Fashion Board 11-2-03 - 12-09-03

[evenodds]

I read all of my grandmother's copies of the Bobbsey Twins and another series though the name escapes me. I hated Nancy Drew, but loved the Hardy Boys. I also loved the Trixie Belden books, though my mother was convinced I was the only girl reading such crappy mysteries.

I also loved Chronicles of Narnia and everything by Madeleine L'Engle. We read A Awrinkle in TIme in third grade, and then I read everything by her I could find including the books about the marine biologists in South Carolina and the girl Flip in boarding school.

My favorite thing to read when I was a kid (under 10) was ee cummings, though I didn't understand much of it of course, the language and the absurdity of poems like "As Freedom is a Breakfast Food" appealed to me.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally posted by Bad_Rich_Chic
I always fondly remembered the Great Books reading we did, too. There were some damn good stories in there.

A favorite of mine at an early age was Beowulf. And we recently introduced our 10 year old to Mann's The Transposed Heads. So the flip of the question may be, what adult fare would we recommend for kids?

[mmm3587]

Originally posted by spookyfish
I remember being a big fan of the "Encyclopedia Brown" Mystery series as a kid, though they probably would seem dated to today's utes. Is anyone else familiar with these and willing to admit they read them?

In retrospect, that probably makes me a bit of a geek.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

If you like Encyclopedia Brown, you've got to check out the parodies at http://www.modernhumorist.com/mh/000..._mp3/index.cfm and the nearby pages...

[Shape Shifter]

Originally posted by ThrashersFan
I now have an idea why I can't stand to watch nudity/sex in films. The old broad and I watched "I Spit on Your Grave"* when I was 9 or 10 (or sometime around then) and I think that turned me off of nudity/sex in films. Cheers, Grandma!

*Graphic film about a woman who is repeatedly raped (at least once with a Vodka bottle) in the woods who then kills the rapists one by one (one by slicing off his penis in a warm bath and then locking him in the room to bleed to death).

If any movie would do it, this one would. Very disturbing. I think I had blocked it from my memory until now. Thanks. Hopefully, I will not experience the same reaction as you.

[greatwhitenorthchick]

Originally posted by evenodds I also loved the Trixie Belden books, though my mother was convinced I was the only girl reading such crappy mysteries.

Me too. I think I had a little crush on Honey Wheeler.

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally posted by leagleaze

What about favorite kid books? Which one did you like best as a child and what do you think of it now you are an adult?

I loved the Chronicles of Narnia as a kid, as an adult they've lost some of their magic, but I still like them.

The Madeleine L'Engle books were my favorites. I probably checked A Ring of Endless Light out of my school's library a dozen times before I got my own copy of it.

[taxwonk]

Originally posted by Anne Elk
The Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankenweiler

I'm actually reading this to Wonk Monster at present. It's a wonderful book.

The Phantom Tollbooth - I didn't read this one until after I graduated from college. I still read it.

This one is a personal favorite as well.

I also read all the "boy" classics, Treasure Island, Tom Sawyer, Red Badge of Courage, etc.

And yes, I too, was an Encyclopedia Brown geek.

[purse junkie]

Originally posted by bold_n_brazen
I read this at about the same time as I read Flowers in the Attic. Neither made sex seem like a very good idea.

That whole series (and the other ones she wrote before she died and became a trademark) was soft-core porn for middle-schoolers. Come to think of it, pretty hard core--why the hell were they teaching teen girls how to seduce their hot foster dads by wearing see-through negligees and grinding on their laps?

Not that we didn't all read it. We all got crappy grades in chorus that year because we were so distracted reading on the sly between sheets of music.

[taxwonk]

Originally posted by Did you just call me Coltrane?

I read every one of John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee books in HS.

I did too. Also, all of Harold Robbins' works. Incredibly stupid books, but lots of gratuitous sex scenes. One of my favorite fantasies is still based on a scene from one of those books.

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally posted by barely_legal
My friend tried to get me to watch that in high school and I refused. I can watch almost any horror film without batting an eye but I absolutely cannot watch any film that has a rape scene. I had to watch "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" for a class in college and I had nightmares for months. I wrote the required paper on the movie and in the paper I bashed the professor for subjecting me to that movie and told him that I would be sending him the therapy bills. I think he was scared that I would actually complain to the school about him so he gave me an A in the class. heh. I need to bitch more often.

When I was in college, I signed up for a self-defense class, which was taught by someone outside the college. The first day of class, the instructors brought in a TV and made us watch the rape scene in the Accused. Everyone in the class dropped it the next day, severely pissed off that we weren't warned that we'd have to watch it. I don't think that the self-defense instructors were ever invited back to the college to teach after that.

[Bad_Rich_Chic]

Originally posted by evenodds
I saw [I Spit On Your Grave] in high school and I am still scarred.

Damn, I remember that one. It was very unpleasant. It is SOOO universally deemed offensive, and it is always interesting to try to figure out why something like that freaks people out more than something else. Most interesting thing about this movie to me was: when a low-budged crappy-production horror outfit does what is actually a relatively serious treatment of how horrible rape is, making it quite thoroughly unpleasant and offensive, it is denouced as exploitation; when hollywood does a "rape" movie with softened edges and good lighting it is social commentary. Doesn't make ISOYG a good movie, but I guess it makes it important to see if one wants to see what has been influential in the horror genre. I don't think I buy the whole militant feminist interpretation thing, but it is interesting. Anything that pisses off so many people so badly is bound to be.

I always wanted to watch this and Argento's Stendhal Syndrome back to back ...

BR(the one that had me hiding under the covers as a kid was the original Blob. But I was 4 when I saw it)C

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally posted by Bad_Rich_Chic

I always fondly remembered the Great Books reading we did, too. There were some damn good stories in there.

Damn, talk about crying. Every year I did Great Books we read that Ray Bradbury short story, All Summer in a Day. Talk about a story that rips out your heart. I defy anyone to read it and not end up bawling. http://www.intermed.it/bradbury/Allsummer.htm

I think Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" was heavy in rotation in Great Books too.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
I think Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" was heavy in rotation in Great Books too.

Now there is one that doesn't keep well.

I loved this as a morose teenager. I reread it recently, and thought it was pretty trite.

[Bad_Rich_Chic]

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
Great Books
... that Ray Bradbury short story, All Summer in a Day
...Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery"

Flowers for Algernon.

I remember one short story about a guy freezing to death because he was too cold and slow to catch his dog and slit its guts open to crawl inside the skin. That one was pretty good.

I got into a fist fight about the Pied Piper and personal responsibility after Great Books one time in elementary school. Budding Libertarian, even then I guess.

Go Great Books!

[Bad_Rich_Chic]

Originally posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy
Now there is one that doesn't keep well.

I loved this as a morose teenager. I reread it recently, and thought it was pretty trite.

What is the great line in Budda of Suburbia about Kerouak?

The cruelst thing you can do to him is reread him at 30?