Knee-Knock Rise

"Knee-Knock Rise" is a children's book written by Natalie Babbitt and published in 1970. It was awarded the Newbery Honor in 1971. Although the story is intended for children, some of the underlying themes deal with subjects such as the need for invented religion. [ [http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ALAN/winter95/Milner.html Hard Religious Questions in Knee-Knock Rise ] ]

Plot synopsis

from the moment young egan arrives in instep for the annual fair,he is entraneed by the surounding the misty peak of Kneek-Nock Rise:on stormy nights when the rain drives harsh and cold,an undiscovered creature raises its voice and moans.Nobody knows what it it-nobody have ever dared to try to find out and come back again.Even so, what with his strange dreams and the excitement of the fair,Egan is drawn to find the answer to the mystery.The best thing about this story is the setup, involving a weirdly mist-shrouded hill that, according to legend, is haunted by a man-eating demon. After that -- let's just say that a reader who expects nothing will not be disappointed. I will start with relatively minor quibbles, and work my way up. Spoilers will follow:

The story works best as a mystery, but is clumsy even on that level. As in "Tuck Everlasting", Babbitt's weaknesses is contrived plotting character motivations. Can we really believe that a young boy would simply decide to journey in the dead of night, in a rainstorm, armed only with a stick, accompanied only by a small elderly dog, to do battle with a giant man-eating demon who he knows or at least believes has devoured every human who has encountered it? Why would he would not turn back, even after hearing the demon's larger-than-life howls? Would he really do this just for dare? Is he suicidal? Could he not at least have taken with him (for instance) a purported magic charm, or some other flimsy basis for hoping he might be able to defeat the demon rather than merely die a horrible death?

The purpose of this contrivance, supposedly, is to get our fearless hero to the lonely hilltop so he can solve the mystery. But instead of discovering for himself, he just happens, by coincidence, to meet on the hilltop an Adult-Explainer-Ex-Machina who TELLS him what is -- and, perhaps more importantly to Babbitt, what is NOT -- on the hill. I guess Babbitt felt constrained to rely on this contrivance because of the inherent impossibility of proving a negative.

But the worst of it is that, after the mystery is (sort of) resolved, we are then forced to endure the nihilistic MORAL, mouthed by yet another Adult Explainer. Referring to the hill demon, he says:

"Nephew, I'll tell you what I think. I think it doesn't really matter. The only thing that matters is whether you want to believe that he is there or not. And if your mind is made up, all the facts in the world won't make a difference."

You hear that kiddies? Why invest the intense effort required for actual learning when you can just believe whatever you please? Why endure the sacrifices that come with honesty and integrity when you can just say what people want to hear? As is repeatedly emphasized elsewhere in this book, knowing the truth and telling the truth can only make you and others miserable.

What makes the above nihilism particularly bizarre is the context: Here we have an adult - and a parent - taking the position that it does not matter whether or not a nearby hill is home to a man-eating monster. That is rather like saying that it does not matter whether or not the next-door neighbor is a serial killer. Of course it matters!

If you want spooky stories with rational explanations, I am sure you will find better than this. You can try Washington Irving, for starters. You can even watch Scooby Doo! At least the Scooby gang has the sense to flee in terror when the monster gives chase. They seem to realize something this author does not -- that it does indeed matter whether or not the monster is real.

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