Busytown: Holiday reading lust
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Yup.
Oddly, I'll even be in Auckland before April 11. Twice. Maybe I should leave the airport and take in some art.
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James K. Baxter Place! sadly
Why sadly? I suppose I can guess, but honouring people by naming streets after them is hardly new, or particularly contentious, is it? Do you prefer the more general like 'Bard St?'
(I really hope you didn't live on Bard St, cause that would be spooky. Just randomly chose a street in Sydenham that wasn't a person)
PS I think I need one of those Marian Maguire works. Have seen the James Cook one before, but not all the others.
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Why sadly?
Whoops - a word flow problem -
"sadly I think Manhire Street predates Bill..."
was the concept I was after - so I am not denigrating Jimbo - no way!
Immortality is where ya find it, by whatever means... and Bill Manhire should be up there with the greats! -
Apparently Manhire St is named for one Bethel Prinn Manhire, twice a mayor of Sydenham back when you could still be mayor of it, but also a painter, paperhanger and glazier. Working-class hero.
I didn't happen to know this -- I looked it up on the historic street names page on the Christchurch library website. I've often driven past Manhire St and wondered. I guess it's a happy accident that it sits near streets that really were named for poets.
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I didn't happen to know this -- I looked it up on the historic street names page on the Christchurch library website.
who said investigative reporters were a dying breed? :- )
Thanks for that Philip I must go have a proper look at that site -
Phew! There's many a slip twixt cup and lip...
Just ask the Arrrrgonauts.
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I remember thinking this NY Review of Books essay on Pinocchio was quite good too, on the differences between film and original book. Was always my favourite of those early (1930s-60s) Disney films as a kid, for reasons I wouldn't want to psychoanalyse.
Anyway, the essayI read the essay with great interest, as Pinocchio and Tom Sawyer were two favourite books from childhood - I never saw the films based on either book, which seems to have been a good thing.
The essay was really not very good. I don't think that NY Review of Books person actually read Tom Sawyer, as many of the points the author makes are wrong.
How can Tom be "seriously delinquent"? He's between 6 and 8 years old, if the reader pays attention to descriptions of his teeth (some missing, some wiggly) and the fact that fallen teeth can be traded as currency (for a pinch beetle from Huck). Tom still plays with a hoop and bat, is given a highly prized Barlow knife that "can't cut anything", steals sugar and jam, still needs his cousin Mary to help him wash and he cries when he feels sorry for himself, which is often. When Tom, Huck and Joe run away to Jackson's Island, they are pretending to be pirates. Mark Twain's character Tom Sawyer is a very little boy.
There are actually very few parallels between Twain's and Collodi's books - and as Victor Hugo said, there are only really six stories, just told different ways.
Charles Collodi was writing a book - however filled with adventures - that was essentially one of those morally edifying tales that were intended to persuade children that being lazy, bad tempered, selfish, cruel and irresponsible was not an easy path, usually ending in "a hospital or a prison" as Pinocchio's cricket friend tries to warn him. Mark Twain was writing a comedic adventure about a little boy and his friends, filled with gentle satire and wry observations about life in a small town. There is nothing intended to be edifying to children, though adults of the town are gently pilloried and sent up as a little judgemental, sentimental and hypocritical as the occasion rises. For instance, at the sorrowful commemoration of the death of murderer Injun Joe Twain writes of the townfolk "they had almost as satisfactory a time at the funeral as they could have had at the hanging".
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__Charles__ Collodi
Oh no, no no no no. He's all ours. OURS, I tell you.
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That's interesting dyan campbell- I'd always thought of Tom Sawyer as nearing adolesence i.e. 10ish-12ish. (Again, the illustrations in the 2 copies I have support this.) Milk teeth - in my family - fall out over years (the latest known age was 14):young males in Twain's time could cry without being called sissies; older women -again at the time- would wash adolescent males (let's not explore that one too closely), and the other traits - playing childish games, enjoying sweet things, and being cynical about bad gifts (especially knives!) are pretty well universal among family adolescent males. Hey, I have real cred
among younger male whanau because I *know* my knives (and other edged weapons.) -
As Philip mentioned, Christchurch street and place names as compiled by Margaret Harper of Christchurch City Libraries. Lots of interesting information in there, and on the site in general.
We've also got a busy blog on books, movies, information and ideas. We blog from events such as the New Zealand Post Writers & Readers Week, and the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival too. Hopefully some of your book fans will take a look.
