(Thread IKs:
OwlFancier)
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His Divine Shadow posted:I've tried to get my kids interested in reading but all they want is watch obnoxious people on youtube who scream and act like the worst idiot scum of humankind. Makes me wish for an EMP sometimes. To be fair when I was a bairn my parents were desperate to get me to read but only ever managed it when every other possible thing to do was removed, and even then, only sometimes. Sometimes I would just like stare blankly out of the window for ages or drag my forehead back and forth along the metal of my bed frame instead. I started to read of my own volition a lot more when I got older and after they had grown distracted by their own problems.
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Jan 26, 2024 13:19
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ThomasPaine posted:Tbf doing so wouldn't necessarily mean outright accusing Israel of genocide, that decision is going to be way down the line. It would purely be calling for Israel to calm the gently caress down and stop blowing people up, which isn't so far removed from the position of a lot of international organisations. While they haven't gone that far, they do say that there is a Prima Facia case that Genocide is happening and have refused Israel's decision for the case to be dismissed. Honestly, I think this was the best result you could hope for at this stage. Hopefully the Irish Government will reconsider their position of "let's not criticise the Israel Government until the ICJ actually rules on the matter."
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Jan 26, 2024 13:37
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Problem with me is I'm a relative speed reader so childrens books were read instantly but I was still A Child so you hand me the Lord of the Rings to shut me up and I get to book 2 and say "this is boring all they're doing is talking about stuff" and give up and go back to failing at Crash Bandicoot.
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Jan 26, 2024 13:38
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The Question IRL posted:While they haven't gone that far, they do say that there is a Prima Facia case that Genocide is happening and have refused Israel's decision for the case to be dismissed. Yeah, I agree. Would have liked them to call for a full end to the military operation but this is certainly still far from the worst outcome, and demanding Israel submits a report on how they're implementing the demands within a month is brilliant. Just the fact that they've accepted that the case of genocide is plausible is a huge blow for Israel. Will it lead to some of our own politicians doing a bit of self-reflection? Who knows. They'll either double down or mysteriously decide they've always been in support of a ceasefire.
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Jan 26, 2024 13:58
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Also, they need to show evidence within a month that they have punished explicit calls for genocide, including specifically those by their own president. This is also a relevant consequence of this ruling for the UK: https://x.com/jon_trickett/status/1750865451041575421?s=46&t=ARI_L-v32Oind1-d9B3a3Q
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Jan 26, 2024 14:00
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there’s going to be all sorts of contracts which have these clauses in which the west never assumed would be activated against them
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Jan 26, 2024 14:04
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Darth Walrus posted:This is also a relevant consequence of this ruling for the UK: Hahaha  That said, if Israel + its cheerleaders among the western governments just say 'lol shut up nerds' there's very little that can be done, and that's not a completely implausible outcome
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Jan 26, 2024 14:11
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Tesseraction posted:Problem with me is I'm a relative speed reader so childrens books were read instantly but I was still A Child so you hand me the Lord of the Rings to shut me up and I get to book 2 and say "this is boring all they're doing is talking about stuff" and give up and go back to failing at Crash Bandicoot. Reading all my childrens books too quickly led me to prowling round the house hunting for new things to read. Jackpot was finding (aged ~9) a book about sex in a huge stash of books that some family friends had given to my parents. Obviously I read it, and then took it into school to try and gain social credit. Someone predictably tattled and I got in big trouble. My mum told me it wasn't about normal things, that people don't really do. Joke's on her, it's laughably vanilla iirc. There was something about a stereo and "tweeting their woofer".
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Jan 26, 2024 14:12
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Just Another Lurker posted:Oh my, that's the first time i've seen James White in the wild. Thanks! I have others by him too, but this is the only other one not in a box somewhere I can find:  Jaeluni Asjil posted:I'm trying to do "one in one out" though I did give in and buy another bunch of narrow brackets for my twin slot and put a 6" x 2.4m (yo British mixed measurements) plank on them to house paperbacks esp by one author whose over 70 books I read over and over again (what I call 'bed books' - light on the wrist and because I've read them 500 x before doesn't matter if I fall asleep after a couple of paragraphs). As I'm replacing the ones that are falling apart and getting new copies, I was gutted to discover that if they are 'stock' they're one size but if they're 'print on demand' (some of the less popular works by her) they're shorter so my nice tidy set of identical ones bought in the 1990s - many of which got lost in transit somewhere - are now being replaced by ones that are different heights. Grrrr.. OK, now you've got me curious. Georgette Heyer? Norah Lofts? Noel Streatfeild? I'll stand up for any of them. Though considering my collection that may not be much of a comfort. Darth Walrus posted:Also, they need to show evidence within a month that they have punished explicit calls for genocide, including specifically those by their own president. Ooooh, interesting!
