Random thoughts while waiting for important phone calls:
1. It is possible -- possible, I say - that I have just a few too many covers of "Hallelujah," because, heretical as it is to say so, sometimes Jeff Buckley's version just isn't enough.
On the other hand, having more covers of this than any other song, by far, may indicate a serious problem. Maybe.
2. So I finally got around to reading The Silver Crown by Robert C. O'Brien (better known as the author of Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH), after being prevented from reading it back in 1978. The book was not worth a 30 year wait.
Reading it now, however, allowed me to see some distinctive, shall we call them, oddities, in the book. It begins with ten year old Ellen finding a silver crown; a few hours later her house burns down, with her entire family inside. Ellen squeezes out one or two tears and then decides to set out to see her aunt, in what must be one of the calmest reactions to a family massacre ever in children's literature. The family is barely mentioned afterwards, although Ellen has a few later recollections of her brother setting up tents.
Ok, so, maybe she didn't like her family. Or maybe she was in shock. Whatever. But about 75 pages later comes an even odder scene. Ellen has met a strange little boy and a woman in the woods and told them her story, which by now includes getting chased by strange men. Rather than give any practical assistance - money for a taxi to reach Ellen's aunt, calling the cops, writing Ellen's aunt, and so on, the woman decides to send Ellen back out into the woods on the basis that walking across Kentucky to Ellen's aunt is the better approach. (Later, Ellen sprains her ankle out in the Kentucky wilderness, illustrating just one of the many problems with this idea.) then comes the kicker: The woman announces that the strange little boy has a deep issue with reality, since he believes that she is his mother, and has, therefore, been causing truck accidents to bring her food and other goods. She decides, therefore, that the best thing to do for this kid is to send him out into the wilderness with Ellen - not, mind you, because a kid that can cause truck accidents can help protect and guide Ellen, but because it will be better for Otto and get his mind out of his fantasies.
I had to put the book down at this point.
I have no real objection to the theme of the kids striking out alone in the wilderness - this was a huge theme in most kids books of the 50s and 60s, and O'Brien is considerably more realistic than, say, any of the Enid Blyton books, where the kids both set out alone in the wilderness and just happened to solve mysteries, stop murders and find treasure using amazingly racist methodologies. Nor would I have objected if the two kids had chosen to sneak out the back to run away as the men approached the house. But deliberately sending out a mentally troubled little boy she claims to care about with a girl getting chased by strange men -
Yeah.
3. If I recommend TNT's Leverage, certain nasty minded people will suggest that I only like the show for purely prurient reasons, said prurient reasons called Christian Kane (from Angel, squee!, with long hair, double squee!) and Gina Bellman (Jane from Coupling). I must admit that these accusations have a small sliver of truth in them; the show occasionally has a feel of "do they really need to go to such lengths for what they're doing" about it, and sometimes it doesn't hang together all that clearly, but it's decent brain candy, as things go.
On the other hand, having more covers of this than any other song, by far, may indicate a serious problem. Maybe.
2. So I finally got around to reading The Silver Crown by Robert C. O'Brien (better known as the author of Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH), after being prevented from reading it back in 1978. The book was not worth a 30 year wait.
Reading it now, however, allowed me to see some distinctive, shall we call them, oddities, in the book. It begins with ten year old Ellen finding a silver crown; a few hours later her house burns down, with her entire family inside. Ellen squeezes out one or two tears and then decides to set out to see her aunt, in what must be one of the calmest reactions to a family massacre ever in children's literature. The family is barely mentioned afterwards, although Ellen has a few later recollections of her brother setting up tents.
Ok, so, maybe she didn't like her family. Or maybe she was in shock. Whatever. But about 75 pages later comes an even odder scene. Ellen has met a strange little boy and a woman in the woods and told them her story, which by now includes getting chased by strange men. Rather than give any practical assistance - money for a taxi to reach Ellen's aunt, calling the cops, writing Ellen's aunt, and so on, the woman decides to send Ellen back out into the woods on the basis that walking across Kentucky to Ellen's aunt is the better approach. (Later, Ellen sprains her ankle out in the Kentucky wilderness, illustrating just one of the many problems with this idea.) then comes the kicker: The woman announces that the strange little boy has a deep issue with reality, since he believes that she is his mother, and has, therefore, been causing truck accidents to bring her food and other goods. She decides, therefore, that the best thing to do for this kid is to send him out into the wilderness with Ellen - not, mind you, because a kid that can cause truck accidents can help protect and guide Ellen, but because it will be better for Otto and get his mind out of his fantasies.
I had to put the book down at this point.
I have no real objection to the theme of the kids striking out alone in the wilderness - this was a huge theme in most kids books of the 50s and 60s, and O'Brien is considerably more realistic than, say, any of the Enid Blyton books, where the kids both set out alone in the wilderness and just happened to solve mysteries, stop murders and find treasure using amazingly racist methodologies. Nor would I have objected if the two kids had chosen to sneak out the back to run away as the men approached the house. But deliberately sending out a mentally troubled little boy she claims to care about with a girl getting chased by strange men -
Yeah.
3. If I recommend TNT's Leverage, certain nasty minded people will suggest that I only like the show for purely prurient reasons, said prurient reasons called Christian Kane (from Angel, squee!, with long hair, double squee!) and Gina Bellman (Jane from Coupling). I must admit that these accusations have a small sliver of truth in them; the show occasionally has a feel of "do they really need to go to such lengths for what they're doing" about it, and sometimes it doesn't hang together all that clearly, but it's decent brain candy, as things go.