h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Just heard an interesting programme on Radio 4 about the Dewey system of classification. I don't know if it'll be available on Listen Again.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/pip/a9gsv/

Sounds like you're having an interesting start to the week, Phil.

[LTP] ten hours between posts ...USA must be asleep

h2g2 was 'off the air' for the best part of 9 hours. I expect there'll be some explanation tomorrow ... After the techies catch a few winks.

Phew! That was tough, but I think we made it.

No, really--ltp was correct. All of us in the U.S. were asleep behind the stagecoach with Thaddeus.

Finally!

*hugs and kisses h2g2*

Speaking of the Civil War, I'm in the middle of reading 'Guns of the South,' by Harry Turtledove. Really a good book so far, and I'm not usually into historical fiction.

I'm finishing up the new Pratchett, and then it's on to a Walter Mosley mystery.

>>I beleive that the American Civil War Society is one of the largest re-enactment groups in the UK.

So... do the Union soldiers have Northern accents? Like Dr. Who?

[mr]

I enjoyed the new Pratchett, but well, we can take it to the library to avoid spoilers.

I am currently reading _Reading Lolita in Tehran_ by Azar Nafisi. So far I am rather intrigued by it.

I've read "Reading Lolita..." twice now. Once on my own and once for my book club. I loved it. It inspired me to re-read Nabokov's "Lolita" and Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby".

I couldn't get through Lolita. Nabokov is a tough read. I also kept picturing Jeromy Irons in it, having seen parts of the film he stars in.

Oh? I love "Lolita". Vladimir Nabokov is brilliant. He makes you *feel* for his pedophile. That's the mark of a good writer--the ability to make the reader sympathize and empathize, no matter the character. It's only the second time I've done that in my life. The other pro-pedophile (or at least, pro-sympathy) work of art was the movie Hard Candy.

Forget the Adrian Lyne version. Go with Stanley Kubrick. His version differs (what book-to-movie doesn't?), but you really need to picture James Mason and Peter Sellers in your head, Marv. It makes all the difference.

I should clarify that it's only one of the two times I've sympathized with a pedophile--not characters in a book or movie in general.

And still, please don't think that bizarre. It's a testament to the talent of the writer and director, respectively.

Good night all.

There's no doubt that Nabokov is a great author. You can actually see why HH acts the way that he does. It's incredible that he can make a sympathetic character out of a predator.

'ning - 06.01 here. Have been working for an hour and need a coffee break. A triple shot of espresso, Matina, please.

Lolita - never got around to that although the guys in my class giggled a lot.

I've just been writing an article about how kids, who have been sexually abused, risk to abuse other children. When their parents/close adults have shown no respect for their boundaries, the kids have difficulty in monitoring their own impulsions of 'I want this' and do not recognise other peoples' boundaries. The article was about a 12 year old boy abusing a friend of the same age - and the help he got so he will not grow up to become a sexually abusing adult.

When the his sibling, a four year old girl, visited a place with their foster parents (they were removed from their parents without consent), and the girl saw a pole in the middle of the room, she started dancing against it and called it a stripper pole.