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

Hallo there. You seem to be into a whole load of things I like--AND you can quote Coleridge. You are clearly a person of great intelligence and excellent taste, just like me.

Is Narnia *really* banned over there I'd have thought its extremely Christian overtones would have made it compulsory reading in all schools.

Hello Snailrind.

Actually, in all honesty, I don't believe that Narnia is banned around here... but Harry Potter is banned in the elementary schools in the county next to mine. People getting all uptight about the book talking about witches and wizards and magic ... heaven forbid kids use their imaginations around here... they finally start reading something, and the silly 'grown ups' go and take it away.... As far as Narnia... most parents probably would see the word 'Witch' in the title, and forbid it on those grounds. Unfortunately, people around here are very close-minded and don't really look for the symbolism in things. And I doubt that most people around here who have read "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe" realize that there is a whole series of books... you can't really pick up on the whole allegory without reading all seven books. -- I can really get on a soapbox about this stuff... closed-minded holy-rollers really get on my nerves --- religion can be a good thing, but around here (the Bible Belt of Southern Kentucky) people can really take it to the extreme... if you question the norm, then you're automatically going to hell and silly stuff like that... Which is really disappointing since these books are so wonderful.

~The Oracle, Knower of all things Random and Irrelevant~

Eek.

Well, it's nice to know that the Bible Belt of Southern Kentucky is also producing people who prefer to think for themselves.

I must say, your Masters subject looks very entertaining. Or are you at the tearing-out-hair stage that all postgrads seem to go through?

Me being at the "tearing-out-hair" stage CAN be pretty entertaining. But I enjoy it none-the-less. Stress and all... its still rewarding.

And yeah, I get on my soapbox occasionally about all the closed-mindedness around here... but I'm not that stereotypical... there's a few cool people around here, too. And our elementary schools don't ban books like that or anything... that was a school in a neighboring county that had banned Harry Potter from the classrooms because the parents were getting so irrate about it.

I've done a lot of work in a child care center in our county that had branches at all of the elementary schools here... so I've known a lot of kids... and it just disappoints me that there is so little emphasis on reading... and most of that deemphasis comes from the parents... kids have to read at school, but it isn't reinforced in the home... so the kids hate doing it... there are so many people (adults) around here whose primary reading material is Wheels-&-Deals, Playboy, and Sports Illustrated... I've spoken to people in their 40's who havn't picked up an actual book since they were in highschool... and it really shows in their kids language development, writing styles, and school grades.

Ok, I know you're tired of hearing me rant and rave...... Sorry 'bout that. I'm really not a complete raving lunatic (only a partial raving lunatic )...

So, I take it you like Narnia... they've been some of my favorite books since my dad read me "The Lion, The Wich, and The Wardrobe" when I was five. I've actually been meaning to go back and read them in the order they were meant to be read (I've only read them in chronological order, except LWW, I read it about 50 time before I even got the rest of the books)... but I don't have as much time to do recreational reading as I would like... I'm usually stuck reading text books and academic journal articals (Blah!)... I did, however, just finish Douglas Adams' book, "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency"... it was hillarious... if you haven't read it yet, I would definately recommend it.

Thanks again for putting up with my ranting and raving...

~The Oracle, Knower of all things Random and Irrelevant~

"I know you're tired of hearing me rant and rave..."

No, no, not at all! I enjoy reading a good rant every now and again. It's entertaining, and saves me the trouble of ranting myself.

I had heard that HP had been banned from some American schools. As you say, it's a crying shame. If only those parents would put down their Wheels-&-Deals (is that a real mag?) and try reading the books before judging them. I used to run a bookshop, and one of the best things about the job was seeing young kids getting excited about the books. Philip Pullman was really popular among the local kids and frowned upon by religious parents. Have you read any of his books?

Yes, I got into C. S. Lewis when I was very young, and read all the books. I loved the thought of being able to talk with animals; The Horse and His Boy was my favourite, I think. The cartoon of LWW got shown a lot to us Premie kids during festivals, because Aslan was considered a good allegory for Maharaji as well as Jesus. (If that last sentence makes no sense, see the intro to my old personal space: U234735.)

"you can't really pick up on the whole allegory without reading all seven books"

I thought the allegory was the most obvious in LWW, what with Aslan sacrificing himself to save the good creatures of Narnia, and his resurrection and disappearance afterwards.

I've read the Dirk Gently books, and they really are class. Oh, to be a writer like Douglas Adams!

"I thought the allegory was the most obvious in LWW, what with Aslan sacrificing himself to save the good creatures of Narnia, and his resurrection and disappearance afterwards."

