Wed Reading Meme

1. What I just finished reading...

Lord of the Fading Lands by CL Wilson -- this is an "epic romantic fantasy series" that sort of clobbers you with fairy tale and romance novel cliches. And spends fare too much time on setting things up, and not enough on character. Also it's extremely repetitious. By the halfway mark, I was slugging my way through it. Do not recommend.

Not sure I'll bother reading the sequel, even though I do own it. Unfortunately, I bought it before I realized I didn't like the writer's style.

Eh, for a more in depth review, here's what I wrote on Good Reads:

( Read more... )

2. What I'm reading now?

Americanah by by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - which is about two Nigerian former lovers. One, female, Ifelemu, who moves to America for two years, and then decides to return to Nigeria. The other , male, Obinz, who went to seek his forturn in Great Britain, and has returned to Nigeria, gotten married and has a daughter.

I'm currently in the section in which each is relating their past or what came before. How they lived in Nigeria, going to University there and school, and their families. Obinze's mother is a University Professor. And Ifelemu's mother is an administrator, while her father had a government job before he was summarily fired, for not calling his boss, Mummy.

The woman are exceedingly strong in this book. More so than the men. Which is interesting.

It's not a romance (Obinze is unhappily married), more a literary coming of age tale about what it is like being Nigerian in this world.

The British, Americans and the Northern Europeans, basically the entitled white people who attempted to colonize and raid Africa, do not come across well. I hate to say this but if you go around colonizing other countries, thrusting your imperialistic might, and enslaving or undermining their inhabitants...you are bound to be portrayed by the inhabitants of those countries as irredeemable entitled assholes many years later. *cough*Karma*cough*

It's a fascinating novel, but somewhat depressing. So not sure how long I'll be able to stick with it. It's over 600 pages. And small type in a paperback. My aging eyes prefer ebooks, where I can increase the print size. Otherwise I have to wear reading glasses over the contacts. Like I'm doing now as I'm typing this.

Compelling yes. Uplifting and funny, no.

I don't know why literary novels, for the most part, are so depressing. There are a few funny ones here and there. But most are these poetic dirges of middle-class malaise. Either bad marriages, unsatisfying romances gone sour, bad friendships, dysfunctional families, etc.

Almost as if the only way you can be considered worthy by the esteemed academic literary canon is if you are depressing. (Well as long as you do it poetically at any rate.) I actually saw people condemn a novel for having a happy ending. As if a prerequisite for quality is well not ending happily.

I have no interest in writing depressing novels. It's not that I can't do so...I can. But seriously, why? Life is hard enough at it is.

Hmmm...on a poetic front, are there any witty poets wandering about?

Classic Children's Television Shows.

Why is it I'm wide awake and raring to go, now, but want to sleep between 6 -10 am, and 1-3PM?

Sinuses are bugging me a bit. I feel like I have a catch in my chest or some congestion. Probably combination of allergies and chemicals (paint and pesticides ie. Raid).

Off and on over the past few years, I've been discussing children's television programming with Doctor Who fans. Who keep telling me that Doctor Who is a treasured British children's series, and they didn't have much children's programming.

Culture shock. Television more so than movies depicts some of the cultural differences between our countries. For one thing when I visited France in the 1980s, I was surprised to see US series in French, same with Australia (they had US television shows, but not the new ones, reruns from five years ago). As did Wales and Britain. Actually, I found watching television during the summer in England and Wales to be a painful experience in the 1980s...not that I had reason to do it that often. Did see a lot of Fawlty Towers.

Anywho...I thought I'd skip down memory lane in regards to kids shows.

In the 1970s, I watched the following television shows as a child, near as I can remember. And my brother and I loved Saturday morning cartoons. We'd eagerly await the new cartoons...which premiered the third Saturday in September. They were on from 7 am to roughly 12 noon, on all the networks. We only had four networks and UHF back then. Prior to showing up on Saturday morning, the networks would air a preview of the upcoming series as a sort of advertisement on the Friday night before. So you could plan which ones to check out.

* Hong Kong Phooey -- sort of a take on Superman and Mighty Mouse. Except with a mild-mannered dog.
So imagine cartoon dogs playing all the roles in Superman.

* Sid and Marty Krofft's HR PufnStuf (aired from 1969 - 1971). I loved this show, but only vaguely remember it. (I was born in '67). A young boy named Jimmy has in his possession a magic flute named Freddie that can talk and play tunes on its own. One day he gets on a magic talking boat that promises to take him on an adventure. The boat happens to belong to a wicked witch named Witchiepoo, who uses the boat to kidnap Jimmy and take him to her home base on Living Island, where she hopes to steal Freddie for her own selfish needs. Fortunately Jimmy is rescued by the island's mayor, a six foot dragon named H.R. Pufnstuf, and his two deputies, Kling and Klang. Then his adventures begin as he attempts to get back home.

* Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids -- hosted by Bill Cosby (this was in the 1970s, when Cosby was still a cool guy, before all the allegations came out against him. And before you say anything about Cosby, keep in mind the same allegations came out about Trump -- actually they were worse, and people elected him President. Lando wouldn't let me hear the end of it. He's not wrong, we are a racist society. Sexist and racist. Just not bloody sure what I can do about it.) The show however was pretty good -- it was about a bunch of black kids in the inner city learning how to help each other and stand up to bullying and racism.

* Battle of the Planets (1978) - adored this cartoon

* The Muppet Show -- basically a light children's satire on variety shows and various cultural and political issues of the time, starring the Muppets.

* School House Rock - 1973 - 2009 (Schoolhouse Rock! is an American interstitial programming series of animated musical educational short films (and later, videos) that aired during the Saturday morning children's programming on the U.S. television network ABC. The topics covered included grammar, science, economics, history, mathematics, and civics.) -- this was the result of the Children's Television Act of 1969, which was updated in 1996.

* The Secret Lives of Waldo Kitty (which was an illegal adaptation of the Secret Lives of Walter Mitty starring cats and dogs...and got into trouble with James Thurber's estate, for well doing it without permission)

* Sesame Street (1969)

* The Brady Bunch (1960s, early 70s, mostly in reruns)

* The Monkeeys (1966 show, in reruns in the 70s)

* Batman (1966 -- in reruns in the 70s)

* The Addams Family

* The Archie Show (1968) -- became Archie Funnies in 1970s

* The Flintstones...

* The Jetsons

* Lost in Space - 1965 (A space colony family struggles to survive when a spy/accidental stowaway throws their ship hopelessly off course. This is basically the American version of Doctor Who.)

* The Pink Panther (1969) -- a cartoon based on the Blake Edwards films, except without the adult content.

* Tom & Jerry

* The Bugs Bunny and Road Runner Show

* The Hannah Barbara Hour

* Sid & Marty Krofft Super Show

* Free to be You and Me

* ABC Afterschool Specials

* Reading Rainbow

* Kimba - the White Lion (basically the story that Disney co-opted for The Lion King, except he didn't grow up and we just followed Kimba's adventures as he eluded his evil uncle, Scar.)

I googled and UK had kids shows.

See here: Classic Kids TV Shown in the UK in the 70s and 80s

We actually had some cross-over. But Tarzan the cartoon never to my knowledge aired in the US, nor did Book Tower, we had Reading Rainbow instead.