Into the light and out of the dark, to be with his red-haired lady

[sovay]

1. I am pleased to see that there is now an award named after the childhood author I had to keep describing to people, because rushthatspeaks is the only other person I've met who's read her. Apparently I was just in the wrong country. Maybe now I'll be able to find a copy of Devil on My Back (1984).

2. I am sad that my first week as a thirty-year-old has been mixed at best and all my plans for this weekend have disintegrated. Fortunately, I will be able to console myself on Sunday with Case Histories—Peter Pan (2003) reminded me that I do not have enough Jason Isaacs in my life. I was also reminded by Dreamchild (1984) that I've never written about that film, but it won't be happening this afternoon.

3. Have an interview with Tilda Swinton.

I'll be proofreading.

Comments

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Maybe now I'll be able to find a copy of Devil on My Back (1984).

I could order you one right now in the UK, and if it's here by this time next week I could bring it to the US and post it to you from CA. Is that unnecessarily convoluted?

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

Ah, it would seem you've encountered the 'famous in Canada' problem. I have that one a lot, usually when I invoke some cultural touchstone of my childhood and people look at my blankly.

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

Seconding the "famous in Canada" syndrome/problem. I grew up with Monica Hughes as just being there, the same way Ruth Nichols (The Marrow of the World, A Walk Out of The World) was. Or Dennis Lee. Only in Canada, eh? Pity.

Gotta say, I also love how the Tilda interview contains links that lead to another Tilda interview, amongst other things. I wonder how far you could follow that chain...

[sovay]

Is that unnecessarily convoluted?

Dude, are you serious? I've been scouring used book stores without success since high school. That would be amazing.

[edit]

There has been an offer from someone with a duplicate copy downthread, I should let you know.

[sovay]

I have that one a lot, usually when I invoke some cultural touchstone of my childhood and people look at my blankly.

Just out of curiosity, like whom?

[sovay]

Or Dennis Lee.

He wrote songs for Fraggle Rock! He's obscure?

(I will admit I totally missed his work for adults.)

Only in Canada, eh? Pity.

My elementary school library was like this. I also read Jacob Two-Two.

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

Robert Munsch is a chief example of this phenomenon, Gordon Korman also falls into this category, though both of them have had relatively substantial crossover since.

Other examples, say from television include Megan Follows and just about anyone who's renowned from the Stratford Festival, which is also world famous in Canada.

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

Discovering that Dennis Lee had written the songs for Fraggle Rock a few years ago was part of that surreal year where I discovered that all the songs I grew up with were written by people I'd already heard of who were moonlighting in Canadian children's television. The other example was Malvina Reynolds, who wrote a huge number of songs for Mr. Dressup, the seminal Canandian children's television show.

Also I have a vague memory of having heard Mordacai Richler read Jacob Two-Two at my library, though it might have been the sequel. I have, somewhere, on vinyl, a recording of Jacob Two-Two which I really ought to convert to MP3.

[sovay]

Robert Munsch is a chief example of this phenomenon, Gordon Korman also falls into this category

This is firing off all sorts of long-dormant connections in my brain. I didn't recognize either of their names, but I have distinct memories of The Paper Bag Princess and the Macdonald Hall books. And the one lampshading the entire genre of children's books where somebody's dog dies. Whoa.

Other examples, say from television include Megan Follows and just about anyone who's renowned from the Stratford Festival, which is also world famous in Canada.

Heh. I don't really think I can count the Stratford Festival, because mostly I looked everyone up after discovering Slings & Arrows in 2009 (and imprinting on Stephen Ouimette, who now confuses me slightly whenever he doesn't have a British accent), but I can say the first version of The Mikado I ever saw was the taped production from 1982, Richard McMillan as Pooh-Bah.

[sovay]

all the songs I grew up with were written by people I'd already heard of who were moonlighting in Canadian children's television.

I have that happen with voice acting. Just reading the cast list for Watership Down (1978) can really hurt you if you're not braced for it.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

I checked my inventory, I have a second copy of it, if desperance hasnt ordered it already, you can have my dupe. its the 1986 Starfire paperback. Tag me with your addee and I will mail it next week.

I love her work, still one of my fave YA.

[sovay]

Tag me with your addee and I will mail it next week.

Thank you so very much!

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

but I can say the first version of The Mikado I ever saw was the taped production from 1982, Richard McMillan as Pooh-Bah.

That was my very first formal exposure to G&S! I saw it on television with my parents when I was seven. Probably CBC or TV Ontario.

I went to Stratford to see Romeo and Juliette when I was nine or so, with my mother, and back again to see A Midsummer Night's Dream when I was twelve, which left me more theaterstruck and spellbound than I already was (which was some feat, given that I had grown up reading and rereading Ballet Shoes and wanting to be Pauline. I thus adore Slings and Arrows and have been showing it to various people over time.

I love the Macdonald Hall books, particularly Go Jump In the Pool and The War With Mr. Wizzle. I also imprinted heavily on Our Man Westing, No Coins Please, Don't Care High, Son of Interflux and A Semester in the Life of a Garbage Bag, to say nothing of the Bugs Potter duology. :)

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

I went to school with Megan Follows. My Mom know her Mom, Dawn Greenhalgh.

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

I have that happen with voice acting. Just reading the cast list for Watership Down (1978) can really hurt you if you're not braced for it.

