jack_ryder: (Default)
jack_ryder ([personal profile] jack_ryder) wrote2006-09-05 09:32 am

Screw Steve Irwin

Colin Thiele died yesterday

I know who I want the state funeral to go to.

[identity profile] mrteufel.livejournal.com 2006-09-05 04:09 am (UTC)(link)
Patricia who? Really.

I don't remember any of the books on curriculum in school. I was too busy reading Heinlein, Asimov, Poul Anderson, Harry Harrison, James Blish, Arther C Clarke, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle... Oh, Ursula LeGuin... C.S. Lewis...

[identity profile] jack-ryder.livejournal.com 2006-09-05 04:29 am (UTC)(link)
I contend that Wrightson and Thiele would probably have taught more Australian kids respect for Australian wildlife and landscape than Irwin ever did. But then they were never big in the US, were they?

[identity profile] murasaki-1966.livejournal.com 2006-09-05 07:46 am (UTC)(link)
My God. You seriously don't know who Patricia Wrightson is?

Good grief.

Read this
http://www.latrobe.edu.au/childlit/Authors/Wrightson.htm
It saves me giving you a lecture. Then go and read either "the ice is coming" or "the Nargun and the stars"

And stop reading all that hard science fiction. You'll go blind.

[identity profile] mrteufel.livejournal.com 2006-09-06 04:13 am (UTC)(link)
I think I like fiction where the action is largely outside the character's head, and where anything* may happen. Stories set in childhood are especially troublesome, as they may cause me to reflect upon my own rather unpleasant history. (No, not that.)

I did read "The World According to Garp" after seeing the Robin Williams movie, and found it sufficiently trippy. But then I read another of John Irving, and realised he was using the same tropes, so he lost me.

*for certain values of the term. Whatever happens should be unexpected, but later show to be consistent with the rules established for the fictional background.

[identity profile] murasaki-1966.livejournal.com 2006-09-07 12:36 am (UTC)(link)
Try "A little fear" by Patricia Wrightson, which is about an old lady, a dog and a rather annoyed Aboriginal spirit. It's also a small book. Go on try, you know you want to.

[identity profile] mrteufel.livejournal.com 2006-09-07 07:57 am (UTC)(link)
I'll give it a go. Can you tell me of a good Australian online bookstore?

[identity profile] murasaki-1966.livejournal.com 2006-09-13 01:27 am (UTC)(link)
Save your money and visit your local library. Or I can lend you "A little fear" next time we meet.

Seriously, a lot of Wrightson's stuff is out of print. As is Thiele's. I don't know a good online bookstore, but Abbey's in the City have a great range of kids books and would probably have some of Wrightson's work.

[identity profile] mrteufel.livejournal.com 2006-09-13 02:40 am (UTC)(link)
Consider it done.