this is what I would call a tulgey wood

[freckles_and_doubt]

Hmmm. Term must be approaching at speed, judging by the increasing trickle of bemused students lining up outside my door to have their curricular hands held. I swear one of last week's was on drugs, though. What illegal substance would create verbal diarrhoea and a complete inability either to focus on my face, or to directly answer a question? Or are we looking at a paranoid schizophrenic?

The pile of books I've been reading has a healthy proportion of kids' and young adult material, which has given me a happy couple of days in between Farscape.

• Does anyone share my fondness for Edward Eager? He wrote mostly in the 50s, children's fantasy in the E. Nesbit mould, children dealing with magical artifacts or creatures - the one I've just read is Half Magic, but I'm also fond of Magic By the Lake and The Time Garden. He writes with a sly, dry deadpan wit which yesterday had me chortling out loud, and has a wonderful tendency to continually reference the best of children's lit.


• I was also tickled by Margaret Mahy's wonderfully off-the-wall collection of short stories for younger kids, The Downhill Crocodile Whizz & Other Stories. Unlike her young adult works (The Haunting, The Tricksters, The Changeover, among others), which are beautifully-drawn character studies with a mature, serious treatment of the supernatural, the kids' books have a marvellous line in logical lunacy and unlikely juxtaposition which I find pleasantly akin to James Thurber in "Great Quillow" mode.


• I wasn't so impressed with the John Christopher: A Dusk of Demons is relatively interesting post-apocalyptic kids' sf, but its underpinnings don't quite hold together, and it's not a patch on the understated menace of his Tripods series.


• Christopher was more interesting, however, than The Green Hills of Earth, which is a Heinlein short story collection largely representing gritty, solar-system-bound near-future realism with the usual line in moral superiority and extremely dodgy gender politics. Looking at the extent to which most of these were one-idea wonders, the sf short story has come a hell of a long way since then.

The nice man is coming to tune my piano tomorrow, after randomly phoning me to suggest this was due. Clearly this was prompted by posting about playing it. Either everything is interconnected by cosmic wossnames, or else blogging does, in fact, make the world go round.

Comments

[confluence.myopenid.com (from livejournal.com)]

Oooooh, you're watching Farscape? How far are you?

If Season One John Crichton is annoying you, I assure you that he gets less annoying if you hang in there. And the plots get more plotty, and the plot arcs increase. And you get Scorpius, who is awesome. :D

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

Hey! I completely adore John Crichton and have done from the start, so no Crichton-dissing, please! Scorpy, I'm afraid, annoys me, although there are absolutely wonderful and hilarious moments of juxtaposition with him in Crichton's brain - the bit with the mouth organ and "Home on the Range" was marvellous!

Which will indicate to you that we are, in fact, watching Season 3. John currently duplicated, shenanigans with Talon, and may I add, so saw that coming. Talon is a spoiled brat. I miss Zhaan, though.

[nimnod.livejournal.com]

I loved John Christopher's Tripod's Trilogy very much as a youngster - it's one of those things I will definitely be adding to my daughter's library as she gets older. =)

[mac1235.livejournal.com]

The plot for Half Magic that you described previously sounds familiar. Also like John Christopher's The Kraken Wakes and the Chrysalids.

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

I really don't think I've ever described the plot of Half Magic before in this forum. Kids find a coin-like talisman which grants only half of their wishes - you wish yourself home, you arrive halfway home. Interesting linguistic games result, as they try to get what they want by asking for twice as much.

And Kraken and Chrysalids weren't John Christopher, they were John Wyndham. That being said, I'm rather fond of them myself.

[mac1235.livejournal.com]

Sorry, read it at http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2008/07/the-geekly-read.html .
I tend to think if it involves obscure books. I read it here. Also mea culpa on Wyndham vs Christopher.

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

I tend to think if it involves obscure books, I read it here.

See the amazing mac1235! Mea culpa gracefully transformed to compliment at no extra cost!

[tngr-spacecadet.livejournal.com]

Thanks to Rondebosch library, who had staff who really knew what to recommend, I adored Edward Eager as a child. I remember being particularly amused by the way the cat spoke in Half Magic.

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, I loved the cat's frangled speech - one of the things that made me giggle until the EL looked at me funny.

The drug is question

[(Anonymous)]

is most likely methamphetamine aka the dreaded tik.

sounds like a text book case.

C

Re: The drug in question

[schedule5.livejournal.com]

I think teeny tiny pupils are also symptomatic of speed abuse. Mind you - hard core stress renders me prone to verbal diarrhoea and unable to answer direct questions :)

Re: The drug is question

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

I wondered about tik, actually. I don't know a lot about it, but the young man's responses were distinctly weird in their combination of hyperactivity and total failure of focus.

[bronchitikat.livejournal.com]

*Takes note of reading list for future visits to library. Considers online search of catalogue meanwhile.*

Thanks