Jane Alyson Clarke

‘Children respond to anything a writer asks of them-as long as there isn’t any wax [i.e. inauthenticity] around. It’s often possible to make demands of a child that couldn’t be made of an adult. Sometimes the very acquisition of knowledge (something quite different from wisdom) can hold us back. For instance, in some of the stories by H. G. Wells or Jules Verne, Arthur C. Clarke or Fred Hoyle, a child will actually understand scientific concepts that would baffle an adult. This is because he can understand with a leap of the imagination that is denied the grown-up who has acquired the little knowledge that is a dangerous thing… This ability for intuitive understanding isn’t, of course, limited to the realm of science; it’s also true of philosophy, theology, politics; as long as the subject is presented with excitement and imagination the child will come to it with an open mind, whereas many adults come closed to an open book. This is one reason so many writers turn to fantasy (which children claim as their own) when they have something important and difficult to say. “Gulliver’s Travels,” “Robinson Crusoe,” ,”The Pilgrim’s Progress” the list is endless.’

Excerpt taken from an interview L’Engle did with the New York Times, 12 May 1963.