I absolutely agree, and the allegory is even more noticable in LWW after you've read the other books... but people around here don't seem to like putting in a lot of time thinking about things... they like it nice and spelled out for them.... Lemmings! They're all lemmings!... most people just think its a cool kids' story...

I loved The Horse and His Boy (I loved them all, really)... but I think my favorite is The Voyage of the Dawn Treader... or maybe The Magician's Nephew (I love how it all began)... Oooo, I can't decide.

Here's a cool Narnia site:

http://www.narnia.com/index.htm

"If only those parents would put down their Wheels-&-Deals (is that a real mag? )" -- Yeah, it is a real mag. It has listings of all these cars/trucks/etc. for sale... you can find a lot of vintage cars and stuff in it... It actually isn't that bad if you're into vehicles and whatnot, but it definately isn't classic reading material.

I havn't heard of Philip Pullman... what sort of stuff does he write? If he makes the religious parents mad, I'd probably like him.

"I've read the Dirk Gently books, and they really are class. Oh, to be a writer like Douglas Adams!" -- I havn't read Teatime yet, but I've got it, and its next on my list... Its just a question of finding the time between reading boring textbooks and academic research articles and doing all that other useless stuff like eating and sleeping.

I went to your old 'My Space'... you seemed to have a really interesting childhood... Are you Indian, or was that a cultural path chosen by your parents? I work with a guy from India, and Its so fascinating hearing him talk about his home, and the customs of his family... I'm also taking a class in Diversity right now (all these things are kind of forefront in my mind)... For a class project we just completed, we each had to watch a television show/movie in a foreign language, without subtitles... and I got him to lend me one of his movies... and it's amazing... I loved watching it, even though I couldn't understand a word of it.

~The Oracle, Knower of all things Random and Irrelevant~

"Lemmings!"

Good computer game, that.

"They're all lemmings!"

That's an insult to lemmings, I'm sure. They're not as dumb as they look, y'know: they've just had a bad press. (The lemmings, that is.)

Actually, I hear that the whole myth about them following each other over cliffs took off after a British nature documentary, during which the film crew physically herded and chucked them over a cliff because they couldn't get the poor critters to do it naturally.

I haven't managed to view the Narnia link yet--I've got the wrong computer looking-at gizmo thingy. I'll try again in a bit.

Does "wheeling and dealing" have the same connotations of dodginess over there as it does over here?

I'm pretty certain you'd enjoy Philip Pullman. He doesn't simplify his text just because he's writing for kids, and he seems to be on a bit of a one-man campaign to get kids to think things through for themselves. He's against the authoritarianism that goes hand-in-hand with organised religion, and his books tackle some tough questions about that kind of thing. But that's all a kind of background premise to his rip-roaring adventure stories, which are set in a magical version of this world. If you track down any of his stuff in a library, I'd recommend starting off with Northern Lights, which is the first of a trilogy which gets more anti-religious-authority with each book. (That's if you ever again find some spare time for reading!)

No, I'm not Indian, though my grandparents on my Mother's side grew up in India as part of the British Raj. Which is odd, because he was Dutch and she was Spanish.... I don't know much about it, other than that they were extremely racist, with tons of skeletons in closets, and we have a great big pink family tomb in India. The Maharaji thing is mainly to do with the fact that my parents are hippies.

"Diversity"--I'm guessing that's some kind of sociology-type thing? It's amazing how much of a film can be picked up from the context, isn't it? When I lived in Greece, we used to be able to pick up Albanian TV. The Albanians stole Italian transmissions of stuff like 'Lassie' and 'Heidi', so we'd end up watching American TV shows dubbed into Italian, with Albanian subtitles.

I notice you have a couple of bettas. They really are beautiful fish. Have you got the blue sort or the green sort? I've been thinking of getting one or two myself, but I'm not sure how easy they are to keep. Any advice?

Hey, Lemmings... I love that game... I actually have it on my computer, but had forgotten it was there until you just reminded me... Thanks!!! -- I havn't played that in ages.

"Does "wheeling and dealing" have the same connotations of dodginess over there as it does over here?" -- Yep... usually used in reference to one who swindles, scams, or rips you off... kind-of but not really anything like our campus coffee shop that charges $4.87 for a coffee smoothie (thats about 2.60 pounds)... now, I don't know how much a coffee smoothie costs over there... but thats preposterous over here (they do make a damn good smoothie, though)... ok moving on from that tangent...

Hey, a big pink family tomb... thats kind of cool... in a morbid sort of way ...