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Charles Collodi
Oh no, no no no no. He's all ours. OURS, I tell you.Ooops, sorry Giovanni! I had the 1939 edition from the English publisher "Collins" and they anglicised poor Carlo's name to "Charles".
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That's interesting dyan campbell- I'd always thought of Tom Sawyer as nearing adolesence i.e. 10ish-12ish.
Tom Sawyer is the first book in the series, and the most definitive details regarding the ages of to be found in the descriptions of school. Tom and his friends have slates and chalk instead of exercise books and ink (used after age 9) so we can be certain they are over 6 but under 9. Tom has only just learned how to whistle, and is captivated by his new skill, again something learned by a younger child rather than an older one.
The boy Tom fights in the beginning of the story is "a shade larger than himself" but is wearing "a close-buttoned blue cloth roundabout" and "pantaloons" which means he is almost certainly under 8 years old - the "bubbles" suit of the child-dandy being one step beyond the little frock and pantaloons of toddlerhood, but not yet in the breeches or overalls a boy over the age of 8 would wear. Also the coloured tickets given to the children as rewards in Sunday School were only for the very small pupils - under 9.
In the subsequent books in the series - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - the boys are older - 11 or more. In Tom Sawyer, Detective they are older again (12 - 13) and in Tom Sawyer Abroad they are in their teens.
Mark Twain was vague about details, loose with timelines and pretty liberal in his grasp on reality, but he is careful to include details, that give you quite a precise age of Tom and his friends. How much time passes between the early chapters and the later ones is not clear, but certainly by the time Tom and Becky get lost in the cave, they do seem to be older than they do at the beginning of the book.
(Again, the illustrations in the 2 copies I have support this.)
Again - like in my ancient copy of Toby Tyler, or Ten Weeks With a Circus there were no illustrations in my edition of Tom Sawyer. Plus the illustrations do not necessarily match the text. Alice in Wonderland specifically tells a character (the Caterpillar?) that she is 7 years old, but Tenniel's illustrations of Alice make her look 10 or 11.
Milk teeth - in my family - fall out over years (the latest known age was 14
Yipes! Well, in nearly all instances, barring the very unusual, the tooth Tom loses (a front one) would almost certainly make him 6 or 7 years old.
young males in Twain's time could cry without being called sissies;
Oh, not they could not. It was expected that you be manly, and not a cry-baby. Even the March girls in Little Women are exhorting one another to "be a man". The little urchin rescued by Elnora Comstock in Gene Stratton Porter's A Girl of the Limberlost wins huge respect by not crying when his terrible sores are bathed in very painful disinfectant. Even in my childhood (1960s and 70s) people would say - even to girls "be a man" meaning don't you dare whine or cry.
older women -again at the time- would wash adolescent males (let's not explore that one too closely)
Gosh, no Islander! Even little pampered English girl Mary Lennox in The Secret Garden is 10 years old when she has to dress herself the first time without the assistance of her Ayah, and her inability to do so at such an advanced age is scandalous, and she is a little upper-class child in England, with servants.
A great big boy of that age or even older in antebellum St. Petersburg would be expected to wash and dress by himself.
other traits - playing childish games, enjoying sweet things, and being cynical about bad gifts (especially knives!)
He's not cynnical about the Barlow knife! He submits to all of cousin Mary's lessons (in scripture) because of the promise of a Barlow knife.
It "costs twelve and a half cents" and it gives Tom "a convulsion of delight that swept his system and shook him to his foundations. True, the knife would not cut anything, but it was a "sure enough" Barlow, and there was inconceivable grandeur in that".
Just look at the details - Tom and his friends pretend to be pirates, or robbers, and at one point they even pretend to be a paddle steamer on the river. These are little boys.
But the NY Review of Books essay is dead wrong about Tom Sawyer. He learns plenty after running away. He learns that he is indeed loved, and that he loves his Aunt Polly in return. He learns that however sweet it is to be kissed or even cuffed and overwhelmed by the welcome he receives when they turn up at their own funeral, he notices his friend Huck has not one single adult who cares if he comes back from the dead or not - and that detail is perhaps the most telling of Tom's character in that part of the book.
There is not much parallel between Tom Sawyer and Pinocchio - one is an amusing tale written for a wide audience, the other is a morally edifying story for children. Not even closely related... though they both draw on A Pilgrim's Progress if you want to get all literary about things....
