Mad Max and Wild Things

And as all good things must come to an end, so does the life of Maurice Sendak, the creator of Where the Wild things are.

[read for literary review of WTWTA]
Sendak wanted to show that kids are not always the saccharine 'mummy dearest' characters as often portrayed in books, but instead are sometimes seething with anger, boiling with indignities and ragingly happy all at the same time. And that instead of processing the emotions individually, they will tend to create scenarios to play out these feelings in - resulting in some pretty wild imaginary places and characters.

Obviously Sendak was still pretty closely in tune with his inner child. Where the Wild Things Are has struck a chord with audiences all over the world, enabling us to romp around an imaginary place and ride the rollercoaster of youthful expressionism. All of this brings us out the other side without realising we have just been through the churning catharsis of youth's unprocessed emotions.

[Read for quick summary]
Where the Wild Things Are is a classic book. The monsters are great, the night forest and adventure is fun, and you should just read it if you haven't. If you have, read it again just for the fun of it and remember how frustratingly easy, however difficult, life was when you were 8 years old.


here is Maurice

here is my Wild thing created IN HONOUR (note not copyright infringed) of Max

with my cat Zack, who is trying to pretend Max doesn't exist. Note terrified expression of denial.