And a merry old soul was he
Jul. 12th, 2004 09:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vovatDoes it bother anyone else (aside from Beth, who pointed this out to me) that the Religious Right seems to have usurped the term "family"?
How about that reviewers are likely to automatically consider a depressing song more personal and introspective than a happy and/or funny one?
Anyway, I've started reading Mother Goose in Prose. It's not one of L. Frank Baum's best works, which isn't surprising, since I think it was his first attempt (or pretty close to his first attempt, anyway) at writing children's fiction. Some of the stories, like "The Cat and the Fiddle," are basically just attempts at explaining a nursery rhyme, and making it more realistic. I think the better stories tend to be the ones where Baum adds in a lot of back story that isn't strictly relevant to the original rhyme. "Old King Cole" seems, in many ways, to be a predecessor to his later book Queen Zixi of Ix. Both stories have a king being chosen in an odd way, and both have said king ruling in an unorthodox but effective manner. King Cole is a carefree old man, while Bud from Zixi is an orphan boy, but there are some clear similarities between them.
While the writing in the book is dull in spots, there are also some clear signs of Baum's sense of humor, and his enjoyable talking-to-the-reader style. Here's one passage from "The Man in the Moon" that I found particularly amusing:
"'Thank you,' said the Man in the Moon.--But stop! I must not call him the Man in the Moon any longer, for of course he was now out of the moon; so I'll simply call him the Man, and you'll know by that which man I mean.
"Well, the Man in the--I mean the Man (but I nearly forgot what I have just said)..."
Maybe no one else will agree, but I think there's a definite humorous charm to this self-correcting style of writing.
How about that reviewers are likely to automatically consider a depressing song more personal and introspective than a happy and/or funny one?
Anyway, I've started reading Mother Goose in Prose. It's not one of L. Frank Baum's best works, which isn't surprising, since I think it was his first attempt (or pretty close to his first attempt, anyway) at writing children's fiction. Some of the stories, like "The Cat and the Fiddle," are basically just attempts at explaining a nursery rhyme, and making it more realistic. I think the better stories tend to be the ones where Baum adds in a lot of back story that isn't strictly relevant to the original rhyme. "Old King Cole" seems, in many ways, to be a predecessor to his later book Queen Zixi of Ix. Both stories have a king being chosen in an odd way, and both have said king ruling in an unorthodox but effective manner. King Cole is a carefree old man, while Bud from Zixi is an orphan boy, but there are some clear similarities between them.
While the writing in the book is dull in spots, there are also some clear signs of Baum's sense of humor, and his enjoyable talking-to-the-reader style. Here's one passage from "The Man in the Moon" that I found particularly amusing:
"'Thank you,' said the Man in the Moon.--But stop! I must not call him the Man in the Moon any longer, for of course he was now out of the moon; so I'll simply call him the Man, and you'll know by that which man I mean.
"Well, the Man in the--I mean the Man (but I nearly forgot what I have just said)..."
Maybe no one else will agree, but I think there's a definite humorous charm to this self-correcting style of writing.
