Is Enid Blyton evil?

[Trillian]

My daughter is attending a party on Saturday of a friend whose parents are a little (or maybe a lot, I don't know them that well) fundie.
I just went out and bought her The Faraway Tree collection by Enid Blyton. I loved those books as a kids, and my daughter has already read them.

But I just thought about it and I remember getting an e-mail a few years back that she was evil.

I just googled it, and Enid Blyton was apparently evil. What do I do now? Do I give her the book anyway? Does anyone know how popular or widespread the Enid Blyton is a servant of Satan myth is?

Do you think they've moved on to JK Rowling, and Enid Blyton is forgotten?

Fuck.

[peelyposter]

I've never heard of Enid Blyton being considered evil by the fundies. Most of her books seem to promote pretty conservative view points and traditional gender roles. George in the Famous Five is a tomboy, but she's pretty much ridiculed for wanting to be as good as a man, rather than being happy to be a little lady like Ann.

There's a fair bit of racism in Enid Blyton's books, but that's pretty standard for the time they were written. You wouldn't think that would bother fundies anyway.

[Tiger]

Basically what Pelly said. After skimming the "Controversies" section of her Wikipedia article, most of the complaints about her basically stem from the fact that her works are formulaic and contain a decent amount of gender and racial stereotyping.

[szaleniec]

I get the impression that the things Enid Blyton's books are usually criticised for would be considered positives by typical fundies.

[scotsgit]

It's probably because Enid Blyton doesn't promote church attendance or religious observation of any kind in her books.

[Cymraes]

scotsgit: I recall several books of Blyton's which refer to church attendance and prayers at night - although she was always keen to condemn pretended piety. Enid Blyton was also well known for her children's adaptions of Bible stories, her "Child's Life of Christ" and her reworking of the Pilgrim's Progress for children.

[scotsgit]

Jul 28, 2010 9:39:18 GMT -5 Cymraes said:

scotsgit: I recall several books of Blyton's which refer to church attendance and prayers at night - although she was always keen to condemn pretended piety. Enid Blyton was also well known for her children's adaptions of Bible stories, her "Child's Life of Christ" and her reworking of the Pilgrim's Progress for children.

Hmm, can't remember it myself (I was more an Adventurous Four type!) but then it is over 25 years since I read any!

[The Lazy One]

When I was seven years old, my dad went to England and brought me back the complete Faraway Tree Stories collection. I loved them. I cannot think of anything objectionable about those books, although I have heard that others of Enid Blyton's books were rather racist.

Although fundies may find the magic part of those stories objectionable... although I don't see why. They're stories about a freaking tree that has awesome magical lands at the top and crazy characters living in it. If they have a problem with it they're the ones with problems.

[Trillian]

If anyone cares, the gift was fine :-)

[scotsgit]

Jul 28, 2010 18:48:14 GMT -5 The Lazy One said:

Although fundies may find the magic part of those stories objectionable... although I don't see why. They're stories about a freaking tree that has awesome magical lands at the top and crazy characters living in it. If they have a problem with it they're the ones with problems.

Sadly, what the Fundies can't see is that in pretty much all of these books it's the people who learn, the magical tree/carpet/valeting service (I live in hope!) is just there as a device for them to learn the lesson.