We saw Jojo Rabbit this weekend and I think you all should see it too. It’s an anti-BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS, still a fable but blackly hilarious and not relying on a viewpoint only masquerading as childlike.

Along with transitive verbs used intransitively, my biggest bête noire in literature is the use of children or childhood or children's books to get away with making cheap points that would be laughed out of existence had the frame of reference been adult. Had The Giving Tree been published as a book for adults not even the Unitarians would take it seriously. And don't get me started on that goddamned lisping "Out-With" for Pajama boy. The young Nazi protagonist (pictured above with his imaginary friend) of Jojo Rabbit is a real kid, not a metaphor.

I’d love to talk about the ending but won’t yet. Maybe in the comments.

In lighter fare, who is watching His Dark Materials? I've seen the first two episodes, and while the schemes of the Magisterium etc. are rendered in awkwardly expository conversation, the child characters are terrific and Ruth Wilson's Mrs. Coulter is creepy AF. I'm enjoying the way the script is elastic in its treatment of the source material, with incidents from The Subtle Knife and La Belle Sauvage placed among events from The Golden Compass in ways that make sense and are intriguing. I'll keep watching.