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Jan 26, 2024 14:14
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https://x.com/jmcevoy_2/status/1750868316619465110?s=46&t=ARI_L-v32Oind1-d9B3a3Q
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Jan 26, 2024 14:16
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Labour Friends of Genocide
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Jan 26, 2024 14:21
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is this Michael Gove's backstory??? LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
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Jan 26, 2024 14:53
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everyone having the sense to look sombre except meggie hodge, just pure beamin thinking about slaughtered brown babies
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Jan 26, 2024 14:54
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Tesseraction posted:Problem with me is I'm a relative speed reader so childrens books were read instantly but I was still A Child so you hand me the Lord of the Rings to shut me up and I get to book 2 and say "this is boring all they're doing is talking about stuff" and give up and go back to failing at Crash Bandicoot. I remember getting up to Caradras and not really being able to remember the difference between Merry and Pippin, or Boromir and Aragorn. Same with the Hobbit and all the loving dwarves. It wasn't until years later when the movies came out and I had more of a visual I was able to get through it. Even the visuals don't really help with the hobbit though. There's sad king dwarf, sexy poldark dwarf, James Nesbitt dwarf and then a bunch of others. Come to think of it I have the same issue with D&D, our DM loves to introduce a guy once with no / very little physical description, and then have them turn up again later and get mad when we don't remember who they are. Bobby Deluxe fucked around with this message at 15:02 on Jan 26, 2024 |
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Jan 26, 2024 14:59
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killerwhat posted:Reading all my childrens books too quickly led me to prowling round the house hunting for new things to read. Jackpot was finding (aged ~9) a book about sex in a huge stash of books that some family friends had given to my parents. Obviously I read it, and then took it into school to try and gain social credit. Someone predictably tattled and I got in big trouble. My mum told me it wasn't about normal things, that people don't really do. Joke's on her, it's laughably vanilla iirc. There was something about a stereo and "tweeting their woofer". My parents told me there was no way I was reading books as fast i was and taking them in properly. Then my 1st/2nd year English teacher in highschool told me Terry Pratchett books weren't real literature and made me stop reading them in favour of her prescribed reading list. I think catch 22 was the book on that list that broke me and made me give up on reading books for a long loving time. I forced myself though it before switching to playing video games. No-one told me what games to play or gave me a hard time for playing them quickly.
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Jan 26, 2024 15:07
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Runcible Cat posted:Thanks! I have others by him too, but this is the only other one not in a box somewhere I can find: Agatha Christie actually  As she published from 1920s to 1970s I find it very interesting to follow the change in social attitudes that come through her books over 50 years. I'll just say I think some people mistake her characters' dialogue for her own thoughts. A couple of things I particularly like - she has female characters who are 'brilliant mathematicians', and in a couple of stories there are murders committed by 'very important people' who think they are far too valuable to be convicted and imprisoned or hanged for it - but Poirot & Marple do not agree. Poirot in one story admits to being bourgeoise but believes the lives of "the little people" are as valuable as Mr Big Important Person. She also hints at characters being gay but not in a pejorative way - for example when Miss Murgatroyd is killed in A Murder is Announced and Miss Hinch - with whom she lives - is devastated - the reaction of the people around is quite touching. There's are quite a few sympathetically drawn characters who were contravening the social mores of the day - eg unmarried mothers and so forth. There are of course things in the books that make me wince - eg some of the casual racism in dialogue in her earlier books, but which will have been normal at the time. I'm deeply NOT in favour of proposed rewrites of the books to exclude some of this, writing is of its time and instead of pretending these things didn't exist, explore context instead. And btw if you haven't read her books but have seen the various tv shows, some of the shows are a complete travesty of the books - most of the Geraldine McEwan ones are appalling for instance - they change the plot, put Marple in to stories where she wasn't in the books, change whodunnit etc. (write your own darn books if you want to completely change the story!) Joan Hickson's characterisations are by far the closest to the books. Anyway, that's my essay for today LOL Bobby Deluxe posted:I remember trying to read LOTR because my uncle heard I like fantasy (an animated version of The Black Cauldron had just come out in cinemas) and loaned me his copy that had been propping up a sofa corner. My dad LOVED Tolkien. I used to joke that his hierarchy of Godhood was Jesus - God - Tolkien. He read LOTR to us as kids doing different voices for different characters. It was much better like that. Jaeluni Asjil fucked around with this message at 15:19 on Jan 26, 2024 |
