five
Favourite character: George and Timmy
Location: Guildford, Surrey

Re: Why are Blyton's books so delightfully escapist?

Post by Francis »

I suspect that Enid found that writing the books was a way for her to escape
from the sometimes difficult reality of everyday life. As such she created a world
that she and many others would wish to be in. Growing up in the nineteen fifties
my sister and I loved escaping from the restrictions and drabness of everyday life.
We could pretend to join in with the splendid childhood characters who had such
wonderful adventures with their loveable pets. Although idealised, we could
recognise and identify weth the uncrowded and unspoilt landscapes of that forgotten era.
Society Member
User avatar
Eddie Muir
Posts: 14566
Joined: 13 Oct 2007, 22:28
Favourite book/series: Five Find-Outers and Dog
Favourite character: Fatty
Location: Brighton

Re: Why are Blyton's books so delightfully escapist?

Post by Eddie Muir »

Aurélien wrote:Nowadays, when re-reading (the original texts of) those Blyton books that I am able to access, if I am escaping it is into my own past, with which memories of Blyton books are inextricably linked/mixed - and from which the more asinine absurdities of our modern pc world are, thankfully, absent.
Daisy wrote: we're reading books we first read and loved as children it is an escape back to our secure and untroubled childhood. That's my experience anyway.
This is a very interesting thread, and I agree wholeheartedly with what you say about escaping into our own secure past, Aurélien and Daisy: succinctly and beautifully put! :D

I'm sorry to hear about the family funeral, Aurélien.
'Go down to the side-shows by the river this afternoon. I'll meet you somewhere in disguise. Bet you won't know me!' wrote Fatty.

Society Member
User avatar
number 6
Posts: 4342
Joined: 11 Jun 2010, 17:12
Favourite book/series: Famous Five
Favourite character: George/Jo
Location: Robin Hood Country

Re: Why are Blyton's books so delightfully escapist?

Post by number 6 »

Escapism is viewed differently by the individual. Enid touched upon the simple things that made us all feel good when we were young. Provoking vivid memories without over complicating things. She took bit's from every walk of life that we all could identify with and relate too at every stage of our young lives. She had the knack of sending us into another world, despite our age, and keep us coming back for more. Some of the other author's of her time would over elaborate on the graphic details and go on far too long for a young mind to cope with. For me, whilst reading the Famous Five books, I could drift off into the world I knew so well. The rolling hills, green fields and the hidden haunts of my childhood were all there in the pages of her Adventures. All I was lacking was the villians !! Sadly, The green fields I once knew are now full of houses, car parks, and a ugly eyesore they call a shopping mall. No wonder they call her work Escapism !! Don't criticise, :D
User avatar
Aurélien
Posts: 3205
Joined: 21 Oct 2008, 22:10
Favourite book/series: Book: The Boy Next Door / Series: Famous Five
Favourite character: Noddy
Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Re: Why are Blyton's books so delightfully escapist?

Post by Aurélien »

Thanks, Eddie. 'Twas my 99-year-old Aunt whose funeral I went to - a younger sister of my late mother, (who herself made it to 97 before dying back in 2006).

'Aurélien Arkadiusz', who has just become *gulp!* the oldest living member of his family...... :shock:
User avatar
number 6
Posts: 4342
Joined: 11 Jun 2010, 17:12
Favourite book/series: Famous Five
Favourite character: George/Jo
Location: Robin Hood Country

Re: Why are Blyton's books so delightfully escapist?

Post by number 6 »

Sorry, the last line of my last post didnt come up! It should've read: Don't criticise, judge or scrutinise her work too much. They were written to entertain young imaginative minds, which they certainly did. Enjoy !! :D

Note to self: Must do better when posting messages !! :oops:
User avatar
MJE
Posts: 2534
Joined: 15 Nov 2006, 12:24
Favourite book/series: Famous Five series
Favourite character: George; Julian; Barney
Location: Victoria, Australia
Contact:

Re: Why are Blyton's books so delightfully escapist?

Post by MJE »

