Mediacy Articles - Volume 18, No. 1
The highly imaginative fantasy novel and educational text, Returning Light to the Wind, by Ron DeBoer, is narratively positioned somewhere between Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass and E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web. DeBoer’s “tongue and cheek” literary style lends itself to multiple levels of analysis and instruction. Not only is this text suitable for teaching media literacy at the elementary levels, but, such sub-textual references to religious ideas of good/evil, conceptualisation of reality/illusion as illustrated by shadows in Plato’s Republic, and the psychological notions of an authentic self (especially in relation to commercialism and the construction of gender roles) make it suitable for the secondary level as well.
Returning Light to the Wind allegorically weaves, like the web on the text’s cover, the modern interconnections between the world of television and our children’s lives. It playfully and successfully explores, exposes, and demythologises television’s current beneficial and detrimental structures, uses and functions. If there are to emerge “classics” in the area of media literacy, Returning Light to the Wind is certainly a candidate.
The story begins with a sister and brother, Sarah and Dillon, attempting to cope with their parents” recent separation. Both Sarah and Dillon begin to use television as a way to distance themselves from their painful circumstance and attendant emotions; Dillon via escapism and Sarah via over-identification with her favourite TV character, Murphy. In the first half of the story, Sarah often thinks to herself, “I wish I could be like Murphy...Murphy never seemed sad, and when she was, she figured out how to make things right again...everything worked out for Murphy.” The plot develops through the careful orchestration of the novel’s sinister character, Rolland Taroproc, mirrored as “Corporate Dollar”, luring Dillon into the television set to become the zombie-like King of Islone; the insular, repetitive and self-referential Universe of TV. In reaction to Dillon’s disappearance, Sarah follows her brother and also submerges deep into the world of Islone, embarking upon her quest to free Dillon from the omnipresent perceptual tentacles of Rolland Taroproc and bring him back to the real world. Like all mythical quests, Sarah is met by numerous challenges which must be overcome not only in the service of accomplishing her mission to emancipate her brother but also in order to transform our heroine basic sense of self, to recognise and trust the strength of her own inner voice rather than that of a television character.
Throughout Sarah’s quest, the author juxtaposes and blends the often unidimensional media images and icons such as Bart Simpson, the Brady Bunch, Nike, Pepsi and McDonald’s with more multidimensional literary characters and images from the Arabian Nights, the Odyssey and Salman Rushdie’s Huron. Possibly even more impressive, though, is DeBoer’s insightfully humorous use of language, especially with proper names. For example, the TV world of Islone is composed of four republics. These republics are Primity (prime time), Newpo (News), Arton (cartoons), and the lifeblood of Islone which houses the palace, Ershal (commercial). A chapter is devoted to each republic and quite artfully, yet simplistically, explains the potentially interrelated role and function of each. There also exists another community, not under Islone’s power – Teevo. Teevo reflects the overall ethics of public television and considers itself, “another choice, an alternative to the palace.” Additionally, the cast of characters include wizards, wise old men, flying cartoons and magic by “remote control”. Most importantly, however, from the educator’s purview, there are overt and covert representations at every twist and turn of the plot.
As far as those media literacy instructors who are still analytically shy of such a text, the author has also written a teacher’s activity guide to Returning Light to the Wind. the guide is complete with specific activities before, while and after reading the text in addition to a list of “open ended” questions to facilitate discussion. DeBoer has created a charming and insightful educational novel that speaks to the complex and multi-layered relationships between ourselves and contemporary media.
ISBN#0-9698855-0-4
1995 175 pages
Wiindmill Press
Westmount P.O. Box 22001
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, N2L 6J7
$7.99 + $3.00 handling
The author has also written a teacher’s activity guide which includes pre-reading, while reading and after reading activities. With each order of the book, teachers will receive a teacher activity guide free.