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Jan 26, 2024 15:12
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I got through LoTR pretty quickly as a kid just by flipping through all the insufferable nerd poo poo like pages of Elvish poetry or whatever. It might have been the whole reason JRRT wrote those books in the first place but I didn't have time for that when I also had to fit in a few hours of Street Fighter per day
Failed Imagineer fucked around with this message at 15:45 on Jan 26, 2024 |
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Jan 26, 2024 15:23
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I don't know how any kid ever got through the first half of Fellowship. I think I must have just skimmed it.
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Jan 26, 2024 15:36
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My dad also loves Tolkien and he gave me his lovely old hardback of The Hobbit from I think the 60s or 70s. It has colour illustrations and a whole pull out map and everything, it's very cool. I really liked that but then I tried to move on to LOTR maybe a bit too young and found it far too difficult and boring. Went back to it years later though and quite enjoyed it, but I made it to about halfway through Return of the King and lost my page during that one intensely dull hundred-odd page chapter where he goes into minute detail about every brick of Minas Tirith. Just could not summon up the energy to pick it back up after that.
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Jan 26, 2024 15:37
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First half of the Fellowship is top notch stuff for kids. And then you get to book two and is just a long rear end chapter about guys talking. I read LotR when I was very young, but I think I basically skipped the non Frodo/Sam books later on because at the time they were very dull for a 10 year old.
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Jan 26, 2024 15:48
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I think I listened to the BBC radio play of LOTR before reading it
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Jan 26, 2024 15:48
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Jaeluni Asjil posted:There are of course things in the books that make me wince - eg some of the casual racism in dialogue in her earlier books, but which will have been normal at the time. I'm deeply NOT in favour of proposed rewrites of the books to exclude some of this, writing is of its time and instead of pretending these things didn't exist, explore context instead. And then every time someone does the Express, supposedly a publication for adult readers, goes "More like Willy WOKEr! Click our sponsored link to buy a box set of the original 1964 edition with extra bonus racism!"
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Jan 26, 2024 15:49
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Jaeluni Asjil posted:She also hints at characters being gay but not in a pejorative way - for example when Miss Murgatroyd is killed in A Murder is Announced and Miss Hinch - with whom she lives - is devastated - the reaction of the people around is quite touching. There's are quite a few sympathetically drawn characters who were contravening the social mores of the day - eg unmarried mothers and so forth. Also what did you think of the recent Ken Brannagh Poirot? Your post reminded me because there's a similar bit in Death on the Nile (but done in a way that won't offend the Americans too much and could be cut for audiences in more conservative countries). I liked it overall, but I did find it funny Jamie's whole bit on PraxisCast about him having joker scars. Bobby Deluxe fucked around with this message at 15:55 on Jan 26, 2024 |
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Jan 26, 2024 15:51
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They should print the racist words in some kind of special ink, and then sell the books with a set of polarised glasses that reveal the forbidden words
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Jan 26, 2024 15:51
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Jaeluni Asjil posted:Agatha Christie...also hints at characters being gay but not in a pejorative way There's a bit I appreciated in one of her later books where Ariadne Oliver (Christie's own stand-in) has to deal with male publishers trying to force a female love interest on her Poirot-a-like protagonist and refusing to accept her insistence that he doesn't like women, because it would hurt book sales if the hero was "a whoopsy", which I took as about as clear a confirmation of the character's intended sexuality as she could give.* *it also shines a different light on the godawful stories where Poirot falls for an Irene Adler knock-off while having James Bond adventures. Branagh is a coward for making his Poirot straight.