number 6 wrote:Escapism is viewed differently by the individual.
     People often seem to use the term in a disparaging way, as if you are irresponsible or immature if you spend too much time indulging in escapism. But I seem to remember hearing that Tolkien once said in defence of escapism that, if you are in prison, it is perfectly natural and right to want to escape.
number 6 wrote:Some of the other author's of her time would over elaborate on the graphic details and go on far too long for a young mind to cope with.
     (* BLUSH *) I have a feeling that, if I have noticeable writing faults (and I guess I do), this might be one I tend to have. And the thing is that, even once I became aware I had done it, I would continue to think it was right. I guess I can say I am writing for a somewhat older readership (if the honest truth isn't that I'm just writing for myself!).
number 6 wrote:For me, whilst reading the Famous Five books, I could drift off into the world I knew so well. The rolling hills, green fields and the hidden haunts of my childhood were all there in the pages of her Adventures. All I was lacking was the villians !!
     Yet none of us would have wanted to encounter these villains as children, or would even want to now - yet we can feel nostalgic about them because they were in a book. That kind of illustrates the dichotomy I alluded to before, where, even though a major part of the stories involved very unpleasant people and events, we can still, in spite of that, regard it in an escapist way. It is a paradox I have wondered over for years: so much fiction can be escapist, even though almost all stories involve events that would be terrifying and traumatic to experience in real life. (A story that involved only nice events would not be in the least escapist: it would be insufferably boring.)
number 6 wrote:Sadly, The green fields I once knew are now full of houses, car parks, and a ugly eyesore they call a shopping mall.
     I grew up in Adelaide in South Australia, nearly 500 miles from Melbourne in Victoria, where I have lived since the age of 13. I have revisited it only a few times since then. In 2003 (I think) I went there and spent much time driving around as many of the places I used to know as a child - around the three addresses I lived at in the Adelaide hills, and in the city and suburbs, and around much of the countryside I used to know so well.
     Some places were pretty much the same as I remembered them; others I felt were probably much the same but they somehow *looked* different, which may have been due to my own change in outlook as I grew up; but I was utterly shocked to see how much many had changed significantly (none for the better, it seemed), how many had even been completely obliterated and made totally unrecognizable. In some cases I would never have believed it was the same place if the map hadn't told me it was. It was actually quite upsetting, and almost felt like a kind of sacrilege, as if a part of myself had been wiped out.

Regards, Michael.
Society Member
User avatar
number 6
Posts: 4342
Joined: 11 Jun 2010, 17:12
Favourite book/series: Famous Five
Favourite character: George/Jo
Location: Robin Hood Country

Re: Why are Blyton's books so delightfully escapist?

Post by number 6 »

Hi Michael,

Just re-read the message I posted earlier. Plenty of mistakes made, I know, but It was written after a long night shift ! A poor excuse, but one I'm sticking with ! :oops:
User avatar
Moonraker
Posts: 22387
Joined: 31 Jan 2005, 19:15
Location: Wiltshire, England
Contact:

Re: Why are Blyton's books so delightfully escapist?

Post by Moonraker »

MJE wrote:Hallo. I'm back again after a bit of a break. I don't seem to be able to post now at the level I did for years on the Yahoo group (and I've fallen away from that too.)
Good to see you back, Michael. It is always a pleasure to read your posts, and this one is no exception (I have 'fallen away' from the Yahoo Group, too).
It's simply this: Why are Enid Blyton's books regarded by so many people as escapist (delightfully by her fans, and irresponsibly or superficially by her detractors)?
Oh, definitely. I can remember the wonderful, warm glow when reading a FF or other Blyton as a pre-teenager. The horrors of school, all the other parts of my childhood that I disliked, all vanished when I had a red H&S book in my hands! Oh, how I wanted to vanish into the stories of Enid's stories.
After all, many of the events in Enid Blyton's books are ones most of us would not at all like to go through - even if we enjoy reading about them.
Hmm...you're probably right there! Although, if I had the 'others' to be with me, who knows? It might've been fun. I take your point though, the danger was real, but as with Agatha Christie's murders, there was never any real grief or threat. It was all a warm, log-fire reading experience.

Then there are the settings: mainly set in Britain. They are often seen as idyllic - but are they any different from normal, standard British settings?...- but they appear, so far as I can tell, to be realistic, at least with reference to Britain as it was at the time the books were written.) The Famous Five may cycle down attractive lanes on a spring day, or bathe in a beautiful rock pool, or hike over the moors on a moonlit night, and it is made to seem very idyllic - but I don't quite know why I think this.
Again, you are spot-on. I don't think these locations exist. All right; Blue Pool and Chapman's Pool in Dorset could well fit the bill, but Merran Lake, Owl's Dene, Smuggler's Top (sticking with the Five) - there are other locations from other series - did they ever exist? I rather think not.
In that case, would rural people see Blyton's books as escapist?

Not sure. However, if these 'country scenes' are a bit far-fetched, then that in itself lends itself to some sort of escapism. I imagine the answer is 'yes'.
I'm not sure if I've accurately conveyed what I'm trying to say. Do you see what I'm trying to get at?
Absolutely.
Daisy wrote:So I would say that in a sense all books of fiction can be an escape for people from their everyday life and in our case, because we're reading books we first read and loved as children it is an escape back to our secure and untroubled childhood.
Another nail hit squarely on the head! I am instantly transformed back to the 1950s as the child that I was - and in some aspects, still am. All of the scenes and settings are the same as they were 50 years ago.
Francis wrote:I suspect that Enid found that writing the books was a way for her to escape
from the sometimes difficult reality of everyday life.
Another great point. I totally agree with you, Francis. I am sure all of EB's insecurities and 'troubles' just faded away when she had the typewriter balanced on her knees.
Eddie wrote:This is a very interesting thread, and I agree wholeheartedly with what you say about escaping into our own secure past, Aurélien and Daisy: succinctly and beautifully put!
This is what we have come to expect from our friend Michael. Again, I agree with you, Eddie.

