forumtate

SHEILA: I just think everyone has different tastes! Some people
watch documentaries on tv, and others like game shows or talk shows!
I don't think one is "bad" and one is "good."

A former English teacher, I rarely read The Classics for pleasure; I
read the easy-short-mysteries by Grafton or Parker that I can get
through in a day or two! It's just more entertaining to me! (I used
to be embarrassed by this, but no longer!)

TATE
Lover of "A is for Alibi"
;o)

forumtate

SHEILA: I just think everyone has different tastes! Some people
watch documentaries on tv, and others like game shows or talk shows!
I don't think one is "bad" and one is "good."

A former English teacher, I rarely read The Classics for pleasure; I
read the easy-short-mysteries by Grafton or Parker that I can get
through in a day or two! It's just more entertaining to me! (I
used
to be embarrassed by this, but no longer!)

TATE
Lover of "A is for Alibi"
;o)

rumpleteasermom

--- In Unschooling-dotcom@y..., "forumtate" <momtate@w...> wrote:
(I
used
> to be embarrassed by this, but no longer!)
>

I used to be embarrassed (a little) about that too. Then I got to
thinking about the classics and what they really are. Shakespeare was
essentially writing the pulp fiction of his day.

Bridget

[email protected]

In a message dated 5/22/02 5:34:29 AM, rumpleteasermom@... writes:

<< I used to be embarrassed (a little) about that too. Then I got to
thinking about the classics and what they really are. Shakespeare was
essentially writing the pulp fiction of his day. >>

Some of Charles Dickens' novels were written as installment stories (like
soap operas) in the newspaper, and so letters from readers affected the
outcome. We read them as full "novels" but they weren't written as novels in
the first place.

Sandra

hsmominoz

I've read responses about so called fluff books here and how
books by
Shakespeare and Dickens wrote the pulp fiction of their day. How
about Chaucer? I had an English Lit professor in high school call him
the Larry Flint of his day!
On to my question... Does anyone limit or restrict books their
children read? I ask this because my Mom always kept a fairly good
eye on what I read as a child.(until I was about 14 or so.)For
example, when I was about 11 I wanted to read `The Thornbirds' and
when I was about 12 the book in question was Steven King's `It', and
she wouldn't let me. She did explain what her reasons were any time
she did this. Usually it was something like I know you can read the
book, but I don't think at this time in your life you will understand
the issues and themes in the book... or something like that. So far,
I have not done anything like this to my children, but have been
wondering what I would say if Moly (8) should come to me with one of
my books and ask if she could read it. Then again, I don't see my
child bringing one of my books and asking if she could read it. I see
me finding her wrapped in a blanket on the couch half way through it!
I guess it all boils down to, if you have an 8, 10, 12 year old with
reading abilities far advanced, do you take into consideration their
emotional advancement as well?

~Nancy

[email protected]

In a message dated 5/22/02 1:13:30 PM, Dnowens@... writes:

<< How about Chaucer? >>

Even though I have an English degree, a lifelong interest in the Middle Ages,
and I can read Middle English, I do NOT know who read Chaucer's stuff, and
how they came upon it. Since it's pre-printing-press, it's also
pre-marketting. So unless it was passed hand to hand, I have NO idea of its
"distribution." Paper was new technology.

One thing is very certain: He did NOT write it for those who would take
English literature in the U.S. and Australia and New Zealand six or seven
hundred years later!!! (Nor even for his future fellow Englishmen.) LOL


(Here, I went and looked:

-=-The literary executors of the Canterbury Tales - people who wanted to
publish Chaucer's work - faced several problems. Nevertheless, in the
fifteenth century alone, 87 literary executors took on the task, each
publishing their own edition (or "witness") of the collected tales or
individual tales. These witnesses all had different orders and contents
though distinct patterns were discernible. The two best known manuscripts
produced came to be known as the Hengwrt and the Ellesmere, and since the
nineteenth century most editions have followed these. In the 1930's a group
of scholars attempted to build a textual stemma for the entire poem including
the 20 000 lines extant in over 80 witnesses. The attempt failed because of
the volume of the material - the number of textual variants runs into
millions. Today, however, a group of researchers at four prominent
universities (Oxford University, Sheffield University, De Montfort University
and Brigham Young University) is slowly but surely carrying out the task in
what is called the Canterbury Tales Project. -=-

http://www.ludd.luth.se/~jonsson/CT.html

Tia Leschke

>
>I guess it all boils down to, if you have an 8, 10, 12 year old with
>reading abilities far advanced, do you take into consideration their
>emotional advancement as well?

