One of our Facebook fans pointed us to this Paris Review interview with Maurice Sendak about the publication of ‘Bumble-Ardy.’
“It’s a very strange book, in terms of my feelings for it. It came from a deep place. I was intensely involved in the vanity of the parents. I mean, how does the child live with that? I remember I once watched this baby whale separated from its mother. The baby whale is panicked and it looks for its mother among the other whales, and they know it’s not their baby. They turn away from it, and you’re left to wonder, How does the baby live, how does the baby feel? Can’t the others see that he’s one of them? Bumble is an outcast. This was an experiment in what it’s like to feel … deeply rejected.”
I find the whole interview really fascinating. Another of our customers was telling me yesterday that Mr. Sendak did the sets and costumes for the Pacific Northwest Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker. Now I really want to go to Seattle at Christmas just so I can see it.
