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Re-read Charlotte Sometimes the other day
Oct. 2nd, 2015 12:16 amThe book was published in 1969, and probably set around 1962. Charlotte refers to 1918 as "more than 40 years ago" rather than "more than 50 years ago", and the book takes place not long after The Summer Birds, which was published in 1960.
This book is the one that introduced me to the Spanish Flu, for one thing, and also the Monkey Puzzle Tree. I spent years of my life wondering what on earth such a tree might look like. (This book also introduced me to the fact that there are people who are incredibly ignorant of history. Charlotte doesn't know whether the war in 1918 was the first or second world war. For crying out loud, how could she be so ignorant? I had no idea as a child, and I have no idea now. But maybe I shouldn't criticize - I confused the civil rights movement and the civil war for an embarrassingly long time.)
Anyway, I'm mentioning all this because I noticed something interesting in the middle of the book, two sentences:
1. It had a story in it, some bits of other stories, also drawings, rather brown and faded looking now, because done when Arthur was a boy.
2. It was an easy thought, Charlotte decided, because quite impossible.
Did you catch it? I must have read this book easily a dozen times or more, never noticed those sentences until this re-read. Because done. Because quite impossible. Here I thought that was really a very new construction, so what's it doing in a book from the 1960s? Once might be a typo, but twice?
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Pompeii: The Ancient Civilization With Perfect Teeth
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( Read more... )
This book is the one that introduced me to the Spanish Flu, for one thing, and also the Monkey Puzzle Tree. I spent years of my life wondering what on earth such a tree might look like. (This book also introduced me to the fact that there are people who are incredibly ignorant of history. Charlotte doesn't know whether the war in 1918 was the first or second world war. For crying out loud, how could she be so ignorant? I had no idea as a child, and I have no idea now. But maybe I shouldn't criticize - I confused the civil rights movement and the civil war for an embarrassingly long time.)
Anyway, I'm mentioning all this because I noticed something interesting in the middle of the book, two sentences:
1. It had a story in it, some bits of other stories, also drawings, rather brown and faded looking now, because done when Arthur was a boy.
2. It was an easy thought, Charlotte decided, because quite impossible.
Did you catch it? I must have read this book easily a dozen times or more, never noticed those sentences until this re-read. Because done. Because quite impossible. Here I thought that was really a very new construction, so what's it doing in a book from the 1960s? Once might be a typo, but twice?
When Schools Overlook Introverts
Scientists say an ancient megatsunami hurled boulders nearly as high as the Eiffel Tower
Historians still puzzling over East Germany after 25 years
Cockroach laying eggs, eggs hatching (video)
The (Real) Story of the White House and the Big Block of Cheese
Anti-Vaxxers Accidentally Fund a Study Showing No Link Between Autism and Vaccines
Beautiful Landscapes Painted on Fallen Leaves
The Amazing Inner Lives of Animals
The Earth-Twin Planet That Nobody Talks About
Amsterdam brothel owners must speak sex workers' language
The Story Of A Soldier And The Squirrel Who Never Leaves His Side
‘Friends’ Has New BFFs: New York Teenagers
Why Do So Many Americans Think They Have Cherokee Blood?
Pompeii: The Ancient Civilization With Perfect Teeth
When Postcards Were the Social Network
Childhood Stress May Prime Pump For Chronic Disease Later
It’s sleazy, it’s totally illegal, and yet it could become the future of retirement
Comcast’s brilliant plan to make you accept data caps: Refuse to admit they’re data caps
Why Science Can’t Say When a Baby’s Life Begins
Congress Still Bans CDC Scientists From Studying Gun Violence
Many school shooters, one common factor: a warped view of masculinity
Milosevic allies in power with new look, 15 years on
The Misery of a Doctor's First Days
Coke Spends Lavishly on Pediatricians and Dietitians
( Read more... )
