taking a look back.

[puella_nerdii]

I've been feeling uncharacteristically nostalgic lately. Chalk it up to graduating college, I guess. That, and spending a whole lot of time on thatguywiththeglasses.com (and getting totally hooked on Linkara's History of Power Ranger series, oh god my childhood), and having conversations about Madeline L'Engle on Twitter (including the "oh god how

Comments

[mrbluesky]

THIS SOUNDS AWESOME

[puella_nerdii]

PERSONALLY, I AM PSYCHED

[puella_nerdii]

Ooh, that sounds like a great idea! I think that really is the kind of book you can revisit, and have it be a much different experience on the reread.

I was so reluctant to squash flies for a while, for fear they were the Animorphs in morph. I was an, um, imaginative kid.

[alliterations]

psssst, you weren't alone. I'd make my dad stop for squirrels and rabbits and pigeons because I thought they could all be Animorphs in morph. I'm lucky he is the humoring sort of parent

[puella_nerdii]

I was so so desperate for any of the animals I encountered to start thought-speaking to me. I wanted to morph so bad.

...

[rene]

So tempted to dig out my Goosebumps books.

Re: ...

[puella_nerdii]

You should! (I was addicted to those things. My mother kept trying to confiscate them because they gave me nightmares.)

Re: ...

[rene]

Haha, I was a total fanatic for them. I really loved the ones that let you choose your own ending... Most of the books didn't objectively scare me with their content, but the concepts a lot of them introduced to me...well, I think I can blame RL Stine for my huge fear of being trapped somewhere, or having to succumb to the inevitability of death or horrific circumstances. Not to mention all the body horror. Eesh.

Re: ...

[puella_nerdii]

Oh yeah, the choose-your-own adventure ones! I think those got under my skin the most, honestly, because oh god the overidentification. I don't know whether to blame Animorphs or Goosebumps more for the body-horror I-don't-even-know thing I have, but all the (involuntary) transformation stuff, uh, probably left a mark.

[alliterations]

This sounds like fun!

And oh my God, Animorphs. It's been a while, but I think I remember one of them being sort of stuck in animal form (Tory? Tomas? Tobias?). When I was a kid that was very "lol, okay, this is what happens when you make a mistake with the little cube thing", but now that I think about it, I'm very much "THE IMPLICATIONS. THE QUESTION OF HUMANITY."

I actually might go back and play video games. The plots of those things go over your head when you're a small child, but upon replaying KH for instance, I had to stop myself from taking out my journal and marking down every parallel to the Hero's Journey. (I mean the part where Sora turns into a Shadow? HELLO. SYMBOLISM)

[puella_nerdii]

Tobias, yep! And yeah, I know what you mean -- I think the books did do a surprisingly mature job of addressing the consequences of "holy shit stuck as a bird," but I have a feeling the holy shit stuck as a bird will hit a lot harder this time out. Or maybe not. We'll see!
(I suspect Rachel's going to give me the most chills, though. She had enough of an effect on me when I was a kid, and her kind of arc pings me even harder nowadays.)

And oh gosh yes, videogames have so much potential for this kind of thing, especially for those of us who grew up playing RPGs. (I didn't start gaming until way later in life, so revisiting a game doesn't really fit the spirit of the challenge for me, but I hope someone else does something with games!)

[alliterations]

Heh. I can't remember much about them, except for one scene. I remember one of them (Jake, maybe?) got one of the aliens stuck in their head, but it starved and died or something. But then Jake or whoever had nightmares of it, and it kept talking to him or something and that just...that stayed with me and creeps me out to this day.

The thing when you're a kid is that you're very focused on the forest rather than the trees. You see the whole picture, like, good guys trying to kill bad guys, but when you're older you see more of the details. I think i might go back home, break out my old Spyro and Jak and Daxter and whatnot and take a walk down memory lane. Either that or re-watch Yu Yu Hakusho for the billionth time. It took me until I was sixteen to catch the...um...rather loaded relationships a lot of the characters have? Yeah....

[puella_nerdii]

Yeah, Jake in the sixth book! (...oh god, the things I remember about this series still.) That book freaked me the fuck out. It DIED. In his HEAD. Jesus christ.

*nod* Makes a lot of sense! And I think there are some things you kind of blithely accept in videogames as a kid that just make you WTF when you're older.

[pinstripesuit]

AND THE COMPLETE DARIA SERIES JUST CAME OUT ON DVD

In the meantime, totally doing this for Pete and Pete.

[puella_nerdii]

HOLY SHIT DID IT REALLY

Oh god yesssssssssssss that series was fucking beautiful.

[pinstripesuit]

YES

Not with all of the original music, I think, because of some copyright issues, but yesssssssssss

Pete and Pete is, I think, one of those series that ages extremely well, and was really ahead of its time. And now, in my matured semi-hipsterdom, can appreciate that they had people like Steve Buscemi and Iggy Pop guest star.

[puella_nerdii]

HOT. That is all.

The bits of the show I've seen in college suggest as much, yes. It's just genuinely clever, and captures a kid's worldview without being patronizing about it, which so few kids' shows manage to do.

(And oh my god, they did? THINGS YOU COMPLETELY MISS WHEN YOU'RE A KID.)