Storyteller

Anya made up a story this week. It goes like this:

"Mummy said 'Help, help! And Daddy came back."

She's told this tale half a dozen times over the last few days, and to the best of our knowledge it's not relating an event that actually took place. But to get all Northrop Frye on you, it does pretty well conform to that theory (I can't remember whose) that all plots boil down to one basic story: "The family is divided; the family is united."

She's also written a couple of songs, which similarly dwell on classic themes. Her favourite one goes:

"I lost a flower..."

The tune, in a C major scale, has G on "I", G up one octave on "lost a", and E up one octave on "flower". Loss, beauty, and memory: what more do you need in a classic song? The other one is more of a party tune:

"Splish! Splash! Having a bath!"

The tune here is C for "Splish", the A below it for "Splash", the G below that for "having a" and the E below that for "bath".

Now I realise this is all utterly silly. But I do think it's a beautiful moment when a child goes from reading stories to making up her own. And though this sort of archetypal theory of literature is very out of favour these days (and very susceptible to that fallacy where you can describe anything with the same concepts if you define your terms broadly enough) I think it's pretty fascinating that she has hit on some classic themes.

And, most of all -- it's very, very, sweet!