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Image provided by: Guilderland Public Library
The AltanwHt Enterprise - Thursday, October 7, 2004 13 Maguire takes a new look at old tales . By Matt Cook GUILDERLAND—Author Gregory Maguire remembers living a sheltered life growing up in Albany's Pine Hills neighbor- hood. As a child, he found read- ing to be a way of expanding his world. \I'm of a generation when some children had restrictions placed on their mobility,\ Maquire said. \So the library in my childhood was an arena for adventure'and exploration.\ As a writer now, he sees his role as allowing him to give back to the children of this generation what older authors gave to him. Maquire, who lives in Massachusetts, has written nov- els and stories for children and adults, as well as numerous arti- \The trick is to sneak that stuff in after you bring in the readers,\ Maquire said. Writing for children and writ- ing for adults does have a simi- larity, Maquire said, especially if the writer expects to connect with a large audience: \Plot drives all,\ he said. Plot, he said, is the most basic requirement for a story, and a good one is what hooks a reader—child or otherwise. Coming at complexity Since people started telling them, stories have contained \suggestions about how the world works,\ Maguire said. One of those suggestions important for children is that the world is complex and contradictory. 'The library in my childhood was an arena for adventure and exploration.' cles and reviews, but he is best known for his children's novels that present classic tales from the point of view of the antagonist, such as Wicked: the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, and Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. Wicked has been made into a Broadway musical and Confessions into a television movie. Maguire will be reading and signing books on Friday, Oct. 15, at 7:30 p.m. at the Guilderland Public Library, as part of the li- brary's Carol J. Hamblin Notable Author Speakers Series. Maquire, a University at Albany graduate, said one of the reasons he writes for children is because of their superior charac- teristics as an audience. He called children \the most intelligent, the most direct, the most critical\ au- dience. \If they don't like it, they don't like it,\ Maquire said. There is no way to force a story on children. \So it makes sense to me to choose them.\ Although he often hears the key to writing for children is to go light on descriptions and inte- rior monologues for which chil- dren don't have the patience, Maquire says he doesn't believe that at all. \I think that that's what makes a book a book,\ Maquire said. He said, without description and in- terior monologues, a novel be- comes a screenplay, and that's not what he wants to write. \The world is complex and any child who's listened to their par- ents speak in code over the table knows that,\ Maguire said. Although he believes, as an au- thor, he has a n obligation to pro- tect children from the most de- spicable aspects of human behavior, he is totally against pretending to children that life \can and should be lived without contradictions.\ \It can't be done,\ Maguire said. \They've tried it, but it can't be done.\ One way of coming at com- plexity and contradiction is by looking at familiar things from not-so-familiar angles, which is what Maguire does. He said he doesn't like to be identified as a champion of the villains, because that is not what he's trying to do. Instead, by taking a viewpoint, he's trying to find truths in the old stories that may have become buried by years and years of retelling and familiarization. \I'm a n interpreter and a sleuth to find out what meanings the old stories have,\ Maguire said. For example, he said, the mir- ror in Snow White, which he tackles in his most recent book, Mirror Mirror. Everyone knows the evil queen had a mirror, but why does she have it? What does that say about her? Does it come from the Narcissus myth or maybe the Catholic tradition of confession? \That's something in itself,\ Maguire said. Children's author Gregory Maguire's quirky look reflects the unusual perspective of his books, retellings of classic stories from the antagonist's point of view. Maguire, an Albany native, will be reading at the Guilderland Public Library on Oct. 15 at 7:30 p.m. The wicked wizard When Maguire first took a look at The Wizard of Oz, which isn't even that old, he noticed it had a few \peculiar lapses.\ Particularly, \How come nobody gets mad at the wizard?\ The wizard sends everybody off on a dangerous mission and hides behind his curtain most of the story, and nobody, even Dorothy, seems to mind. Maguire figured there must be something more to the story. \I realized that he had a much greater adversary in the witch,\ Maguire said. \I set out to explore that.\ Although Maguire has had a few angry letter from diehard Oz enthusiasts—an Oz club in the Midwest called him a heretic— Maguire said his books have generally been well received. He appreciates the recognition, but that's not why he writes. \I only have a responsibility to myself, which is to tell a story that I would like best to read,\ Maguire said. So, he writes as much for him- self as he does for his audience. \I'm a curious person, but I have a slow-moving mind,\ Maguire said. \The act of putting thoughts into words crystallizes what you think.\ Still, the audience has noticed; his work has reached beyond readers to Broadway play-goers and TV movie-watchers. Maguire said he's seen Wicked on Broadway 11 times. \I'm seeing it again tomorrow night,\ he said on Monday. To Maguire, Wicked is a tragic story, but the Broadway play is more of a \comic operetta.\ But, he said, he can't complain. After all, he reinterpreted the story in the first place, so he's not one to judge others for reinterpreting his work. In the past 30 years, Maguire said, interest in children's litera- ture as a legitimate art form has increased, and he's glad of it. For his own part, in addition to writ- ing, he founded an organization in 1987 called Children's Literature New England to \raise public awareness of the signifi - cance of children's literature.\ \We realize that, without liter- acy in childhood, our culture doesn't have the ability to be civil,\ Maguire said. \Literacy should be the trademark of a true democracy.\ As part of the Carol J. Hamblin Notable Author Speaker Series, Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked: the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, will be at the Guilderland Public Library on Friday, October 15 at 7:30 p.m. in the Helderberg Room. After his reading, he will sign copies of his books. Census Bureau survey to gauge household wealth Altamont Village Museum Field representatives of the United States Census Bureau will visit 45,000 households nationwide beginning in October to conduct the Survey of Income and Program Participation. One question they hope to answer: Is the median net worth of U.S. households climbing as fast today as it was four years ago? The last time this information was published in 2003 the results showed that the nation's house- holds had a median net worth of $55,000 in 2000, u p from $49,932 in 1998, after adjusting for infla- tion. The survey will also track changes in the type of work people perform, their educa- tional level, and whether they are actively looking for work. Respondents also may be asked about other topics such as the field of study of their post- secondary degree, marital his- tory, retirement and pension- plan coverage, child-care arrangements, payments made for adults living in another household or institution (such as an elderly parent in a nursing home), doctors' visits, fertility history, and the cost of work- related expenses. Since the survey is designed to measure change over time, the households selected will remain in the survey through 2008. By law, the Census Bureau keeps all information provided by survey respondents and their households confidential. House- holds selected for the survey will receive a letter from Census Bureau Director Louis Kincan- non. The field, representatives who conduct the interviews carry official photo identifica- tion cards. By Alice Begley ALTAMONT — The Altamont Village Museum is growing as a source of genealogy, village architecture, and civic history. As village historian, I oversee volunteers who research and organize relevant newspaper articles concerning village acti- vities, old and new photographs for the large photo bank, and the archival material stored in the small museum. A new reader/printer is avail- able to research old issues of The Altamont Enterprise, and the staff is awaiting additional films The Mayors Wall displayed in the lobby presents 30 former and the present mayors of the vil- lage. Volunteers are working on text profiles of these individuals who have served the commun- ity. Changing displays in lighted showcases give interesting high- lights of Altamont's history since its incorporation in 1890. The museum is open Wednes- days from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and by appointment. We invite you to visit us. We are located in the Village Hall c*\ Main Street. Call 861-8554.
