A bunch of Book Club members had read the popular book for
young adults, Miss Peregrine's Home for
Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs. We met on a rainy Monday to discuss the
book. Some had read the second and third books in the series, too.
Shirley introduced the book and started the conversation
with a question: "What did you think of the photos?" Joyce provided
the first answer: she thought the photos were significant and had been
surprised to find that they were real. Carla agreed that the photos were real,
but she added that at that time in history, photographers produced a lot of
illusions and special effects. Dennis believed the photos were real. Speaking
of the niche in history, Linda mentioned that during the Civil War, it was not
uncommon for photos to feature dead soldiers, propped up. The conversation
stayed in a macabre tone, with Dennis mentioning that his daughter, as a child,
liked to look at a book he had of photos of biological anomalies. Shirley
reminded us of the topic at hand, by saying that the photo of Emma makes her
look older than she is in the story.
Shirley thought the author was clever to use the photos and
build the story around them. But she found the photos "creepy;"
inadvertently, I thought, establishing creepiness as the theme behind the book,
or even the trilogy. Linda H. said that some of the photos were made by double
exposures. Joyce said they were photos of freaks. Dennis remembered that when
he was a teenager, if he forgot to advance his camera when taking snapshots, he
would get double exposures. I, too remember double exposures as what happened
when you forgot to advance the film. I never thought of the double exposures as
being interesting or something to experiment with; just as a mistake, with the
punishment being a loss of control over the photographing of reality that I was
attempting. Apparently this was stodgy and unoriginal thinking, as some of the
photos in the book were clearly successful experiments and purposeful uses of the
double exposure. Cindy T. said that the popularity of the photos combined with
their creepiness highlights the fact that it is human nature to find those
photos interesting.
The photos were indeed "peculiar." Shirley said
that "peculiar" was a word often used to describe Jews. Other than
the Jews being scapegoats for criticism and ridicule and being historically and
during World War II targeted, terrorized, and persecuted...the Nazi theme of
the book is implicit but not expanded. The persecution of Jacob's grandfather
clearly implied and reminded mature readers of the Nazi regime, yet the author
made this fictitious story sidestep the Nazis and focus instead on the
fictitious "peculiar" people with their own specific characteristics
that would be categorized as science fiction rather than based on history.
Some interesting and unique insights from the discussion:
Cindy V. noted that when the book supposedly took place, in
1942, people didn't live long and started showing their age during their
teenage years. Thus, though members of the group in the story found eternal
youth when they joined the group, some were teenagers by the time they joined
the others and already showed some age. Lydia noted that the Peculiars would
age if they left their loop, and the group left the loop at the end of the
book. Carla said they were on their way to the next loop, so they didn't age
much. Lydia said that the book, or her interpretation of it, ran out of steam
toward the end. Jacob seemed like a teenager at first but seemed more like an
adult after he experienced killing. Joyce said that a weakness of the book was
that there was too much setting up for the next book. She would have preferred
some resolution, and Jacob should have had some insights.
Books and media that we compared Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children to:
A Tim Burton movie, basically any Tim Burton movie, but
especially his version of "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children,"
a movie to be released on September 30th.
Harry Potter books - They differ from the Peculiar Children
trilogy in that each book has a conclusion, but they are part of a series with
a similarly common overall goal and ongoing struggle.
Time-travel stories in general
Lost Horizon, by
James Hilton
Science Fiction parallel universes, particularly the Roger
Zelazny Amber series, in which there
is movement between fictitious worlds.
The TV series, "Grimm"
"Flash Gordon"
"Dr. Who" TV series
"Groundhog Day" movie
"Star Wars" movies
Joseph Campbell's writings about the hero's journey, in
which someone of seemingly little consequence seems to be failing but ends up
succeeding.
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