What the Eggs Have To Say:
"Characters like my
parents and I were a big part of didactic fantasy literature of the
eighteenth century. While fairy tales were frowned upon, many
children's stories did have an element of fantasy in them, and this
usually involved animals or inanimate objects who could
communicate.
Two forms of communication
were very common. First, the animal or object might communicate
directly with the audience, as I am doing now. In addition, animals
or objects might communicate with each other in the story. For
instance, I have just called out for help from my mommy and daddy,
who heard me and hopefully will rescue me before this nasty little
boy crushes me before I have a chance to break out of this
shell.
The third kind of
communication was fairly rare in eighteenth century literature. An
animal or object character very rarely spoke directly with any human
characters. Perhaps eighteenth century readers thought this was far
too imaginitive."5
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What Little Tom has to
say
What the poor boy has to
say
What the Eggs have to say