Posted by Ed Kiser on May 25, 2006 at 17:55:22 from 64.12.116.6 user Kisered.
Except for ML, I have all the tapes, but not the SA CD.
I find it interesting to read along in the text to see what pieces got left out. And it seems to be a painless omission. One place it bothered me a bit was in WD, when they encountered the sailing fishing boats of the coast of Holland, with their blunt bows and leeboards as they were rolling in the seas, as this was an indication of what country they were approaching. That was totally skipped on the tape.
But they do provide a good intro into the books, with perhaps the teaser to now go back and really READ the book to discover all the neat things that got skipped. It could now become now a quest, a purpose for the reading, while at the same time being generally familiar with the entire story already.
Sometimes I wish the tapes were complete, yet, that would make them a bit tedious to go through, as well as add considerable to the number of cassettes that would be needed. Too many becomes a rather daunting project to start, so perhaps this is just as well. It must have taken considerable effort to come up with the edited script, with all the decisions that must have been made as to what to delete and what to include.
One big enjoyment of these is the accent of the speaker. Of course, with his Brit accent, it adds authenticity to the whole thing, especially when he is speaking in an imitation of the various dialects involved. With my American background, if I were reading this aloud, my attempt to imitate such would be far off the mark, and a bit silly if not just totally wrong, simply because I have never heard people speak from those areas being imitated, so what would I be imitating? Somehow, speaking in my traditional American Southern drawl, while trying to do "Cook-talk" would just blow the whole effort into silly giggles.
"Girt auld hen 'at wants to be cock o' t' midden." (PM CH6)
I'd never make it...
As for getting a 10 year old to listen to a 6 Hour tape, with no music in it... Have enough of a problem having him sit still for 5 minutes for any kind of activity.
There has to be a way to get that new generation to come to know and love these books, or at least, take a shot at reading one of them.. My failure to get any of my own 4 girls interested in even starting one has been a painful sadness, a gross failure of my life.
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(conversation with a daughter...)
"It's about this group of children sailing down a lake to an island and camping out there without their parents tagging along."
"Camping? Sailing? But Daddy, those are 'guy-things' and we're GIRLS!"
"Four of the six camping there ARE girls."
"No, Dad, those are tomboys that haven't learned to really be GIRLS yet." [quietly implying that they HAVE found that they were girls, and thus are disqualifying themselves for such behavior.]
Sigh... Struck out again...
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Reminds me of Nancy's reaction in SW to where they were reported shifting from the larger boat to their small sailboat to join the Swallows, when they were referred to as "Females", a designation that she had a rather indignant reaction to. Maybe this just goes to show just how immature, how much a child she still is.
But then, if they DID recognize the significance of their gender, Ransome would not have been able to write about them camping with boys un-supervised by adult chaperones, to be "proper" that is. For Ransome's characters, gender is not a factor.
Neither is having to go to the bathroom...
Ed Kiser, South Florida