Sailing off on the ships to nowhere

[sovay]

The mail has brought my contributor's copy of Not One of Us #61, containing my poem "From Lima to Beijing." Like I said when it was accepted, the Outer Antipodes is one of the oldest stories between me and spatch; it is important to me that it's in print. The issue's theme is another world and its fine list of contributors includes Gemma Files, Holly Day, Gordon B. White, Lisa Mason, and Elisa Subin. Anything else you want to know, pick up a copy!

1. I have been interacting elliptically with the news lately, but I saw about the death of Agnès Varda. She was not an unreasonable age for it and I had been sort of braced to read about it one of these days, but I am still sorry. I liked the world with her in it.

2. I had never heard of William Attaway's Let Me Breathe Thunder (1939), but I want to find a copy now. From the same site, I like how Imogen Sara Smith writes about Detour (1945).

3. I can't remember the links-of-links by which I discovered the Iditarod poodles, but that was a thing.

4. I really like the idea of Lawrence Ferlinghetti Day: William Taylor Jr., "On the Occasion of Lawrence Ferlinghetti's 100th Birthday."

5. From several different places on my friendlist: "How Inuit Parents Teach Kids to Control Their Anger." The interactive storytelling aspect really interests me.

Every now and then I remember that Emma Orczy died in 1947 and I wonder what she thought of Pimpernel Smith (1941).

Comments

[cmcmck]

The Baroness has a street named for her in Budapest, which is a thing I rather like! :o)

[sovay]

The Baroness has a street named for her in Budapest, which is a thing I rather like!

I agree!

[sholio]

Oh, the Inuit parenting link is really fascinating! (And makes me want to try to work harder on controlling my own frustration and anger.)

It also made me think about how Western parents do the storytelling thing too, or at least my mother did - not to the same extent and not in quite the same ways, but basically that thing. I laugh about it now, but when we were little kids, my mom ALWAYS had a proverbial friend-of-a-friend's child who died doing the exact stupid thing we were doing, ranging from someone who choked to death while eating too fast, to a child she (supposedly) used to know who died from looking up while knocking icicles off the eaves of the house and having one pierce their eye and enter their brain. Kids won't stand up straight? There was some lady she supposedly knew who had died of cancer because of poor posture that displaced all her internal organs. And so forth.

I also remember the Iditarod poodles from my childhood. :D

[sovay]

I laugh about it now, but when we were little kids, my mom ALWAYS had a proverbial friend-of-a-friend's child who died doing the exact stupid thing we were doing, ranging from someone who choked to death while eating too fast, to a child she (supposedly) used to know who died from looking up while knocking icicles off the eaves of the house and having one pierce their eye and enter their brain.

This was not a parenting technique in my family, but I have heard of it, and also now I cannot shake The Gashlycrumb Tinies.

I also remember the Iditarod poodles from my childhood.

That's awesome.

[muccamukk]

Really love that Taylor Jr. poem.

[sovay]

Really love that Taylor Jr. poem.

I'm glad! I liked it as a poem in its own right and it also made me want to re-read Ferlinghetti, which means I think it did what it meant to.

[julian]

Oh, if you're not news-focused-- did you see about MA banning conversion therapy?

[sovay]

Oh, if you're not news-focused-- did you see about MA banning conversion therapy?

My mother told me! My reaction is half finally, but the other half is really glad.

[between4walls]

Apparently Baroness Orczy was living in occupied Monaco at the time the film came out, which might account for why it's hard to find a comment on it from her.

Given her (highly excessive) levels of British patriotism during WWI, I don't think she'd have minded her work being used for that purpose in WWII, though.

[sovay]

Given her (highly excessive) levels of British patriotism during WWI, I don't think she'd have minded her work being used for that purpose in WWII, though.

Well, I'm glad to hear the second part of that sentence!

[between4walls]

She wrote in her memoirs about living under the occupation here. http://www.blakeneymanor.com/books/links/link34.html

[between4walls]

TW for descriptions of the Holocaust.

[gwynnega]

That poem for Ferlinghetti is great.

[sovay]

That poem for Ferlinghetti is great.

Everything about it made me happy, including that Ferlinghetti is still alive.

[landingtree]

That parenting link is very interesting! When I read about parents telling their children things like "If you don't ask before taking food, long fingers could reach out and grab you", my reflexive response is 'Do not deceive children!' I probably get that from my parents -- they made a deliberate choice to avoid saying like that. We had a great number of stories and a great number of explanations, but sectioned off from one other.

But reading on, the system in the article sounds loving and effective. The dramas especially.


Also, joy in poodles.

[sovay]

But reading on, the system in the article sounds loving and effective. The dramas especially.

I really liked the concept of the dramas, especially the playfulness, not didacticism. Because children, like adults, really do use fiction—play—to work out things they are thinking or feeling, and I like the idea of the adults entering into that mode to interact with the child.

Also, joy in poodles.

I had had no idea!

[brigdh]

I too really want to read "Let Me Breathe Thunder" now! It sounds fascinating. Thank you for the link. The Lawrence Ferlinghetti article is also just wonderful.

I came across the article about Inuit parents a few days ago, and was really struck by how similar what it describes is to how I deal with my cats (not having any children to practice on). Not so much the storytelling, but this part: "With little kids, you often think they're pushing your buttons, but that's not what's going on. They're upset about something, and you have to figure out what it is." Cats - a bit like eternal toddlers – aren't really capable of misbehaving in the way of adult humans. If they're doing something I don't like, my job is to change their habitat in such a way that they have a different outlet for the activity or don't have access to the dangerous item, not to scold them.

[sovay]

Thank you for the link. The Lawrence Ferlinghetti article is also just wonderful.

You're welcome! I am honestly surprised that the NYRB or someone has not reprinted the Attaway novel.

If they're doing something I don't like, my job is to change their habitat in such a way that they have a different outlet for the activity or don't have access to the dangerous item, not to scold them.

That makes sense to me. It also reflects the way I hear people talking about small children: if they're acting out, they're not doing it to get at you, they're unhappy and they're just transmitting whatever it is that's bothering them. (But it has more application in my personal life with cats.)