Why I have an issue reading Wyss’s The Swiss Family Robinson.
Written by Johann Wyss back in Switzerland almost a hundred years after the publication of Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, it is a reimagining of the tale of its original if Robinson Crusoe was an entire Swiss family, the island is just on easy mode the entire time and there is really no attempt to escape out of their predicament. So it’s not a copy and paste story, but at the same time, the premise is the same: man’s struggle and strive over nature, and his ultimate dominion over it.
Still, there are limits to this enchantment. Wyss never likely intended to publish his book. The translator botched up the title: the Robinsons are put in there as an afterthought, but the name cheapens it, as straight away we suspect the work to be some sort of imitation, which it is. Wyss, a pastor himself as the narrator is, wrote the book to inspire his sons to be masters of nature and to become adonises who can kill an elephant with a toothpick MacGyver style.
We are all offsprings of Robinson Crusoe: the myth of overcoming nature and adversities enchant us, and the feeling of conquest is natural. Or perhaps it is a European thing. I don’t remember Switzerland having any colonies, but the way the family took the land to make it their own stinks of pretty base colonialism. I’ve got so many damn issues with this book, so let’s go through it.
A mere shadow of Robinson Crusoe
A family stranded on a deserted island, a shipwreck leaving no crew behind. Where could they have gone? The ship is wrecked just off the land, its cargoes largely intact, but the crew has perished. Not the “Robinson” family though, they somehow got through the shipwreck unscathed and although they had a pretty rough first night, they were able to adapt pretty quickly and set up a camp just off the beach, later known as Safety Bay.
Though they couldn’t find the missing crew, they explored through the lay of the land, to find greener grass and better trees to make a home out of. I remember the Robinson Family ride in one of the amusement parks as a kid was a tribute to this architectural imagination, and I gotta admit. Living on a tree does sound pretty cool.
On the course of the months and years, the “Robinsons” collected a whole heap of different animals for their menagerie, and ingenious ways to create a colony of their own, discovering vital staples such as potatoes, flax to make their own clothes, endless hoards of animals to harvest leather, meat or keep as pets, and even clay to make their own pottery. It seems that life couldn’t get any better for the fam, but as the children get older, some have their own ambitions to get out of their self-imposed imprisonment.
A much too fictional idyll, even for children
I don’t think that The Swiss Family Robinson is a badly written book, especially one that was never meant to see the light of publication. But it is a deeply flawed book, and one I think, which has dubious ethical shades despite its overt Christian overtones. So here are a few things that niggle at me on my reading:
Let’s get this out of the way — the soapy Christian messaging
There’s quite a fair few children’s classics marred by its religious messaging, like Heidi, which I honestly damn well liked. And if it fits, maybe I won’t mind it so much. But damn. These are some of the most trigger happy Christians that I’ve ever met in children’s fiction — like they kill anything in their path, or at least try to enslave them (to become pets). If there was a market for it, they won’t hesitate to sell what they hunted. The father figure in the story is proud of the sons’ catches and even though sustainability wasn’t really a thing back then, I feel like this bunch really has a lack of respect for life except for their own.
It stinks of a toxic colonial attitude
No, Switzerland never had a colony, but it was replicating the attitude of its European neighbours to take resources on the land that is not their own and to be masters of any breathing thing that lives in it. Though there are no other humans on this island, the Robinsons have the same pervasive attitude towards the land, wrecking it to their own purpose with little regard to the ecosystem. They seem to me the type of guests who would eat all your food, piss without flushing and leave without saying goodbye.
It all just seems too easy
Wyss encouraged hard work for his sons, as the father of the story does. But everything really fell into place for the Robinsons: there is an overabundance of resources and not enough hardships. The book is certainly a quick read, but the lack of conflict and going through the pattern of seeing the family solving one problem to the next like fucking MacGyver doesn’t make much for a book. And does it ring true to the messaging for the children — that whatever endeavour they will venture into will always be smooth sailing? I don’t think life works like that.
Where the fuck are we?
There’s everything in this island: kangaroos, elephants, seals, penguins, whales, et cetera. The dad is learning Malay, but some of the animals here are South American. All the plants and resources feel like a mishmash of everything under the sun into one island, which is convenient af. It shouldn’t matter, it’s a children’s book after all. But I can’t accept so many different exotic animals from different continents in a single island. But it doesn’t bother me as much as the next question:
What happened to the bloody crew?
Minor spoilers here, but does anybody have this question the whole time? This really bothers me, and perhaps some Hollywood producer some time somewhere will make a story out of them, just like they make movies out of anything these days. And for these missionaries, they don’t even have too much concern to the lives of these men aside from the fact that they can’t find them. Shouldn’t they be praying for the souls of these men at least?
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Yeah, the more I rant about this book, the less and less I like it. Go figure. If I have kids one day, this is one book I won’t put in their nightstands.