I was one of those. I remember reading Pearl Buck's The Good Earth, and
only getting a little bit of all the stuff about concubines, etc. I
certainly enjoyed the book and the view it gave me of that culture at that
time. I also remember going with my parents to see Never on Sunday. I was
12, and I honestly had *no idea* that it was about a prostitute until years
later. I just enjoyed all the music and dancing and stuff. Nowadays, I'd
be surprised to find a 12 year old who was that "innocent". <g>
Tia

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Eleanor Roosevelt
*********************************************
Tia Leschke
leschke@...
On Vancouver Island

Karin

The kids in our homeschool group (mine included) are performing 3 of the
Canterbury Tales in 2 days!
Some of these tales are really racy and some are dark, but we've toned them
down a bit for the kids.
They are doing
- The Nun's Priest Tale: The Nightmare Beast of the Firebrand Tail
- The Franklin's Tale: Love on the Rocks and
- The Pardoner's Tale: Death's Murderers.

My 9 yos Jonathan will be playing "Death". He loves it.
My other son has a few other great parts.
Should be *quite* a performance, come Saturday.

I was surprised to see Geoffrey Chaucer (naked, even!) in A Knights Tale.
<g>

Karin




>
> Even though I have an English degree, a lifelong interest in the Middle
Ages,
> and I can read Middle English, I do NOT know who read Chaucer's stuff, and
> how they came upon it. Since it's pre-printing-press, it's also
> pre-marketting. So unless it was passed hand to hand, I have NO idea of
its
> "distribution." Paper was new technology.
>
> One thing is very certain: He did NOT write it for those who would take
> English literature in the U.S. and Australia and New Zealand six or seven
> hundred years later!!! (Nor even for his future fellow Englishmen.) LOL
>
>
> (Here, I went and looked:
>
> -=-The literary executors of the Canterbury Tales - people who wanted to
> publish Chaucer's work - faced several problems. Nevertheless, in the
> fifteenth century alone, 87 literary executors took on the task, each
> publishing their own edition (or "witness") of the collected tales or
> individual tales. These witnesses all had different orders and contents
> though distinct patterns were discernible. The two best known manuscripts
> produced came to be known as the Hengwrt and the Ellesmere, and since the
> nineteenth century most editions have followed these. In the 1930's a
group
> of scholars attempted to build a textual stemma for the entire poem
including
> the 20 000 lines extant in over 80 witnesses. The attempt failed because
of
> the volume of the material - the number of textual variants runs into
> millions. Today, however, a group of researchers at four prominent
> universities (Oxford University, Sheffield University, De Montfort
University
> and Brigham Young University) is slowly but surely carrying out the task
in
> what is called the Canterbury Tales Project. -=-
>
> http://www.ludd.luth.se/~jonsson/CT.html

[email protected]

On Wed, 22 May 2002 19:11:54 -0000 "hsmominoz" <Dnowens@...> writes:
> On to my question... Does anyone limit or restrict books their
> children read?

No. It would be kind of impractical, as you say - she often picks a book
from the shelf and just starts reading - and also I just don't agree with
censorship.

I do warn her if I know a book might be upsetting to her, just like I'd
do with a tv show or a museum exhibit. I don't always know, though...
but, now she's reading Song of the Magdalene, and I happened to pick it
up and read it the other day, and there is a scene where Miriam is raped.
I did ask how far she'd gotten, and mentioned that some pretty awful
things happen to Miriam later on, and she asked what... and after I
ascertained that she really wanted to know (she doesn't seem to mind
spoilers, in general), I told her... and she's still reading the book, I
think it's more being prepared...

Dar

Beth Ali

I'm not there yet, with only a 3 yr old and a 1 yr old, but my take on this
is that if you read it together than you are there to work out the issues
with her and she also gets what she wants. I do do this with movies with my
son, who loves dinosaurs and mummies...can you guess which movies I've sat
through with him???
Beth-Shawn and Shannon's mommy

you have an 8, 10, 12 year old with
reading abilities far advanced, do you take into consideration their
emotional advancement as well?

