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“Goodnight nobody, goodnight mush” That line from Goodnight Moon fascinated me. What a strangely beautiful bit of absurdism in a children’s book! This article

“Goodnight nobody, goodnight mush” That line from Goodnight Moon fascinated me. What a strangely beautiful bit of absurdism in a children’s book! This article really makes clear the beauty of the pacing and care for language in her work. Brown apparently spent several years crafting language of each of her stories. It’s quite subtle but much more evident when compared to some of the clumsier modern children’s books that I’ve read. Also I think there are real insights for parents to be gained from considering her work. Brown really takes the subjective, sensory experiences of children’s seriously. It’s not easy for an adult to remember the sensations of feeling the world for the first time but i think it’s really important to try to have empathy for how children experience life.

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mbg721 5y ago
Children especially at a couple years old have terrific memories and a lot of time where it's dark, they're expected to fall asleep, and they are not actually asleep. Goodnight Moon gives them lots of things to think about in that context.
- aaaaaaaaata 5y ago
  The dreamy illustrations really stuck with me, and comforted me.
  - itronitron 5y ago
    I agree, there are some really nice choices made by Clement Hurd in the illustrations that enrich the text, the starkest one being that despite the relatively high vantage point of the viewer, as determined by the room's perspective, there is no horizon line, trees, or buildings shown outside the windows. Our awake mind is represented by what is inside the room, I feel like that choice to limit outside distraction mirrors the process of falling asleep.
prvc 5y ago
>What a strangely beautiful bit of absurdism in a children’s book! I doubt that very many in the book's audience have been able to appreciate it as such. Instead, it seems prone to plant in the listener the seed of imprecise logocentric thinking. The phrase reminds me of "The nothing itself nothings", a non-ironic statement, whose ilk I had thought we had left behind in a previous generation.
- omnicognate 5y ago
  It's a joke, and was readily appreciated as such by both my kids. There's a sequence of things to which you are saying "goodnight", and to include "nobody" and "air" in that list is unexpected, funny and thought provoking to a small child. "The nothing itself nothings" is Heidegger, and while I agree metaphysics often amounts to thinking far more deeply about meaningless quirks of language than they deserve I don't see the relevance to a book for preschool children. Do you see all absurdist linguistic humour as "imprecise logocentric thinking"?
  - mbg721 5y ago
    Kids who are learning language love playing with language, and find things that don't make sense hilarious. That's why "Dad jokes" are what they are.
eitally 5y ago
One thing I've noticed as a parent is that there's a very clear delineation between children's books written for the love of children, and children's books written for a) $, b) as PR for the [often celebrity] author, and c) as political statement (or about a politicized situation/event). It's unfortunate there aren't universally acknowledged sub-genres of children's books, as there are for YA & adults. Every once in a while you'll stumble upon a gem, but almost universally the stories kids want to hear on repeat are simple, imaginative and relatable - just like Goodnight Moon.

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mbg721 5y ago

Children especially at a couple years old have terrific memories and a lot of time where it's dark, they're expected to fall asleep, and they are not actually asleep. Goodnight Moon gives them lots of things to think about in that context.

aaaaaaaaata 5y ago
The dreamy illustrations really stuck with me, and comforted me.
- itronitron 5y ago
  I agree, there are some really nice choices made by Clement Hurd in the illustrations that enrich the text, the starkest one being that despite the relatively high vantage point of the viewer, as determined by the room's perspective, there is no horizon line, trees, or buildings shown outside the windows. Our awake mind is represented by what is inside the room, I feel like that choice to limit outside distraction mirrors the process of falling asleep.

prvc 5y ago

>What a strangely beautiful bit of absurdism in a children’s book! I doubt that very many in the book's audience have been able to appreciate it as such. Instead, it seems prone to plant in the listener the seed of imprecise logocentric thinking. The phrase reminds me of "The nothing itself nothings", a non-ironic statement, whose ilk I had thought we had left behind in a previous generation.

omnicognate 5y ago
It's a joke, and was readily appreciated as such by both my kids. There's a sequence of things to which you are saying "goodnight", and to include "nobody" and "air" in that list is unexpected, funny and thought provoking to a small child. "The nothing itself nothings" is Heidegger, and while I agree metaphysics often amounts to thinking far more deeply about meaningless quirks of language than they deserve I don't see the relevance to a book for preschool children. Do you see all absurdist linguistic humour as "imprecise logocentric thinking"?
- mbg721 5y ago
  Kids who are learning language love playing with language, and find things that don't make sense hilarious. That's why "Dad jokes" are what they are.

eitally 5y ago

One thing I've noticed as a parent is that there's a very clear delineation between children's books written for the love of children, and children's books written for a) $, b) as PR for the [often celebrity] author, and c) as political statement (or about a politicized situation/event). It's unfortunate there aren't universally acknowledged sub-genres of children's books, as there are for YA & adults. Every once in a while you'll stumble upon a gem, but almost universally the stories kids want to hear on repeat are simple, imaginative and relatable - just like Goodnight Moon.