I was a huge fan of Madeleine L’Engle when I was a child. Enormous enormous. I've actually resisted the temptation to reread it, though, because I fear that the magic won't work on me again. That was my experence with my Narnia reread, and the demystification of something that was so much the foundation of my sense of mystery and fantasy was difficult to deal with. No more, please! I want to retain that child-like memory of how perfect the books were more than I need to remember them well. I had four million cardigans to be just like Meg :) And I remember her mother's auburn hair, and to this day I make hot cocoa like her mom did. That's good enough for me.
Yeah, I guess I got lulled into a false sense of security by how well all my other re-readings went. I got spoiled by randomly picking good long-lasting books as a child. Some I love even more re-reading them as an adult.
I never read Narnia, so that one I'll be going into fresh. Eeek, I've had the anthology for years though and have yet to crack it open. It's kind of dauntingly long. o_O
Awww, I can imagine you in a cute cardigan looking like Meg! I wanted to travel time and space just like her, myself.
I'll enjoy your Narnia read, then! They really are a great series, and a very quick read. It's really the last book that I found I was disappointed in in terms of my memory.
I've experienced that, as well (the book thing). When I was in middle school, I first read Catcher in the Rye, and identified so well with Holden Caulfield.
Now I still love Salinger as an adult, and I can appreciate Catcher, but now I just want to punch Holden in the face. He's so obnoxious!
I never got to read Catcher in the Rye. I keep meaning to, because, geeze, how can I not have read it?
LOL. Funny how perspectives change with maturation, isn't it? That's just a little bit how I feel about Meg. I think I overly-identified with her when I was younger, but now I just want to run away every time I get to her bits of the story.
ditto on madeleine l'engle. i feel like those things are just better left not touched..
anyways, as you know the 7th = doomsday for me. but uh...i guess i would be down for hanging out after my mcat. but 5:1 says i'll be too tired to. but we'll see? i'll be in the city to being w/ so lemme know if you've got something planned and i'll swing by and say hi. and probably fall asleep on your couch =b
Really? I'm so the opposite. I have a real love for re-visiting things.
Hmmmm, I will have to think about this. Maybe I'll do something on Sunday? I was thinking of getting together with my family on Saturday. I guess it depends on what I want to do, really.
And ditto Madeline L'Engle. Also Andre Norton (particularly Dread Companion). Although I reread Marianne Dreams by Catherine Storr a little while ago and it was still as creepy as it ever was. Brilliant. Also Diana Wynne Jones and Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series. Oh I could go on and on and on and on...
Hee! You are quite the bookworm, aren't you? I guess even though I'm not enjoying L'Engle the second time around it doesn't mean I can't still love the Time Quintet; I just have to love it in a more theoretical 'this is a good story' way as opposed to the 'holy crap this passage makes me remember why I love the English language' way.
I keep thinking I should check out Dark is Rising. I've heard so many good things about it.
Some books just don't stand up to grown up re-reading. I haven't tried L'Engle again since I first read her---Goddess, almost thirty years ago now!---but I've discovered that same thing with other books I loved as a kid. The Chronicles of Narnia, for instance, which actually disturb me when I look at them now.
Wow, disturb you? Because they're so different from what you remember or their content?
I wish you were, too! Too bad they haven't come up with some kind of technology for easy group visual chatting. That'd be super fun to meet up with all my online friends on my birthday and have a big chatfest.
They disturb me because I didn't really notice the questionable race and gender issues back when I was six years old, but I really do now. And while I appreciated the joyous delight of religious faith that's evident in the books when I was a kid, now I can see the darker edge of fanaticism and violent intolerance that accompanies it. They're so aggressively Christian, but somehow I read around that when I was young. Now it creeps me out.
Comments 26
Reply
I never read Narnia, so that one I'll be going into fresh. Eeek, I've had the anthology for years though and have yet to crack it open. It's kind of dauntingly long. o_O
Awww, I can imagine you in a cute cardigan looking like Meg! I wanted to travel time and space just like her, myself.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Now I still love Salinger as an adult, and I can appreciate Catcher, but now I just want to punch Holden in the face. He's so obnoxious!
Reply
LOL. Funny how perspectives change with maturation, isn't it? That's just a little bit how I feel about Meg. I think I overly-identified with her when I was younger, but now I just want to run away every time I get to her bits of the story.
Reply
anyways, as you know the 7th = doomsday for me. but uh...i guess i would be down for hanging out after my mcat. but 5:1 says i'll be too tired to. but we'll see? i'll be in the city to being w/ so lemme know if you've got something planned and i'll swing by and say hi. and probably fall asleep on your couch =b
Reply
Hmmmm, I will have to think about this. Maybe I'll do something on Sunday? I was thinking of getting together with my family on Saturday. I guess it depends on what I want to do, really.
Reply
Reply
I keep thinking I should check out Dark is Rising. I've heard so many good things about it.
Reply
Wish I was there to hang out for your birthday!
Reply
I wish you were, too! Too bad they haven't come up with some kind of technology for easy group visual chatting. That'd be super fun to meet up with all my online friends on my birthday and have a big chatfest.
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment