CMC and the supposed innocence of childhood · 4:41am Nov 24th, 2012
Charles Schulz, one of greatest cartoonists ever, wrote a comic strip about children day-in and day-out. For an indecently long period of time, he did the impossible, then laid down his pen and died.
From this blog:
Although Peanuts featured only the children, the strip is certainly not about childhood. The losses, rejections and disillusionments faced by the children are mostly related with the psychosomatic torments of the modern industrial society. “Happiness,” Schulz had pointed out, “does not create humor.” According to David Michaelis, the author of Schulz’s recent biography, “In Peanuts, the game was always lost, the football always snatched away … the kite was not just stuck in a tree, it was eaten by it; the pitcher did not just give up a line drive, he was stripped bare by it, exposed.” The genius of Schulz lies in shattering the delusion about childhood inside the adult psyche. The children in Peanuts are actually representing the epitome of human life confronting all the unavoidable complexities of the adult world – depression, loneliness, melancholy, humiliation, struggle to succeed, fear, failure, anxiety and self-doubts. Schulz himself had hinted on the real essence of the strip by saying, “Anybody who says Peanuts is cute is just crazy.”
When we write the Cutie Mark Crusaders, we might not make it dark, but we must make it real. I dearly hope that tomorrow's episode, One Bad Apple, is as real as a Charlie Brown Special.
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While I'll agree that Peanuts certainly was never about glorifying childhood, I'm not ready to throw childhood under the bus either. It is a more innocent and happy time in life, and I don't like to see children being hurt or having any of that time stolen from them.
I agree. But life does the hurting and the stealing. As adults, we often forget both how hard it was and how resiliant we were. No, not every story has to be disappointment after disappointment. My point is simply that children face our world without our complicated coping strategies and the euphemisms we use to shut the pain away, but they face it with hope and wonder. They will stick their fingers in fire, once, and then it is a simple matter never to do so again.
Late to the party, I'd be curious to hear your opinion on the episode!
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It was a joy and privilege to watch. It was indeed Peanuts-like in how the secret life of a child can be torturous, without the adults having a clue. "Oh, they're just being kids." No, they're being weak little people, ashamed of their weaknesses and secrets. They're trying so hard to build their own lives, and they don't dare ask for help, because they want certain people to be proud of them.
And the end was the pure magic of early S1.