(no subject)

[oyceter]

So my day has mostly consisted of spending lots of money. I reserved a copy of Harry Potter from a bookstore around here... it's amazing how international the HP thing is! Which is, of course, to my advantage. I can't believe all the Taiwan bookstores have basically already sold out of OotP, even though they're only stocking the English copy right now! I guess it's kind of like me wanting to learn Japanese so I could read manga as soon as they came out. So hopefully I will have a copy by the 26th, in the nice Bloombury edition, which I like much better anyhow. I don't quite get why the American publishers felt as though they had to change certain Britishisms -- I read stuff like Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe, Five Children and It, and etc, etc, as a kid, and while the British words sometimes confused me, they never really put me off reading a book. Well, with the exception of the rendition of Martha's accent in The Secret Garden. But then, I read Little Princess and decided to pick up the Secret Garden again anyway.

Speaking of which, I wonder why so much of the good kid lit out there seems to be British? L.M Montgomery, C.S. Lewis, Philip Pullman, Lloyd Alexander, Ursula K. LeGuin, Frances Hodgson Burnett, tons and tons more... or maybe I was only given mostly British stuff?

Anyhow, I want to post a picture of me and my new straightened hair in my funny, girly, very Taiwan-like clothes, except I can't use my university webspace anymore. Sigh.

I also did much avoiding of the fact that I have to get a job. Mostly, it just reminds me of all the things I can't do.

Comments

[windiain.livejournal.com]

I also did much avoiding of the fact that I have to get a job.

I've been doing that, too. I'm also avoiding remembering I put an application in the post. Mweh!

[scrollgirl.livejournal.com]

Speaking of which, I wonder why so much of the good kid lit out there seems to be British? L.M Montgomery...

Eep! I feel kinda bound by patriotism to point out that Montgomery was Canadian. She was even born in Prince Edward Island, in a little village called Clifton (later New London). I should know, I visited her house when I was 11 on a family road trip!

But yeah, Lewis and Frances Hodgeson Burnett were two of my favourite authors when I was a kid. I didn't start reading L'Engle (hey, an American!) until I was older. So mostly British authors, don't know why...

Is it strange being back in Taiwan? Or have you visited often enough during your uni years that it doesn't seem like a big change? Know what you mean about getting a job. Handing out resumes in a no-fun ongoing process :(

[hecatehatesthat.livejournal.com]

Speaking of which, I wonder why so much of the good kid lit out there seems to be British?

I've noticed this too. I guess it could be that i was given British stuff too, but as I recall I've been picking out my own reading material since just this side of forever, and I've still come up all Brits in the favorites pile.

I've always loved the Britishisms, too -- they get into my head and the way I think, and sometimes they come out when I speak and people look at me funny. Not that I particularly care.

I started reading OotP the other day after putting the kids I was babysitting to bed -- it was their copy, I haven't actually bought one, I'm going to steal my step-brother's when he's done -- and I actually noticed more british phrases than I recall seeing in the other four books. It could just be that I didn't notice them before because they're not strange to me, but I really can't remember anybody using even the word "bloke," which is why I noticed it when Harry said it. Or I could just have been tired. ;)

[oyceter]

Isn't denial a lovely cushy place to live?

[oyceter]

So know Montgomery is Canadian too! Silly me... her books made me desperately want to visit Prince Edward Island.

Being in Taiwan actually feels pretty normal... I come back here about twice a year, and the strangest thing is, I think I've pretty much gotten over culture shock going to and from NJ to California to Taiwan.

And resumes suck... anything that is supposed to summarize everything you can do in a page sucks.

[oyceter]

I've wondered about that ever since reading a Salon.com article comparing the Wizard of Oz to Narnia, and by proxy comparing American kid lit to British kid lit.

Oooo, you got your hands on it! I'm quite jealous. I'm wondering if the publishers have started to let more Britishisms in the books now that the audience for them is pretty much secure and will very likely not be alienated by strange vocabulary. But this is why I still like getting the British editions in Taiwan. Gotta love globalization!

Culling your list further

[dherblay.livejournal.com]

I would make some attempt at explicating your wonderment by pointing out that science-fiction and fantasy have a long history in Britain of being less separated from the mainstream (witness Brave New World and 1984) and have drawn more literary-minded writers (Ballard, Brunner, Burgess) in Britain than in America, and that this would certainly carry over to children's fantasy, and probably be compounded by the fact that there has long been a trend in Britain of writing children's books that adults can enjoy going back at least to Lewis Carroll, while in America, other than Dr. Suess, most children's writers become ghettoized as children's writers, but instead I'll recognize that I cannot defend any of that and just point out that Ursula K. LeGuin is, in truth, an American.

Re: Culling your list further

[oyceter]

Yay! Another non-British one! And of course the wonderful Madeleine L'Engle, whom Scroll kindly pointed out to me. Then there's Meredith Ann Pierce and Donna Jo Napoli and Jane Yolen... And then, on the British side are heavyweights JK Rowling right now and Diana Wynne Jones (who I just found half a year ago and therefore am extremely enthusiastic about).

Here and first got me thinking about it... I can try posting text versions if the day pass thing isn't doing it again.

But I do hope that Harry Potter will make fantasy and YA/kid lit more respected, so people will read the people I love!

Re:

[oyceter]

Thanks! D'Herblay pointed that out too.

Yeah... so far I have everything but the first book (ironically, given the title change) from Taiwan, straight from Bloombury. It's wonderful you can get them from Edinburgh!