S/O Fairy tales and fables, do your kids read them.

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anon for this

Fri, Jun 16 2017, 12:08 pm

Would you hesitate to introduce your child to the Narnia series, knowing that they are a Christian allegory?

iluvy

Fri, Jun 16 2017, 1:26 pm

anon for this wrote:

His female characters tend to be one-dimensional and stereotypical for sure. From the short stories, I'd say Susan Calvin is probably the most sympathetic. But I'd also say that in general, Asimov was much better at creating interesting plots than he was as creating memorable, multi-dimensional characters, male or female.

When you mention voter modeling, are you thinking of Franchise, or another story?

Susan Calvin is the "bitter, repressed, unlovable career woman" I was thinking of, particularly in the one where she has a crush on a fellow scientist who would never, ever think of her romantically because she is so colorless and intelligent, and she goes wild and destroys the robot who told her that he loved her... It's a mash up of about seven destructive stereotypes about women scientists.

Everyone else is a submissive, unimaginative housewife. It's true that Asimov doesn't really have any interesting characters, but I found it very remarkable that he could imagine a world in which everyone lives in giant apartment buildings, receives goods and services based on their ranking (https://klout.com/corp/score), works with robots who are indistinguishable from humans unless they unzip their skin... but not one in which women were regular participants in society with jobs and intellectual interests.

I'm not sure what the voter modeling story is called, but it's the one where they select just one person and choose the president based on an interview with him. Nowadays they can pinpoint just a handful of people who decide elections (undecided voters in swing states), and he took the idea to its logical conclusion over fifty years ago.

Chayalle

Fri, Jun 16 2017, 2:06 pm

anon for this wrote:

Would you hesitate to introduce your child to the Narnia series, knowing that they are a Christian allegory?

I read them as a girl and never knew they were that, till I was older and read about that....

tigerwife

Fri, Jun 16 2017, 2:13 pm

anon for this wrote:

Would you hesitate to introduce your child to the Narnia series, knowing that they are a Christian allegory?

I've heard that but I still can't see the issue with the books. They don't sell Christianity at all, the similarities can be drawn but at the end of the day it's a book about magic, not a god. I just don't see Aslan in that way.

tichellady

Fri, Jun 16 2017, 2:16 pm

anon for this wrote:

Would you hesitate to introduce your child to the Narnia series, knowing that they are a Christian allegory?

Yes, doesn't bother me.

MagentaYenta

Fri, Jun 16 2017, 2:17 pm

Chayalle wrote:

I read them as a girl and never knew they were that, till I was older and read about that....

I'm with you. As a child I did not realize they were a religious allegory. After I was older (HS) and heard this I reread them. It was hard for me to understand all of that connection because at the time I'd really not had any formal education on world religions. Later I could put the literature into perspective based on learning factual xtain, dogma and theology.

Laiya

Fri, Jun 16 2017, 5:14 pm

Actually I did pick up on Narnia, as a kid. Idk how, I guess I had enough exposure somehow. I didn't figure out until the last book though.

I remember clearly, reading the description of the lion, risen from the dead but fully healed of his battle wounds, shining with radiance, and a lightbulb clicked on in my head.

I remember feeling angry actually, like I'd been tricked all along.

As an aside, interesting that CS Lewis and JRR Tolkein were good friends.

sequoia

Fri, Jun 16 2017, 5:31 pm

Why is it "interesting"? The Inklings - Lewis, Tolkien, Charles Williams, and others - enjoyed getting together and discussing their works in progress.

Lewis was Church of England, Tolkien was Catholic.

mommy3b2c

Fri, Jun 16 2017, 7:06 pm

MagentaYenta wrote:

Little Match Girl was the one that gave me the creeps (Anderson).

What did you think comparing the Mary Poppins books to the film? PL Travers hated the film. Travers herself is a fairly interesting and quite a sensational character.She had a Boston marriage for many years with Madge Burnand. I heard some tape of her on the BBC where she mentioned the origin of Mary Poppins.

There was a movie about it. Saving mr banks. It was terribly sad and had me crying hysterically. It was quite embarrassing. I felt like the whole theater thought I was nuts.

mommy3b2c

Fri, Jun 16 2017, 7:08 pm

MagentaYenta wrote:

I'm talking about Grimm, Anderson, Baum, Aesop, Barrie, and Carroll. Do your kids read them?

I had them all when I was growing up including some Andrew Lang and Afanasyev. I made sure that the kids had their own copies growing up so that they could pass them on.

I don't see very much of the PCing of fairy tales here, we liberal boomers did try to pass the originals on. And reading both the PC and classic versions made for some interesting dinner table discussion. What about your house?

I owned most of those when I was growing up. My kids own some of them.

mommy3b2c

Fri, Jun 16 2017, 7:14 pm

MagentaYenta wrote:

Thank you. I'm of the generation that seems to feel that Disney did a dreadful job with most of the movies they made from books. And it follows that once Disney purchased Saving Mr. Banks it was turned into a piece of Disney propaganda.

Mary Poppins was not a nice lady, and the character that Andrews portrayed in the film was far from how the original character was written or developed over 7 books.

Ok this is the end of my anti Disney rant.

I love Disney. And I love how they romanticize all the old fairy tales and folklore. Tarzan, repunzel, the snow queen, the Arabian nights...

mommy3b2c

Fri, Jun 16 2017, 7:21 pm

cnc wrote:

Dahl is known as having very anti -Semitic views.

I've actually heard that It's not true.

mommy3b2c

Fri, Jun 16 2017, 7:24 pm

tigerwife wrote:

And you may very well cry reading his poetry as an adult, too. Smile

I read the giving tree in sixth grade and I cried.

mommy3b2c

Fri, Jun 16 2017, 7:26 pm

tigerwife wrote:

I agree. I will be introducing them to my son soon. He's in middle of the oz books and just finished reading Harry Potter 7.

Aylat

Sat, Jun 17 2017, 6:43 pm

cm wrote:

We love the Percy Jackson series! Rick Riordan is a terrific writer, and "young adult" books are often more interesting to me than fiction intended for grownups. I think these books are fine for teens; I'm not sure what the problem would be.

As an FYI, one of the main characters in the Norse mythology series is gender-fluid and a lot of the plot centers around that issue. (Thor's Hammer, 2nd book in Norse series)

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