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Janet

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Posts posted by Janet

    Do teenagers still read books?

    in Children's / Young Adult

    Posted

    Depends largely on their upbringing, education and background in my view.

    I completely disagree with this.

     

    My husband and I are both readers and yet neither of our children are. I resent the implication that they must therefore have been either bought up badly, are being badly educated or have any kind of issue with their 'background'.

     

    They just choose to do other things with their lives. And no, that doesn't include underage drinking, smoking behind the bike sheds, bunking off school or mugging old ladies.

    Will American English Become the Norm?

    in General Book Discussions

    Posted

    My grandparents have lived all over the place, including Texas and Germany and they have very heavy unplaceable accents and use a very different form of English than the rest of our family. I guess its more old fashioned. They call couches 'davenports' pants 'slacks' (even jeans), say waursh instead of wash and they pronounce my hometown of Aberdeen (Aber- dean) ABBR- deen. :)

    I call a couch a sofa or settee! I only know of Davenport being a type of writing desk so I wonder where that came from - Germany, perhaps?

     

    Slacks are what old people wear! :P

     

    The one that tickles me is hearing a person's fringe called 'bangs' - it sounds funny to me! :smile2: (No offence meant :D ).

     

    Now I'm sitting here trying to say Aber-dean versus ABBR-deen and I can't hear any difference between the two! :)

    Janet's *very* long-term Around the World challenge

    in Reading Challenges

    Posted

    Thanks. :D

     

    So far, most of them are just by chance - I've liked the sound of the book and the fact it's written by someone from 'x' country that I haven't read yet is just a bonus.

     

    I've also found Wikipedia most useful with pages like the following:

     

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_African_writers_by_country

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Central_American_writers

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Asian_literature

     

    And some ideas I've seen on other people's lists. :)

     

    I'm not expecting to get anywhere near finishing it, but it's nice to have a go! :D

    Candide or Optimism by Voltaire

    in The Classics

    Posted

    This edition translated by John Butt.

     

    012-2010-Mar-17-Candide.jpg

     

    Candide or Optimism by Voltaire

     

    The 'blurb'

    Candide was the most brilliant challenge to the idea endemic in Voltaire's day that "all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds."

     

    It was the indifferent shrug and callous inertia that this 'optimism' concealed which so angered Voltaire, who found the "all for the best" approach a painfully inadequate response to suffering, to natural disasters - such as the recent earthquakes in Lima and Lisbon - not to mention the questions of illness and man-made war. Moreover, as the rebel whose satiric genius had earned him not only international acclaim, but two stays in the Bastille, flogging and exile, Voltaire knew personally what suffering involved.

     

    Candide, the illegitimate nephew of Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh, falls in love with the Baron's daughter, Cunegonde. The pair are caught by the Baron embracing in the garden, and Candide is "kicked up the backside" and thrown out. He is coerced into the Bulgars' army from which he escapes and makes his way to Holland. There, he meets up with his old tutor, Dr Pangloss, who informs him that Cunegonde and her entire family have been massacred.

     

    What follows are a number of curious adventures that take Candide and various different travelling companions to Portugal (where he discovers that Cunegonde is not dead after all!), then to South America where they travel through many countries, including El Dorado, the mythical city of gold, where he obtains great riches. Finally in his pursuit of his beloved Cunegonde he travels back to Europe and has various escapades there. Will he and his lost love ever be reunited?

     

    This episodic novel was first published in about 1759, as a witty and sarcastic attack on the theory of 'Optimism' - the belief of (amongst others) Leibniz, a German Philosopher, who subscribed to the theory that "God assuredly always chooses the best" - in other words that although terrible things happen, they are always the best things that could possibly happen because they are God's will.

     

    The character of Dr Pangloss is based on Leibniz - in the novel he and Candide encounter some terrible events, but the doctor always has some "bright side" reasoning for them.

     

    I'm finding it quite difficult to put down my thoughts on paper. I wasn't really sure what to expect from this book, but was a surprisingly easy read. The story is... somewhat strange to say the least, and the reader must suspend disbelief at some of the things that happen! For example, in one adventure, Candide comes across two naked ladies who are being pursued by two monkeys. Candide kills the monkeys only to discover that they were, in fact, lovers of the two women! Anyway, the best way I can think of to sum up is just to say that it's a very bizarre storyline in places, and yet I enjoyed reading it!

     

    Has anyone else read it?

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