DONALD DUCK (24 april 2004)
The other day I asked my daughters (15 and 17 years old) what they would think if I ended our subscription to the magazine Donald Duck.
Both made it very clear that as far as they were concerned, this was completely out of the question.
To be honest, I had no plans to terminate their subscription. After all, even I occasionally read the Donald Duck when my daughters leave one behind on the toilet. I just wanted to know what their response would be because I was interested to know how important Donald Duck was to them.
Much has been written about the strange composition of Donald Duck's family. After all, very few of us will consider three nephews living together with their uncle an everyday situation.
Still, I think you don't need a degree in sociology or psychology to understand the composition of Donald Duck's family.
Suppose Donald was married - do you seriously think his wife would allow him to behave as outlandishly as he does?
No, the strange situations we find Donald and his nephews in are only thinkable in a situation without a mother.
Besides, if children would behave towards their parents as the nephews do towards their uncle - couldn't Disney then be accused of incitement of children into disobeying their parents?
This may sound oversimplified and rather humdrum. But I once heard an expert simply explain away the complications in Shakespeare's Hamlet by No delay, no play.
