To Say The Least

A convention I find amusing is when an author or filmmaker takes what we traditionally view as a subordinate character or group and then gives us a little window into their version of the narrative that has them as the superior ones. It happens in “Look Who’s Talking” when the babies make allowances for the adults because they don’t know any better. It happens in Mary Norton’s “Borrowers” series where the tiny folk who live under the floorboards and in china cabinets consider the big people lovable pets who are sometimes a nuisance but generally useful and nice to have around. And it happens in A Hundred and One Dalmatians (the book even more than the animated feature) when Pongo, Mrs. Pongo and the rest of the animal cast take matters into their own paws and hooves because the humans aren’t bright enough to know what needs to be done. I like the topsy-turvy quality of how different the world looks from “down there” as opposed to “up here.” It’s like a pin prick in the balloon of self-importance and shows how being on top is more a function of perspective than we realize most of the time. And how full of it we often are. Maybe those authors and filmmakers are trying to make a statement about empathy and compassion. In Jane Thayer’s The Puppy Who Wanted A Boy, we get to see the dog perspective on choosing a human for their very own. There’s a lesson there somewhere.

http://www.amazon.com/Puppy-Who-Wanted-Boy/dp/0688082939

http://www.librarything.com/author/thayerjane