Totoro is perfectly constructed in this way. not just in that scene, but credits to credits: the main driver of the plot is tucked just out of reach, on the upper shelf. as for the characters, as for the young audience.
a book that succeeds in this way is Holes. upon returning to it as an adult, i found that i had simply not read (or internalized) the central and most moving chapter.
both works also manage a further trick: they make this confusion primary to the conflict. contrast with Frozen and Up where these framing events are better understood as worldbuilding than narrative.
any non-literal storytelling tool (satire, allegory, allusion, theme, …) can be straightforwardly used to discriminate audiences according to their sophistication. it is more rare (and more enjoyable!) when the simultaneous readings apply to the literal events (and without any tricks that would warrant the “psychological”, or “unreliable” qualifiers). i cannot think of other examples at this time.
Totoro is perfectly constructed in this way. not just in that scene, but credits to credits: the main driver of the plot is tucked just out of reach, on the upper shelf. as for the characters, as for the young audience.
a book that succeeds in this way is Holes. upon returning to it as an adult, i found that i had simply not read (or internalized) the central and most moving chapter.
both works also manage a further trick: they make this confusion primary to the conflict. contrast with Frozen and Up where these framing events are better understood as worldbuilding than narrative.
any non-literal storytelling tool (satire, allegory, allusion, theme, …) can be straightforwardly used to discriminate audiences according to their sophistication. it is more rare (and more enjoyable!) when the simultaneous readings apply to the literal events (and without any tricks that would warrant the “psychological”, or “unreliable” qualifiers). i cannot think of other examples at this time.