Seaward

How do writers and readers deal with the value content of imagery? I saw, recently, a TIE performance for 9-13s loosely based on Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising and we discussed the use of black and white as metaphors. Can dark/light, night/day serve as images without racist implications? What other symbols and effects are available to the writer who deals with good and evil? In this Cooper story, the forces are Life and Death, male and female respectively. Paradox and ambiguity are central - Death, for example, has two faces, kindly and cruel. Atmosphere and plot work through elements of myth, fantasy, ritual; at the same time, there's the dialogue of a contemporary adolescent friendship. The main characters are a girl and boy, suffering separate bereavements, who enter another world where their ultimate choice is to join the happy static dead of Tirn' An Og or return to 'a land ruled by Death' but also offering 'the discoveries and lovely astonishments that go with the grief and the pain'. I found the story unsatisfying as a whole but powerful in parts and worth a place in the library.