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dyan campbell - also intriguing that an American academic & writer (Alison Lurie) really really doesnt agree with you- e.g author of the NYRB review-...and Mark Twain included plenty of very misleading details in a lot of his work ("Innocents Abroad" anyone?)
Urm, how much do you have to do with a wide range of just pre-pubescent males? There has been - and are- a lot in my whanau, and they whip between child and *very* uncertain adolescent daily.
O, and any film version of "Tom Sawyer" doesnt ever portray a little boy. Because very few readers *ever* think of him as a little boy.
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Mark Twain included plenty of very misleading details in a lot of his work ("Innocents Abroad" anyone?)
Islander! I can't believe I forgot to argue with you about this... imagine the great pleasure it would have given Mark Twain to know that 100 years after his death two readers would argue over the age of one of his fictitious characters.
Anyhow, yes, I've known many boys of many ages, I had brothers, went to school, taught gymnastics.
I have always pictured Tom as a little fellow because his "snarling" is easily crushed with a gentle "there's a good boy, Tom" from Mary. And the way Twain describes Mary "turning the vast shirt collar down over his shoulders and buttoning his neat roundabout up to his chin" conjures a little boy, in my mind anyway.
American academic & writer (Alison Lurie) really really doesnt agree with you- e.g author of the NYRB review
I agree with you that Twain is hugely contradictory about the information he offers but Alison Lurie seems not to have read the book at all. Lurie's essay was what got me snorting with derision in the first place.
She writes "When Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn run away from home they meet both good and bad characters"
But she's wrong. Tom and Huck (who are accompanied by Joe Harper) don't meet a single solitary person when they run away.
Lurie may have the subject of her essay confused with some of Twain's many sequels. Tom Sawyer, Detective Tom Sawyer Abroad etc, but the episode Lurie describes in her essay does not actually happen at all in the book.
She goes on to write: "Tom is seriously delinquent. He lies, steals, smokes, skips school, causes an uproar in church, runs away from his adult guardian, and associates with dubious companions."
But again, this isn't accurate. Tom is never "seriously delinquent" and his only "dubious companion" is Huck and his friendship with Huck is a measure of Tom's good character. The uproar in church is caused by a poodle, not Tom.
Lurie writes "when they become homesick and return to Hannibal, they are greeted as heroes."
But the boys - the group includes Joe Harper, not just Huck and Tom - don't live in Hannibal, they live in St. Petersburg. The whole book is set in St. Petersburg... not Hannibal. And they're not greeted as heroes, they are greeted as children everyone is relieved to find alive, or at least Tom and Joe are. Huck is not greeted at all until Tom insists he is included in the welcome.
Lurie wants to draw a comparison between Pinocchio and Tom Sawyer, but they are entirely different books, written for entirely different audiences, with entirely different messages.
Lurie writes (of their escapade to Jackson's Island) "The lesson seems to be that you can skip school, worry and frighten your relatives, and get away with it."
And again she misses the point. Twain wasn't writing a cautionary tale or morally edifying for children. He meant to poke gentle fun at the hypocrisy of adults.
Also Tom learns plenty - the real point of that passage in the book is that despite Tom being whacked on the head with a thimble by Aunt Polly (for a crime he didn't commit as it's actually Sid who broke the sugar bowl) he realises his Aunt Polly loves him, and that he loves her in return. And most relevant in that passage is the part where Tom brings it to the attention of the town that Huck has not one single solitary adult who cares whether he lives or dies.
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Kia ora dyan campbell - you argue your corner with vigour, insight, and appositeness...I'm going to have to reread "Tom Sawyer" before I can ascertain where Lurie got it wrong, but I do look forward to getting back to you at some stage. Always a pleasure to re-examine a book!
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I love that this thread is still trundling along - nay, rollicking along! - via close-reading and re-remembering of the classics.
Must go and re-read Tom Sawyer myself. I loved it when I read it at about 10, and know an 8 year old who probably would too.
We just lapped up Rasmus and the Vagabond by Astrid Lindgren. What a fantastic wee book - another runaway boy, but from an orphanage, in a Swedish summer, in the company of a benevolent tramp (or is he?). I was sold on it from the first two sentences:
Rasmus was sitting in his regular notch in the linden tree, thinking about things that shouldn't be allowed to exist. Potatoes were at the top of the list.
.. which drew a roar of laughter from my potato-phobe. Major props to Gerry Bothmer for the excellent translation, and Eric Palmquist for the sweetly redolent illustrations.
