5 Random Weird(ish) things about me
I've been tagged to blog about 5 random weird things about me. At first I thought 'This should be easy, everyone is a bit weird when it comes down to it.' But no, nothing came to mind easily today. The problem is that everyone sees themselves as 'normal.' So without further ado five random weird things about me.
1. I love traveling, but paradoxically it seems I loathe moving. Well packing anyway. Too boring I know, I know...
2. I have a large collection of Enid Blyton books inherited from my mother's library. Amongst her work I have a stash of old Noddy books, which are now banned or censored due to being not politically correct. For instance Noddy frequently feels a bit gay and sleeps with Mr Bigears. And there is a Golliwogg who just so happens to pump gas. The thing is that as a child you don't understand her books on this level. I think it is fundamentally stupid to think that this influences children in one particular way. Another case of reductive essentialist and positivist thinking.
3. I have painted a nude portrait of someone.
4. Growning up I used to want to be like Robin Hood and rob from the rich and give to the poor armed with my trusty longbow. And I did have a longbow. Perhaps this is what led initally me to socialism later in life? Although now I'm somewhere between things, being influenced by both postmodern thought, anti-positivist thinking and Marxist thought.
5. Luang Prabang in northern Laos was probably my favorite town in my travels thus far. French architecture, Buddhist temples, good food, town on the Mekong river surrounded by lush rain forest.
1. I love traveling, but paradoxically it seems I loathe moving. Well packing anyway. Too boring I know, I know...
2. I have a large collection of Enid Blyton books inherited from my mother's library. Amongst her work I have a stash of old Noddy books, which are now banned or censored due to being not politically correct. For instance Noddy frequently feels a bit gay and sleeps with Mr Bigears. And there is a Golliwogg who just so happens to pump gas. The thing is that as a child you don't understand her books on this level. I think it is fundamentally stupid to think that this influences children in one particular way. Another case of reductive essentialist and positivist thinking.
3. I have painted a nude portrait of someone.
4. Growning up I used to want to be like Robin Hood and rob from the rich and give to the poor armed with my trusty longbow. And I did have a longbow. Perhaps this is what led initally me to socialism later in life? Although now I'm somewhere between things, being influenced by both postmodern thought, anti-positivist thinking and Marxist thought.
5. Luang Prabang in northern Laos was probably my favorite town in my travels thus far. French architecture, Buddhist temples, good food, town on the Mekong river surrounded by lush rain forest.
2 comments:
Interesting take on the Enid Blyton issue. I'd be interested to hear whether you thought her writing was any good or not. Some of it comes across as whimsical at best, lazy at worst. I did read a Master's Thesis on Chidren's Lit some years ago which took the view that she was never actually banned, librarians and teachers just thought there were better childrens' books around.
And yes, our jacaranda tree provided many a trusty longbow for the neighbourhood merry men.
Hi Ladlitter,
sorry it has taken a little while to get around to responding to your comment.
Many authors have made a sound living out of whimsical writing. Is Joanne Rowling's writing any less whimsical than Enid Blyton's? As a child I greatly enjoyed all her stories, from the Famous Five to The Magical Faraway Tree to the Wishing Chair to the Noddy series.
Is she any good? Well that depends on who you are and what you like, surely?
I think adults, however, read her very differently to children, and perhaps unfairly. I'm actually looking forward to going back to reading the Famous Five twenty years later.
And despite there being many fabulous children's authors out there, for instance Neil Gaiman is one presently at the top of his game and whose work is also read very differently by adults than children, I still think that there is a place for Enid Blyton's work in the children's literature landscape.
So I'm still likely going to read her stories to my kids one day.
Cheers,
Ed
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