A great thread, Michael; thanks for posting it. There are many ingredients in Enid's pot: adventure, mystery, friendship, loyalty, escapism, danger - yet all the time, we knew all would end well. Today, some of us can add another ingredient into the pot: nostalgia.
Society Member
User avatar
Anita Bensoussane
Forum Administrator
Posts: 26768
Joined: 30 Jan 2005, 23:25
Favourite book/series: Adventure series, Six Cousins books, Six Bad Boys
Favourite character: Jack Trent, Fatty and Elizabeth Allen
Location: UK

Re: Why are Blyton's books so delightfully escapist?

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Sorry to hear about the death of your Aunt, Aurélien.

Enid Blyton expressed her thoughts on 'escapism' in a letter to librarian Mr. S. C. Dedman in 1949 (the letter, or at least part of it, was included by Barbara Stoney as Appendix 6 of Enid Blyton - The Biography). Blyton wrote:
It always amazes me when people deride books for being what they call 'escapist'. Any intelligent person must surely know, if he thinks about it, that a large part of our finest literature is escapist - take Treasure Island for instance. Escapist literature should only be scorned when it is badly written or conceived, not because it is 'escapist'. This has become the kind of cliché used by the less intelligent reviewers, critics or librarians.

All adventure stories are 'escapist' - mine among them. I cannot think why some people use this adjective in a derogative sense - such stories fulfil a very real need...
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.

"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.


Society Member
User avatar
Aurélien
Posts: 3205
Joined: 21 Oct 2008, 22:10
Favourite book/series: Book: The Boy Next Door / Series: Famous Five
Favourite character: Noddy
Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Re: Why are Blyton's books so delightfully escapist?

Post by Aurélien »

Thanks, Anita. 'Tis never fun :( attending a family funeral, and *shudder* a whole new dimension is added when that death means that one has just moved into the family's unofficial next off the perch spot. :shock:

Those Enid Blyton quotations you posted hit the nail right on the head.

I think we all realize that Enid Blyton's truly unforgiveable crime, in the eyes of her detractors, is the great and enduring popularity of her books with children of all ages and stages, and that most of their sneers are motivated by this unacknowledged canker.

‘Aurélien Arkadiusz’ :)
Dick Kirrin
Posts: 2564
Joined: 14 Jun 2009, 18:19
Favourite book/series: Famous Five, Barney Mysteries
Favourite character: Julian, Dick
Location: Southwest Germany

Re: Why are Blyton's books so delightfully escapist?

Post by Dick Kirrin »

My belated sympathies, Aurélien.

I would even go farther than EB did in the quote Anita kindly supplied us with, and I would say that all the books we call 'literature' are escapist in a way. It is essential that they are, too. Most people - including myself - need a means of escape time and again. Any highly complex machine needs a rest after a hard time of using and just so does our mind. As with facebook or the other social network sites, and in fact with any other hobby, the danger is not in the thing itself, whatever it is.
It's in the people and the way they use it. There is no harm in reading EB books as long as you come back from the cycling tour with the Five after a while.

I do agree with you Michael, not too many of us would have liked to come up against the situations many characters in the books had to cope with, all the same we love to read about it. For me that has a lot to do with the feeling Nigel decribed in his wonderful words about reading EB books. They really feel homely like a log fire and a warm blanket and a cup of hot cocoa. Whatever the danger is, it will be all right in the end. Adventure and no risks.

About rural England, I can only use my very limited knowledge as a visitor to this wonderful country. Even if the settings have no 'real' place as a counterpart, they could exist to a point. And they do, as they live in the reader's minds. If the readers are child readers the settings are real places. For the more grown-up readers, they are places somewhere in the romantic parts of our subconscious.

Cheers

Dick Kirrin
"You just never knew what would happen. It made life exciting, of course - but it did spoil a cycling tour!"
User avatar
Aurélien
Posts: 3205
Joined: 21 Oct 2008, 22:10
Favourite book/series: Book: The Boy Next Door / Series: Famous Five
Favourite character: Noddy
Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Re: Why are Blyton's books so delightfully escapist?

Post by Aurélien »

Thanks, Dick Kirrin.

'Aurélien Arkadiusz'
Post Reply