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Yes this thread has certainly had an Indian Summer...
Looking forward to re-reading Huck Fin and Tom Sawyer also, before introducing them to our 8yr olds, who are active adventure readers. Or should that be avid? Oh well, they are pretty active about adventures.
I'm getting into Murakami's Dance Dance Dance. My year and a bit in Japan is replaying itself in my mind as I read about Noren cloth Banners on Ramen shop doors. 'Irashaimase', at full volume as you enter, . 'Go chi so sama desu!' shouted back as you leave, which means 'Thank you for feeding me, and making me full of food. I am happy', which doesn't sound nearly as good, and is way less efficient.
Oh, and wow, I just found this. One of my favourite musicians scoring music for a movie of Murakami's Norwegian Wood. Sweet!
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(sorry, think I've said this before)... When I tried reading Huck Finn (one of the truely great books ever- despite Tom returning to ahem, kind've ruin the last 20% ) to the kids, I found it very hard. This was mostly down to my near-inability to say the word 'nigger' out loud (and maybe especially to kids). It's everywhere. I struggled with this- it almost seemed phobic- but I think the kids sensed it, and we gave up.
A lot of the book's greatness relates specifically to slavery and racism: how it colours the way Huck and Jim see themselves, each other, and their relationship- and how their friendship carefully negotiates, stumbles over, and manages to transcend this. Not reading it aloud seemed a shame (though probably mostly for me!)
Love to know how anyone else feels about/works past this. -
Currently making my way through Peter Carey's Parrot and Olivier in America. Like it very much - although it'd probably be even better if I'd read any de Tocqueville beforehand (the book draws heavily upon Democracy in America).
After that there's some as yet unreleased goodness from AUP for me to get to grips with...
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__thinking about things that shouldn't be allowed to exist. Potatoes were at the top of the list.__
.. which drew a roar of laughter from my potato-phobe.
Jolisa, if he also dislikes cucumber he is sure to enjoy Mark Twain's recipe for cucumber:
1 cucumber, sliced thinly
4 Tbsp sour cream
2 tsps fresh dill, choppedSeason with salt and pepper, mix thoroughly and discard as inedible.
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Currently making my way through Peter Carey's Parrot and Olivier in America. Like it very much - although it'd probably be even better if I'd read any de Tocqueville beforehand (the book draws heavily upon Democracy in America).
Might check that out on your recommendation. I've found Carey to be surprisingly hit and miss this past decade -- True History of the Kelly Gang was excellent but both My Life as a Fake and His Illegal Self were pretty disappointing, I thought.
I've just finished Junot Diaz's slim but very impressive story collection Drown which came out about 13 years ago. He had a massive case of writer's block/performance anxiety or what have you following it up with -- eventually -- The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, a novel I'd recommend to anyone.
Also: without wishing to reignite the PAS SF genre wars of not that long ago, there is a fairly monumental review by China Mieville of the JG Ballard collected stories at The Nation this week, where "the Atwood issue" -- as I'll euphemistically call it -- is mentioned in passing. Mieville also works in a crack at Martin Amis, which is no bad thing:
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I wasn't going to link to that essay I swear! One practices extreme self restraint for nothing sometimes.
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Edmund White's "City Boy" is a good read. A mash-up of high culture, literary gossip and gutter sex, in 60s and 70s New York. Tying it together is a strong sense of the pleasures and rewards of friendship- which, at least in this telling- can endure love, sex, drugs, and even success.
Best Xmas reading: Charlotte Grimshaw's Opportunity. The stories are great; tense and funny. And the 'follow-up/other side' (also called 'Opportunity" I think?) of the title story- published in another anthology- is worth searching out. It adds a few extra twists, and hints at more possible points of view.
Which are probably further explored in "Singularity" (Grimshaw's 2009 short-story collection). Maybe Easter reading? -
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, a novel I'd recommend to anyone.
A lovely novel. I read it some time ago and often think of it. I don't want to reignite the SciFi thing either but I read a JG Ballard and didn't like it. Too paranoid. Too OTT. Maybe it's because I'm a girl.
OTOH, we have just discovered The Wire and we're onto Season 2 and the script is so incredibly delicious that I want to eat it up.
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OTOH, we have just discovered The Wire and we're onto Season 2 and the script is so incredibly delicious that I want to eat it up.
We really need t-shirts or something to promote this show properly. I'm considering buying series 1 for my Dad.
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