Edited: gone like magic

I appreciate the positive comments.

I hated poetry as a kid. I used to moan when homework was to learn a poem. I'm very poor at rote learning. I have to understand something to remember it. Poetry can be very dense and can take time to unpack - that's what the fascination is with it now that I'm older. The economy and artistry really tick my boxes.

Reading poetry is only a recent thing with me. I visited Yeat's grave several years ago and picked up an anthology of his work and that might have been the seed. I read it a fair bit now - I'm gradually reading the big names like Larkin, Betjeman, Elliot, Cavanagh, Heaney etc. but I've discovered some unlikely poets.

Clive James' work at the end of his life is one discovery. Just didn't associate him with that type of thoughtfulness.

An interest in the arts has grown as I have aged. When I was young I was into the STEM side of things. Mathematics, science and later information tech. I have always liked writing - when I was a kid I loved creative writing and I always did well in English exams.

I arrogantly and ignorantly wrote art off as something done by people who weren't very bright. That's because I saw art (painting, drawing) as a means of just replicating reality. I enjoyed music but again didn't really consider musicians as intelligent people.

I have of course seen the light in recent years. The mathematics of music was probably the first thing that made me consider the arts as being just another way of perceiving the world - and mostly parts of the world that science cannot explain.

Scout wrote:

@tin Creatively it's not exactly what I want to be doing but I've got absolutely no complaints as it's paid writing work and I need all I can get. It's also fantastically refreshing in many ways compared to the 'proper' projects I've got on the go. I have 2 films in development at the moment. One of them has been on the go for 12 years (I shit you not) and the other for around 8 years. My main TV project has been in development at the BBC for a few years now. After an enormous amount of work over the last two years we got a 'maybe' yesterday. So it's back into the development cycle with that one. Conversely with the rom-com stuff it's lightning fast. This new one I'm working on will take around 6 months from the point of commission then it goes straight into production. So it's a real breath of fresh air in that respect.

That's really interesting - thanks.  It sounds like a good way to keep honing your skills, and earning some money, whilst you pursue the stuff you're more passionate about.  (12 years...)

The mouse one is pretty bleak TBH, and feels like it's discouraging imagination, ambition and difference.

Paul the sparky wrote:

Conform or die

A sentiment all children need to learn in their formative years.

This just in…

Minnesänger wrote:

Jon literally supports genocide.

JonB wrote:

Is there nothing in your ideology between conformity and genocide? Mice of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your cheese!

Of course there is. And, indeed, my reading of the text left greater room for that possibility. I did not argue that the status quo = good and difference = bad, merely that rejection of the status quo = / = good.

Still, let's not butt heads on this - I try to build bridges across the entire political spectrum (unlike those snowflake kids nowadays) so I'll look past your support of what happened in Myanmar. 

We all agree the innkeeper in the 2nd story is a tory, right?

hylian_elf wrote:

I certainly hope no-one supports the genocide (ethnic cleansing) of the Rohnigyas, which Aung San Suu Kyi defended.

I certainly don't, and if more people had read Wondermouse there would have been more like us, Elf.

If Jon was French we'd call him Philippe Philoppe, such is his ability to u-turn

I dropped a speaker cabinet on a mouse once by accident, and was fairly distressed about it.

That kinda thing can sometimes be de-stressing too.

Surprised it didn't hear that coming. Must've had cheese in its ears.

Diluted Dante wrote:

Hello people. My Grandad wrote a whole bunch of short stories in the late 80's/early 90's, but they've been out of print for nearly 20 years now. If you're around my age you may have read some, or used some of his textbooks. I would like to get them republished, but I'm not sure if they perhaps need some slight editing. They were written for Primary school ages, but maybe the language used it a bit outdated in places.

Could some of you give a read over a couple of the stories, and if any of you have kids see what they think of them?

Wondermouse and Other Stories is on the Internet Archive, and I'll post a couple of them from it below. If anyone can give some feedback it would be most appreciated.

Wondermouse









The Filthy Stranger

I tried reading the rest on the archive - but I’m currently on holiday with a dodgy internet connection so…. Yeah, that didn’t work. Will try again when I’m home in a week or so.

I suppose the question is what sort of editing you think they need? From a pure language / grammar perspective I’m sure they’re fine. (Or at least better then mine.).

There’s an argument for editing to bring them more up to speed with modern sensibilities - as Jon has implied. But that may well destroy your Grandads original intent. (There are several ways to tweak Wondermouse to sound less like “change=death” and more “beware blindly following people just because they’re promising change” but you’d need to be very sure which message is the one your Grandad was going for, and whether he would welcome any changes anyway…)

Wondermouse could be a cautionary tale about demagogues.

Moot_Geeza wrote:

I tried the app but viewing seems restricted to one or two pages.  Tilly reckons she'll read/review these if you can get me the full text.

You need to sign in to 'borrow' the book.