A Matter of Classification
Lately, I have been using the public library here in town a great deal more since I discovered that I could request inter-library loans over the Internet. That has helped to alleviate the aggravation of our branch's meager selection. But, there is something to be said for simply browsing the aisles and picking up books that interest me. This has led to a whole new set of frustrations with our library system.
First, let us imagine an author that you are interested in. For the sake of argument, let us say that author's name is Dan Simmons. Now, I have read several of his books and would like to find some new ones. In most libraries, I would just head to the fiction section and look in the 'S' section for the last name 'Simmons' an, lo, there would be books by the author that I want to read. Sure enough, if I do that at my local library, I can find a few books. However, I could also check the Mystery section — apparently, mysteries are not fiction after all. Look, there are a couple of Dan Simmons books over in the Mystery section. Oops, watch out, he has also written some Science Fiction novels; we had better check the Science Fiction section as well. Wait a minute... there are two Science Fiction sections, one for hard-cover and one for paper-back. I guess I have to check them both to see if he has any books. Oh wait, seeing the paper-back Science Fiction section reminds me, there is also a paper-back Fiction section! So, let us count them up: Fiction, Packet-back Fiction, Mystery, Science Fiction, and Paper-back Science Fiction! There are five different places I have to check to browse and see if this author has books in this library.
"Wait," you may be thinking, "this is the age of computers. Surely you can just use the same website that you used to reserve books to find what sections books by your favorite author are in!" If you have thought that, you and I are of like mind. That does narrow down the search to just one section when I find a book I want. However, this raises another issue. While searching the library's website for King Solomon's Mines
in the Classics section, but War and Peace
was in the Fiction section.
Reading Brown Bear to Baby
This morning, Emily decided to read a story to Baby. She picked her favorite story from when she was one: "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? ". If you are not familiar with the book, it is very rhythmic, repeating "Color Animal, Color Animal, what do you see? I see a next-color next-animal looking at me" over and over again, with each new color and animal chaining into the next one. We read the book so often when she was younger, so she was able to pretty much recite the story to her Baby. Periodically, she would forget which animal came next, so she would check to see if anyone was looking and then sneak a peek, very quickly, at the animal on the next page. Then she would continue on like nothing happened. It was too cute.
Thoughts on “Poltergeist”
On Halloween, I have a bit of a tradition: I like to watch a horror movie that night. The choice for this year was Poltergeist. I have seen Poltergeist many times over the years, starting from about the time I was ten. However, this was the first time I watched the movie since Emily has been born and the movie affected me differently. Every other time I have watched Poltergeist, I have identified with the little boy in the movie. A lot of really scary things happen to the little boy:
- He almost gets eaten by a tree,
- He sees lots of scary things occur, such as flying objects, ghosts, flashing lights, etc., and
- He gets accosted by one of the scariest, freakiest, clown toys that I have seen in a movie (Yes, I had a bit of an issue with clowns when I was younger, why do you ask?).
This identification with the little boy occurred well into my twenties. This is a horror movie — scary stuff happens, so you should be scared of it. This view of Poltergeist was different for me, though. Now, I have a two year old little girl of my own and I found that I identified with the parents in the movie much more than any of the other characters and that made the movie much more frightening to me than it ever really was in the past. Why? Well, let us examine what the parents go through in the movie.
First, their little boy almost gets eaten by a tree and, although the father is pulling and pulling, he really can do very little to stop it from happening. Next, they go back into the house and their little girl is missing. They search and they search, but to no avail — Carol Anne is nowhere to be found. Oh my God! She might be in the swimming pool. THE SWIMMING POOL! The abject terror that is evident on the parents' faces as they are searching for her is bone-chilling. Then, they discover that Carol Anne has been taken by the TV people. They can hear her over the static of the TV, they hear the fear in her little voice, but they cannot get to her — they cannot comfort her. Through the rest of the movie, the parents take all of the other strange goings-on in stride — they can deal with anything that the house can throw at them so long as they can get Carol Anne back. Finally, the parents manage to get their daughter back, only to have the spirits try to take her again. Once again, that feeling of powerlessness is overwhelming.
Poltergeist is one of my favorite horror movies of all time. Now, I can watch it and gain a sense of dread that I did not have before. It is like a completely new movie to me.
Another Emily-ism
This picture is of one of the lovely Willow Tree figurines that Ashley has been collecting since we have been married. I believe we were given one for a wedding present and, as our family has grown, I have bought more that represent our family as gifts for Ashley. To most of us, this is a representation of a mother and a daughter — I got this for Ashley as Emily really started walking around as a toddler.
Yesterday morning, as I was brushing my teeth, Emily came into our room and seemingly noticed this figurine for the first time. What did she think it was? "Here is Daddy and here is Mommy!" Do you think that she may be saying that Ashley is a bit on the short side?