~Nancy


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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

rumpleteasermom

--- In Unschooling-dotcom@y..., "hsmominoz" <Dnowens@a...> wrote:
> How about Chaucer? I had an English Lit professor in high school
call him the Larry Flint of his day!

I don't thinkhe was quite up to Larry Flynt status. Maybe Elmore
Leonard?


> On to my question... Does anyone limit or restrict books their
> children read?


No. NEVER. Jenni is 14 now and started picking her books out on the
first floor (the children's section was on the second floor) when she
was ten or eleven at the recommendation of the children's librarian.
Mind you, the librarian recommended specific books but that got the
ball rolling and made Jenni realize that she could choose the
downstairs books too if she wanted to. I think it just hadn't occured
to her yet.

Jenni is 14 now and we both just read LK Hamilton's Anita Blake
Vampire Series. Jenni reads faster than I do and was two books ahead
of me by the end. There are some *VERY* adult themes in this
series especially in the last two books. I asked her if she needed to
ask about anything and she said nope, she understood it. And I'm
pretty sure she really does understand it - that she isn't
misinterpreting or anything.

She's reading Anne Rice (last I looked.) Although we need to hunt
down a new copy of the Witching Hour because mine's missing. I'm
sure there are some Christian parents out there who would want to
restrict these kinds of books for religious reasons. Not having that
factor in our lives, I just don't see any reason to patrol their
reading.

Oh, BTW, my other daughter . . . she reads Agatha Christie and other
mysteries of that style and time period. She also has a penchant
for old tyme radio detective shows. I found her two Saint tapes
and the library book sale Saturday and she was practically jumping
for joy! She also collects old typewriters and fans and wants to set
up an office like Sam Spade's.

Bridget

rumpleteasermom

> Even though I have an English degree, a lifelong interest in the
Middle Ages,
> and I can read Middle English, I do NOT know who read Chaucer's
stuff, and
> how they came upon it.

Have you seen A Knight's Tale? Yeah, I know it is not historically
accurate BUT I think it was an effective way of getting the point
across that they were just people too. There were the good, the bad,
the dirty, the nice, the mean and they all acted from the same set of
emotions we harbor today. Too many people romantisize the past and
think they were all dignified and courtly. It just wasn't so!

Bridget

Karin

>
> She's reading Anne Rice (last I looked.) Although we need to hunt
> down a new copy of the Witching Hour because mine's missing. I'm
> sure there are some Christian parents out there who would want to
> restrict these kinds of books for religious reasons. Not having that
> factor in our lives, I just don't see any reason to patrol their
> reading.
>


Hey, I've read the Witching Hour. I really enjoyed it. She must also read
Lasher and Taltos to finish the story.
I felt so devious when reading those books. Maybe that's why I enjoyed them
so much! Although my parent's weren't
really religious, there was a definite overall feeling that anything having
to do with witchcraft and general anti-christian subjects were highly taboo.
Even watching Bewitched was frowned upon (love that show).

Karin

[email protected]

In a message dated 5/23/2002 11:32:42 AM Eastern Standard Time,
curtkar@... writes:


>
>
> Hey, I've read the Witching Hour. I really enjoyed it. She must also read
> Lasher and Taltos to finish the story.
>

LOVE Anne Rice....actually two of my favorite all-time books are her Cry to
Heaven and Feast of All Saints, which aren't occult in nature. I realy liked
The Witching Hour but didn't care for the direction it turned in Taltos and
Lasher.
Amy Kagey
Usborne Books consultant
<A HREF="http://www.ubah.com/ecommerce/default.asp?sid=Z0939&gid=462366">Usborne Books Online Sales</A>
WW: -40.4 lbs


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

rumpleteasermom

--- In Unschooling-dotcom@y..., "Karin" <curtkar@c...> wrote:

>
> Hey, I've read the Witching Hour. I really enjoyed it. She must also
read
> Lasher and Taltos to finish the story.

Oh, yes definitely. I have both of those, only the Witching Hour went
missing!

Bridget