My parents were hippies, too... they didn't live in a commune, though... they were more of the stoned-in-a-basement-listening-too-fleetwood-mac-and-pink-floyd sort of hippies... Although, my mom did scream obsenities at all the Klansmen at a KKK rally once, while my dad was trying to pull her back through the car window so she wouldn't get lynched...
...I also grew up with a lot of Asian influences... my dad is a Kung Fu master (lots of cool sharp toys to play with when I was a kid)... we lived in a house once where all the neighbors (who happened to all be Southern Baptist) got irrate because we had a Budda statue in a flower bed in our front yard... my dad kindly removed it... I would have added five or ten more... at least... or conducted a naked pagan ritual around a bonfire in the front yard or something... (I'm kind of passive aggressive like that.)

My Diversity class is actually a Psychology class... the proper title is "Diversity Issues in Counseling and Therapy"... its purpose is to prepare us, as psychologists, to work with a culturally diverse client population... its actually a really cool class, except for being at 8:00 in the morning (and I am not an early bird)... and the professor is really strict about being there on time... but we do get into some pretty awesome discussions... there's nothing like a good early morning arguement to start your day.

My Bettas are a really beautiful dark scarlet red ... I have a male and a female (Hugo and Lydia)... but I'm not sure if I'm going to breed them or not... I'm kind of new to the whole Betta experience myself, and I'm just not sure if I want to take that next step in 'their' relationship... >>< They are really easy to keep, though... they are able to live in small fish bowls/containers... they utilize oxygen directly from the surface of the water, so they don't need aerators or filters... you can even put them in a container with a hydroponic peace lily (I don't know what else to call it... the plant is directly in water, and the fish lives under the plant and nibbles on the roots)... all you really need to do is feed them twice a day and change their water about once a week... oh, use Distilled Water ONLY... they don't like the minerals in spring water or the chemicals in tap water... and they like warmer water, but mine live in a rather cold basement (refer to my postings in your journal ), and they're doing just fine -- Oh, and keep them seperated... especially two males... females can live together, but the males are really aggressive...I just read a book about owning Bettas... thats why I'm so full of all this trivial Betta fish knowledge. - now if only I could remember my textbooks like that...

~The Oracle, Knower of all things Random and Irrelevant~

Hallo again. Sorry about my long absence in the middle of talking to you: I've been kinda busy.

"now, I don't know how much a coffee smoothie costs over there..."

Coffee smoothies haven't been invented over here yet. We have to make our own entertainment....

"my mom did
scream obsenities at all the Klansmen at a KKK rally once, while my dad was trying to pull her back through
the car window so she wouldn't get lynched... "

I don't suppose you've read 'Them' by Jon Ronson, have you? This Jewish journalist went undercover to a KKK rally, and his account of their prissiness is really funny.

I suppose your dad's removal of the Buddha statue was a very zen response. Me, I'd have added ten more as well. Speaking of naked pagan rituals, there's this standing stone on my stepdad's farm, and he has convinced several hippie tourists that if you dance around it with no clothes on, you'll get rich. (Winding up tourists is the highlight of the year when you live in the middle of nowhere.)

Thanks very much for the betta advice. But I have to ask--why Hugo and Lydia?

Kung fu... I had a kung fu lesson once.

Hey... welcome back...

Thats too bad you guys don't have coffee smoothies... you're missing out.

I havn't read the Jon Ronson book, but I may have to check that out. It sounds interesting.

Thats hillarious about the hippie tourists dancing naked around the stone on your stepdad's farm. I live in the middle of nowhere, too, but we don't have tourists... nobody cares about coming to see cows and tobacco and corn and squirrels...

Why Hugo and Lydia for my Betta fish?... well, it all has to do with these antique family pictures I have... I was always fascinated by these pictures when I was little, because nobody really knew who they were beyond the fact that they are relatives (they date back to the 1800's and some of them are even tin-types). I would get them out and look at them every time I was at my Grannie's house (a couple of years ago, she went on and gave them to me)... anyway, someone else in our family had, at some point, tried to research the photos, and came up with a few names and connections, but still couldn't really find much information... and Hugo and Lydia were two people who kept recurring in the photos... they're last name was Rex (my Grannie's side of the family is German)... and I always thought that Hugo Rex was one of the coolest names ever, and Lydia seemed to go with him (I believe she was his sister)... and when I got the fish, for some reason unknown to me, those were the first names that popped into my head (despite the fact that I havn't looked at those photos since Grannie gave them to me two years ago)... ... so that's that story.

~The Oracle, Knower of all things Random and Irrelevant~