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Jan 26, 2024 15:57
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Failed Imagineer posted:They should print the racist words in some kind of special ink, and then sell the books with a set of polarised glasses that reveal the forbidden words
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Jan 26, 2024 15:58
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Bobby Deluxe posted:I remember trying to read LOTR because my uncle heard I like fantasy (an animated version of The Black Cauldron had just come out in cinemas) There's a thread reading through the Chronicles of Prydain in the Book Barn, if you want to revisit your childhood! What's a Gurgi?
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Jan 26, 2024 16:02
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The most unforgiveable thing about Lord of the Rings was not even Tolkien's fault and it's Shadow of War making stupid sexy Shelob. Hang on I think I've posted about that in the UKMT before. gently caress I'm reaching the stage of Old where I keep telling the same stories over and over again.
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Jan 26, 2024 16:05
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I think one of the best classes I ever did at Uni ended up spending ages looking at Agatha Christie as an imperialist writer. It was really interesting to see this weird fear of "had civilised" folks come out in her writings.
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Jan 26, 2024 16:05
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Bobby Deluxe posted:It's interesting because the temptation is to go to that parochial view that sometimes in the past women would just live together, and be very close, and sleep in the same bed and uh... They were roomates. I enjoyed the Brannagh death on the Nile though I pre-steeled myself that it wouldn't be much like the book. I was more taken by the singer doing Sister Rosetta Tharpe covers even though Rosetta was about 20 years after the book was set. (Rosetta was the first - in so far as you can tell - to use distorted electric guitar and was a big influence on various 60s artists. Google her!). I was in the cinema watching it, heard the singer and gasped out loud 'surely that's Rosetta Tharpe!'. I did wonder who Bouc was until I reread the book and he never was on the boat.
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Jan 26, 2024 16:12
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Tesseraction posted:The most unforgiveable thing about Lord of the Rings was not even Tolkien's fault and it's Shadow of War making stupid sexy Shelob. Hang on I think I've posted about that in the UKMT before. Yeah that's me. I forget where I've told what and repeat myself. Apologies thread, I've probably done that a tonne ITT.
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Jan 26, 2024 16:14
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grobbo posted:There's a bit I appreciated in one of her later books where Ariadne Oliver (Christie's own stand-in) has to deal with male publishers trying to force a female love interest on her Poirot-a-like protagonist and refusing to accept her insistence that he doesn't like women, because it would hurt book sales if the hero was "a whoopsy", which I took as about as clear a confirmation of the character's intended sexuality as she could give.* Poirot really admires 'big flamboyant women with curves' (countess Vera roskov). But essentially I think of him as asexual.
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Jan 26, 2024 16:16
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Me all wrinkly and cold at the old folks home: "they gave the dang tolkien spider giant bobblies and a human form!"
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Jan 26, 2024 16:17
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I've never read Agatha Christie but I did see a lot of Agatha Christie's Poirot in my early years so David Suchet is just the canonical Poirot to me. I don't know if I could believe in another actor playing the part.
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Jan 26, 2024 16:20
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Tesseraction posted:Me all wrinkly and cold at the old folks home: "they gave the dang tolkien spider giant bobblies and a human form!" 
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Jan 26, 2024 16:37
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I know someone with an arachnid fetish and we've agreed to disagree.
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Jan 26, 2024 16:39
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big scary monsters posted:I've never read Agatha Christie but I did see a lot of Agatha Christie's Poirot in my early years so David Suchet is just the canonical Poirot to me. I don't know if I could believe in another actor playing the part. I liked Suchet as Poirot, such an odd little character. Suchet was good in Blott on the Landscape, tv series back in the 80s... about as weird a Tom Sharpe adaptation you could wish for.
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Jan 26, 2024 16:43
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Guavanaut posted:Even the Lego one is someone's fetish. I like that they include the skulking pervert in the corner watching the whole thing.
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Jan 26, 2024 16:52
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for the love of god turn on your monitor
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Jan 26, 2024 16:53
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Guavanaut posted:Even the Lego one is someone's fetish. Can't believe they forgot to trademark Gollum's gently caress FishTM
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Jan 26, 2024 16:57
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