Posted by John on April 02, 2006 at 23:07:55 from 70.191.149.99 user Mcneacail.
In Reply to: Re: Children's writers posted by Peter H on April 02, 2006 at 20:01:47:
Peter:
No, I am not angry. I just love your postings.
However:
1. My Uncle is a stick in the mud, great guy. His step daughter was at Sydney University to study, she hated the dorms. He went down and bought her an old squat to live in, in 1980, it is now worth a million.
He wanted her to do her PhD, and she is very, very bright, so he offered her equivalent salary to what she was going to earn, tax free. I just love him, but he makes you laugh a lot, but he doesn't mean to. So do you tell your Uncle Michael Stories or not?
2. I teach fire officers how to get in and out of buildings without dying. It is very stressful because they look so bloody naive and they think I am an expert. It gives me nightmares at times, as does the memories of the Newcastle earthquake. I like reading AR to forget. I could do the Australian male thing and drink beer, but instead I read AR. So I think your comedian is full of s**t. She should try standing beside a burning building and see if she can crack a joke. She should ask someone to risk their life in a crumbling old building and then say, reading AR to relax or even HP is childish. I have a right to read what I want to read.
3. Children grew up real fast before 1930. We have forgotten that point. We let them serve in wars, etc.
So no I am not mad, merely pointing out the biggest mistake of the average critic - bloody hindsight and later knowledge.
AR is the best sailing teacher I have ever seen, because you can read the book and it makes sense. Try reading a sailing manual, they make me sleepy.
So I was just adding my two cents or Dinnar's worth.
Peter, at this point I would offer to give you a big wet sloppy kiss, but the Australian humour in that statement would be lost on most members of the TARBOARD, so I won't.
JMN