by Stan & Jan Berenstain
MAIN PAGE ⎔ SECTION PAGE ⎔ SITE MAP ⎔ GLOSSARY
BOULDER LITERATURE – SKIP TO A PAGE
ANGELL, PEARL & LITTLE GOD ⎔ BEACH GIRLS ⎔ BOO ⎔ CAESAR ⎔ CHINA FLIGHT ⎔ CHRISTMAS BOOKS ⎔ DEATH DEALERS ⎔ DENVER POST ⎔ DR. NYET ⎔ EUROPE ⎔ FOURTH GHOST BOOK ⎔ GINGERBREAD MAN ⎔ GOLF LIKE THE GREATS ⎔ GOOD NEWS BIBLE ⎔ HOLDING ON ⎔ IN THIS HOUSE OF BREDE ⎔ KING OIL ⎔ MANIPULATOR ⎔ MY NAME IS ASHER LEV ⎔ NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS (RED & BLUE) ⎔ NO END TO THE WAY ⎔ ORANGE WEDNESDAY ⎔ PEANUTS ⎔ SQUARESVILLE ⎔ TEENY WEENY ADVENTURES ⎔ TIGER OF THE SNOWS ⎔ TOWER ⎔ TRAPEZE ⎔ WISH CHILD ⎔ YOUNG JETHRO ⎔ UNIDENTIFIED
So, this book is a “hilarious new concept in humor” in that if you flip it over, you get Flipsville: The Adult’s Guide to Teen-Age Behaviour. So it’s like a mirror book, or a backwards-forwards book. The one book in this pile I haven’t gotten is the top one (which migrated from the shelf with The Door on it), so I don’t know if this is even cleverer than it seems, but given the nature of the mirrorform…still pretty damn clever to include this. The book even goes the extra mile be being exactly about what’s being discussed here: the difference (and relationship) between adult and child behaviour.
Of course, the Berenstains were most famous for their Berenstain Bears series of children’s books, of which they did about 300 between 1962 and the present. Many of their projects were about family, and giving readers a sense of direction about the best way to live. The Facts of Life for Grown-ups, Marital Blitz, And Beat Him When He Sneezes, Be Good or I’ll Belt Ya!, Never Trust Anyone Over 13, What Dr. Freud Didn’t Tell You, and others gave a kind of gentle reproach to the old way of merciless parenting, and advised a kinder approach, as well as trying to lift the stigma on frank sexual discussion between parents and kids. Be Good or I’ll Belt Ya!: What Really Happens Between Parents and Children seems like the authors processing their own youths, and seems like exactly the kind of thing that would jump out at Kubrick about his project (and there’s precious little children’s literature embedded in the film, curiously).
During WWII the rhyming name couple (Stan and Jan) both served as artists, her in draft, him in medical illustration. She fashioned their wedding rings from spare aluminium she collected while working in an aircraft factory. So I wonder if the happy author/artist couple is also meant to underscore the discord between Wendy and Jack.
Next literary reference: The Fourth Ghost Book
MAIN PAGE ⎔ SECTION PAGE ⎔ SITE MAP ⎔ GLOSSARY
OTHER MAIN PAGES FOR SHINING ANALYSIS
THE MIRRORFORM ⎔ THE BEATLES ⎔ THE RUM AND THE RED
BACKGROUND ART ⎔ OVERLOOK PHOTOGRAPHS ⎔ GOLDEN SPIRALS
PHI GRIDS ⎔ PATTERNS ⎔ VIOLENCE AND INDIGENA ⎔ ABSURDITIES
THE STORY ROOM ⎔ ANIMAL SYMBOLS ⎔ THE ANNOTATED SHINING
EYE SCREAM 