I can certainly see how that would happen. I was so traumatized by the initial sequence in the film (it was rented for me when I was seven and my parents had gone out, I feel bad to this day for my poor babysitter who had to explain why an abstract and diffuse cartoon personification of death would not be able to come in through my bedrom window) that I didn't actually get to the main part.

I seem to have spent a lot of my childhood afraid of things that looked abstract, witness how thoroughly frightening I found the Red Bull from the animation of The Last Unicorn. This led to a really intersting revelation in college when I was studying psalms. By then I had internalized the text of the novel, and as I was reading psalms, came across the source text about the enemies of Zion covering their footprints and pushing them into the sea, and suddenly wondered if what I'd been having as a seven year old was existential terror or racial collective memory.

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

That's funny! I know her primarily from the television productions of Anne of Green Gables, though I did read an interview with her in TV Guide ages ago at the height of her early fame, where she talked about being on a nude beach in France and being approached by a fan who thought that she and the actress who played Diana were 'the sex goddesses of Green Gables'. That she was utterly naked at the time did not help the tone of this encounter, though she did play it for laughs in the interview, which gave me a favorable impression of her sense of humor.

What is she like in person?

[teenybuffalo.livejournal.com]

No Sovay here on Sunday? Rats!

Next time, Gadget, next time...

Anyhow, if the mountain won't come to Mohammed, Mohammed must go to the mountain. I'll pester you later about some fun stuff next weekend.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

It's Tildas all the way down.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

I am sad that your plans have come to naught, but glad that you've found a book you've been missing. I hope to see more of the second in the rest of this, your 31st year.

[sovay]

witness how thoroughly frightening I found the Red Bull from the animation of The Last Unicorn.

Dude. That's because it's terrifying. And I say this as someone who was first consciously shown the movie in high school.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Okay. If you want a hardback, I can get it for you. You need but say.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

1.

I'm glad to hear of this.

2.

I'm sorry to hear of the disintegration of your plans. I hope things improve soon. I hope you enjoy watching Case Histories. I very much liked the 2003 Peter Pan; it dealt better with some of the complexities of the story, I thought. The edginess of it, to use a terrible cliché.

3. Have an interview with Tilda Swinton.

For a moment I thought you were saying you yourself had an interview with Tilda Swinton; fortunately, I realised what was actually involved before I congratulated you on the fact. Interesting interview, in any event. Thank you for sharing it.

I'll be proofreading.

Hope it's productive, and ideally pleasant as well.

[sovay]

If you want a hardback, I can get it for you. You need but say.

Argh. Decision freeze.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Gordon Korman also falls into this category, though both of them have had relatively substantial crossover since.

I read the McDonald Hall books in the US during the mid-80s.* Do you think he's had more extra-Canadian exposure since then?

*I have to admit that I'm not sure many others did--I don't remember those books coming up as a common specimen of childhood reading in the same way as, for a sample, crummy Mercedes Lackey novels stand as a common specimen of early-adolescent reading, but that might just because most of the people I'd talk about books with would be fen.

[sovay]

it dealt better with some of the complexities of the story, I thought. The edginess of it, to use a terrible cliché.

I don't think it's edgy, but it's aware of all its currents, under and overt, which is rare.

For a moment I thought you were saying you yourself had an interview with Tilda Swinton

Oh, I wish!

[sovay]

I am sad that your plans have come to naught, but glad that you've found a book you've been missing.

There's a sequel, The Dream Catcher (1986), which I discovered in middle school, but I don't remember it was as compelling. I have better memories of the Isis trilogy—The Keeper of the Isis Light (1980), The Guardian of Isis (1981), The Isis Pedlar (1982)—but I'm a little afraid to re-read the last one; I think it may have been suffering from Space Irish.

I hope to see more of the second in the rest of this, your 31st year.

Thank you.

[sovay]

....Tiiiiiiillllllllllda.

I still don't have an icon of her. I should have screencapped Caravaggio.

[sovay]

No Sovay here on Sunday? Rats!

It's been that sort of week. All week.

Anyhow, if the mountain won't come to Mohammed, Mohammed must go to the mountain. I'll pester you later about some fun stuff next weekend.

Sounds like a plan to me!

[teenybuffalo.livejournal.com]

All week.

Damn it. I think you get a do-over for the first week of your thirties. Actually, someone gave me a do-over, but I don't need it because my first week has been fine. You can have it. Start it at a moment something pleases you, and it will go from there.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's edgy, but it's aware of all its currents, under and overt, which is rare.

That is a better way of putting it, I think.

Oh, I wish!

I wish you did as well. It would make for interesting reading.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

May the next 51 weeks of 30 be splendid. You deserve no less.

At least there was fabulous film--and Tilda-ness.

Nine

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Pfft. I see your freeze and raise you a thaw. Reprint, ex-library: it's allegedly in good nick, and it's costing me pennies. I've ordered it. It's a present, birthday girl.

If it arrives before Sunday next, it'll come to CA with me and I'll be nagging you for a snailmail address (assuming you're not coming to WFC?). If not, we'll get it to you later.

[sovay]

It's a present, birthday girl.

Okay; wow. Thank you so much!

(I wish I were coming to World Fantasy, but I am poor. Have a wonderful time!)

[sovay]

May the next 51 weeks of 30 be splendid. You deserve no less.

Thank you. I would like that.