What Do You Think Today?

[Avatar]

I was born in '77. I read LoTR first, when I was 11 or 12. I'd read The Hobbit a few years earlier already, and it was one of my favourite books.

Got give a copy of LFB in 1990.

--A

[peter]

Feeling the pain of old age can ruin the suspension of disbelief.

Boy don't I know it!

Yesterday our 11yo grand-daughter came round with her dad and I asked her what books she was studying in English lessons at school. she replied they weren't studying any books, but were doing 'persuasive writing'. I asked her what this entailed and she explained it was about writing with the purpose of attempting to win someone over to your point of view. Asked what exercises in this the class had been given, she said they had been requested to write a piece in which they argued for, or against [as they saw fit] the re-introduction of the death penalty.

!!!!!WTF!!!! These are 11yo kids fer Chrissake! What right minded teacher would get his/her class rolling around arguments for or against the death penalty in their heads. Life is hard - often brutally so, but is there no place for just letting the young - be young for a while! Why not choose a subject that expands their thinking in positive ways rather than selecting this morbid and primative throwback topic. It is profoundly to be hoped that the kids grow up with better judgement than the fools who came up with this idea!

[JIkj fjds j]

I was born in '77. I read LoTR first, when I was 11 or 12. I'd read The Hobbit a few years earlier already, and it was one of my favourite books.

--A

Globally, LoTR is more famous but I prefer TC.
I couldn't read a book that size when I was 11. We were encouraged at school to get library cards and take out books, but Enid Blyton adventures were more my limit.

[peter]

Same here Rune, and weren't some of them GOOD! I remember with particular fondness the '...of Adventure' series [with four kids and a parrot called Kiki], The Riloby fair Mystery Series [The Barny series] and the Secret series. A lot of people disparage Enid blyton but she kindled a love of reading in me that has remained with me my whole life.

[Avatar]

Hahaha, I read plenty of those too, but a couple years earlier...those were my books when I was around 7 and 8. I was a precocious reader.

--A

[peter]

Yes - I'd have been reading them by about that age Av, and by about 11 beginning to move on to more advanced books (Joyce Stranger was another favourite in my early teens), but TLOTR would I think have been beyond me at that age.

[aliantha]

I was born in '77.

You youngsters are so cute when you say things like that.

-- ali (who was a sophomore in college in '77, and who now feels like a doddering hulk, thanks)

[Avatar]

Yeah well, I'm not feeling all that young myself.

--A

[peter]

The big four oh! looming Av, I'm not surprised - all downhill from there you know.

(Bull crap of course - it's actually when life starts falling together for most people.)

[aliantha]

The big four oh! looming Av, I'm not surprised - all downhill from there you know.

(Bull crap of course - it's actually when life starts falling together for most people.)

True that, peter -- and 50 is when you quit caring about what others think of the choices you've made in life. Or that's true for women, at least. Or maybe it's just me...

[wayfriend]

... and at 60 you realize your biggest accomplishment in life is reaching 60.

[Savor Dam]

50 is when you quit caring about what others think of the choices you've made in life. Or that's true for women, at least. Or maybe it's just me...

Not just you, nor just women. For me, it was a couple days before my 52nd birthday.

... and at 60 you realize your biggest accomplishment in life is reaching 60.

I'll let you know in a couple years (G-d willing)...but I don't think that will be my answer.

[Avatar]

Well, I must say, I've never really cared what people thought, so at least I have that going for me.

--A

[peter]

Another day another Daesh inspired atrocity in Europe. 34 lives lost to no account, 34 families torn apart with grief, hatred fueled and retribution demanded. No winners, nothing gained, no goal achieved. Just another senseless step on a road that leads to nowhere.

[Avatar]

Well, perhaps not no goal. It probably achieved more than 1 goal for IS at least. But that's probably better suited to the 'Tank.

--A

[peter]

Well, perhaps not no goal. It probably achieved more than 1 goal for IS at least. But that's probably better suited to the 'Tank.

--A

Agreed Av; I'll shift over there to make a further observation.

[JIkj fjds j]

Same here Rune, and weren't some of them GOOD! I remember with particular fondness the '...of Adventure' series [with four kids and a parrot called Kiki]

Those characters sure did talk funny. The parrot was the only one that made any sense.
The Faraway Tree was by far the best. But only in memory. I wouldn't be able to read it again, even to the kids ... if I'd had any!

[peter]

I'd be interested to see to what extent 'updated' versions are bowdlerised to make them more PC. If I remember them correctly, they were somewhat ........prigish(?)...... in their outlook. Very middle class.

[Avatar]

Y'know, I suspect that that sort of thinking (the non-pc'ness of books like that) only affects adults.

Certainly as a kid I never found anything odd about any of them. Sub-texts and implications were (fnord) invisible to me. They were fun stories that were never intended, or read, as anything but some easy escapism.

They broadened our horizons, despite the criticised lack of things like moral dilemmas etc. I don't think they managed to inculcate us with their derided simplicity. But they did help develop our love of reading.

As for the revisions, according to wikipedia:

To address criticisms levelled at Blyton's work some later editions have been altered to reflect more liberal attitudes towards issues such as race, gender and the treatment of children; modern reprints of the Noddy series substitute teddy bears or goblins for golliwogs, for instance: The golliwogs who steal Noddy's car and dump him naked in the Dark Wood in Here Comes Noddy Again are replaced by goblins in the 1986 revision, who strip Noddy only of his shoes and hat and return at the end of the story to apologise.

The Faraway Tree's Dame Slap, who made regular use of corporal punishment, was changed to Dame Snap who no longer did so, and the names of Dick and Fanny in the same series were changed to Rick and Frannie. Characters in the Malory Towers and St. Clare's series are no longer spanked or threatened with a spanking, but are instead scolded. References to George's short hair making her look like a boy were removed in revisions to Five on a Hike Together, reflecting the idea that girls need not have long hair to be considered feminine or normal.

In 2010 Hodder, the publisher of the Famous Five series, announced its intention to update the language used in the books, of which it sold more than half a million copies a year. The changes, which Hodder described as "subtle", mainly affect the dialogue rather than the narrative. For instance, "school tunic" becomes "uniform", "mother and father" becomes "mum and dad", "bathing" is replaced by "swimming", and "jersey" by "jumper". Some commentators see the changes as necessary to encourage modern readers, whereas others regard them as unnecessary and patronising.

--A

[peter]

Totally with you there Av. You could only damage the rich story telling seam by alteration of the text -and to no effect for the reasons you touch on above.