bedtime with Daddy

Scottie Bowman (rbowman@indigo.ie)
Sun, 21 Nov 1999 17:00:47 +0000 

    
    I had just read Lucy Ruth's memory of her Dad's 
    reading Salinger to her when, by coincidence, 
    I listened to a BBC radio discussion of the role played 
    by fathers in their children's literary education.

    I was disappointed but not at all surprised to hear
    that in England the average child views his or her father 
    as more or less illiterate.  When children were questioned, 
    the majority reported their fathers as being mainly 
    interested in 'instruction manuals' - having no time 
    for 'stories' which they expected their fathers to find 
    'boring'.  Very few indeed had enjoyed the experience 
    of being read to by Daddy.  And the stark statistic 
    remains that, in this part of the world anyway, 
    only 18% of all books are purchased by men.  
    (This one DID surprise me.)

    Although I personally emerged from the uterus
    asking for publishing news of the latest Joyce, 
    by 1932 I can remember indulging both my father 
    & grandfather when, at the cot side, they read me 
    the works of de Maupassant & de Sade.  And I 
    naturally carried on this paternal function with 
    my own children.

    But what about Bananafish?  Out in the old 
    log cabin, or by the camp fire's glow, was Pop
    in evidence with his book on his lap?

    Scottie B.