12.23.06
Posted in Linguistics, Sociology at 12:29 am by Rosepixie
I’m not sure what to think of the reader’s guide at the end of the this book. It wasn’t awful, but it made me wonder more about who made it than it made me think about the book. Who was the interviewer and who wrote the questions? They were very reporterish questions and fell into many standard press pitfalls. It was really odd and did not feel like a “reader’s companion”. I guess I just felt like in some ways they missed the point. And what was with the question about the framers of the Constitution? It made little to no sense and even Tannen kind of said that! The whole thing was just weird. I think I stick by my position of disliking reader’s guides.
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12.22.06
Posted in Childrens, Fiction at 1:26 am by Rosepixie
This is a really good book. It probably shows the most actual character development in Taran in the whole series. I really miss Eilonwy and Gwydion throughout it, but it really is a story best told without their actual presence. I love the crafters Taran meets. Each one is just right. I love this book!
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Posted in Fiction, Picture Books at 12:56 am by Rosepixie
This was a really cute story! I loved the illustrations, especially the one of Mrs Claus in Scandinavia (she looked so cute in her native dress)! The subplot of Santa by himself at home missing her was really cute too. I loved how he did everything she would have done. The ending was just darling. I liked this book a lot and think it is just charming!
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12.21.06
Posted in Linguistics, Sociology at 12:19 am by Rosepixie
This is an interesting book. I certainly agree with her assessment that schools and the culture of academia are very adversarial. I rather wish they weren’t, but that’s one of the biggest things that I dislike about our educational system, beginning to end. I was surprised when Tannen mentioned that disagreeing with something is the most common way to write a paper, and often done even when the writer does not genuinely disagree as they claim to. Such a thing has never occurred to me and few of my papers center around a disagreement with something else. I would feel too weird lying in a paper like that. I couldn’t do it. I have written papers I later came to decide were incorrect in their logic or interpretation of something, but I always wrote it honestly believing it at the time. I just can’t imagine flat out lying in a paper. I hope that I never feel the need to do that or, worse, actually do it!
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12.19.06
Posted in Childrens, Fiction at 12:15 am by Rosepixie
Taran is very strange. He wants so badly to be nobly born, but he doesn’t really admit it to himself until he has given up hope on it. I got the impression from the instructions he gives Fflewddur and the few coherent thoughts of his we get to hear that he is more upset about it at this point in the series because he thinks it means losing the ability to marry Eilonwy than anything else. Perhaps she became the reason he had such faith that he was nobly born - he came to believe that they were destined to be together, which he believed required him to be of noble birth. He’s grown up a lot, but some of his ways of thinking still rather resemble some of his childish ones.
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12.17.06
Posted in Linguistics, Sociology at 3:16 am by Rosepixie
I would agree with Tannen that the many advances that we have made in communication have all served to make it easier for us to participate in the culture of critique. Cell phones, email, instant messaging, and perhaps especially text messaging all make instant reactions and unchecked emotional responses far too easy. Her brief piece complaining about video games was less enlightened, which is annoying, but perhaps she has learned more and changed her thinking since she wrote this book, since blaming video games for violence was comparatively new then.
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Posted in Childrens, Fiction at 2:12 am by Rosepixie
The adventure with Morda, the lich-like wizard always creeped me out. I find it kind of odd that throughout that Taran never really thinks of Eilonwy. He doesn’t make a point to tell her of what he learned about her mother’s fate and, more glaringly, of all the things he considers doing with the pendant that the Fair Folk gave to her grandmother and her grandmother gave to her mother none of them are giving it to her (which seems the obvious thing to do with it to me). If I were Eilonwy, my mother’s pendant might have meant a lot to me. I understand why it needed to be returned to the Fair Folk, but Taran could have at least considered giving it to Eilonwy!
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Posted in Linguistics, Sociology at 1:09 am by Rosepixie
Tannen gives many interesting examples of rituals and traditions from other cultures concerning aggression and opposition. She favors Japan a little heavily for my taste, but perhaps she truly had more information about Japanese culture to choose from for the book than anything else. I find it interesting that gender differences came in even here. This is a fascinating book.
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Posted in Childrens, Fiction at 12:59 am by Rosepixie
Taran wanted his quest to be so easy and it just wasn’t to be. He was come a long way, though. His clever ways of getting back his horse and of resolving Goryon and Gast’s feud are wonderful. I especially like that he instantly sees the most important thing - that Aeddan’s field was destroyed - and no one needs to point it out in particular. It is a good sign that he will make a wise leader.
I’m glad we got news of Eilonwy, even if we don’t get to see her. I always miss her in this book!
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12.16.06
Posted in Magazines at 1:25 am by Rosepixie
The December Vogues are always amusing to read, if only for the gift guides! Their guide for “inexpensive” gifts is full of strange things that only Vogue would consider including in a gift guide, like the $75 pack of cards or the ceramic puffer fish “free of hairline cracks”, unlike flea market finds (says the article). Then an “Ask Mrs Exeter” column discusses how best to thank doormen, nannies, hair dressers and yoga instructors for the holidays. She suggests practical gifts, like monogrammed make-up purses, Tiffany’s purse pens, a stainless-steel Rolex watch or massage gift certificates. How nice. Wish I was one of those receiving such a gift, since there’s no way I can afford to give one! Speaking of not being able to afford things, neither of these lists even came close to the extravagance of the official gift guide at the end! It included everything from an Indonesian Daybed (price not listed) to Hermes Golf Tees ($560 for twelve tees in a leather case). The list is amusing, but always just a little out of touch. It made me laugh.
There were several good pieces on fashion. There is a piece discussing the fascinating show Hussein Chalayan put on this past October with the magical morphing dresses that ran through fashion history in five amazing dresses. There was a spread of dresses inspired by flowers and a piece based on some travel writer’s memoirs. My favorite spread was one based on the concept of a mother taking her son to the movie theater to see “The Wizard of Oz”. I have no idea why they chose that movie, but I love that they did! They even included the model wearing sexy black witch shoes and even silver bejeweled silver shoes at various points! Most of her outfits weren’t amazing, but the shoes were quite appropriate!
It was a nice, if eccentrically silly issue. I enjoyed it. It wasn’t amazing, but most certainly entertaining!
One piece perplexed me. There was an article about the young, rich, high-born social set that is currently working, partying and participating in charity benefits in Europe. What bothered me was the repeated use of the phrase “Bright Young Things” (BYTs for short). The author of the article was clearly impressed and charmed by these young nobles and socialites and very much respected them. So why use the phrase “Bright Young Things”, which historically implies anything but an image of respectability? Everything from 1920s rule-breakers in flapper dresses to the most obvious reference - Waugh’s Vile Bodies. I have never heard the phrase applied to any group not from the 1920s or 1930s before, actually. It seems strange to do so and I would be insulted to be called one! The Bright Young Things were young, rich and fabulous, but also completely self-centered and self-absorbed. They throw away money, sanity and lives as casually as orange peels (often literally) and they feel nothing. They are vile and so unlike what I would consider “people” that I think even Waugh could only call them “bodies”. They have no souls. Why use such an image to describe a group who seem to be generous, talented (one is mounting an art show of her own work soon), smart (several are at university or have advanced degrees) and supposedly have surprisingly refined manners? It just seems strange to me!
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