How to Kill a Vampire

[wolf]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

In my youth "horror" was the Wolfman (Lon Chaney), Dracula
(Bela Lugosi), and Frankenstein (Boris Karloff).
I've not followed this current vampire/zombie craze, which I guess
started with the now defunct TV series, Buffy, The Vampire Slayer.

I blame Anne Rice and her damnably introspective and whiny vampire who got interviewed. Shame of the whole vampire community, he was.

But I'm wondering what will come along to kill off the current craze
the way Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein did
with humor and ridicule back in the 40's.

I was sure it was going to be The Hunger Games, but that clearly didn't have the staying power of sparkling vampires. Too close-ended of a storyline.

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

Hmm... I'm pretty surprised to hear everyone talk about Lord of the Flies like it pushes the envelope of school appropriateness. I know Austin is a pretty progressive place to have grown up, but still. In addition to Lord of the Flies, we read Clockwork Orange, watched Dangerous Liaisons (with permission slips for the butt nudity, but nobody's parents refused,) and the theatre department actually performed Equus.

In defense of the whole English education system I was the only person who reacted this way as far as I know. For everyone else it was just a set text,

I read 1984 and Animal Farm by choice and again had a reaction that I didn't see replicated amongst my classmates when we read them later. "Yo uare the dead" made me scream and throw the book across the room. I felt violated.

I was a delicate flower.

[DanaC]

I think my favourite text was Catch 22. I remember our teacher reading the section where Yosarian is in the airplane and one of the others has bene hit by shrapnel. he keeps saying how cold he is, and when Yosarian pulls his jacket away he sees the lads intestines spilling out.

Mr White held us spellbound with that reading. There was total silence.



And there were no permission slips for watching Equus (because of the nudity).

[Aliantha]

I have never read Lord of the Flies or 1984. I feel like such a philistine! lol

I think I should though.

[Sundae]

You're not a philistine for not reading them, but I think they repay the effort.
My favourite George Orwell is A Homage to Catalonia, which we did not read in school.
Ditto Laurie Lee's As I walked Out One Midsummer's Morning (we read Cider with Rosie.)

No doubt you've read some Australian classics I've never heard of.
Aussies and Kiwis have some outstanding children's authors - Margaret Mahy for example.

I read Picnic at Hanging Rock recently. Okay it's not highbrow, but I was embarrassed to have missed it all these years. Tim Winton is anothor author I'm late discovering, as is Thomas Keneally.

[DanaC]

1984 was an amazing book. How old would I have been in 84? 12. I was 12 and 1984 was everywhere! My favourite band did the music to the movie(though the directors cut has more orchestral scoring). We read excerpts from it in class, I watched the movie, and the charts were playing Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four)" Julia and For the Love of Big Brother.

I felt steeped in it, for a couple of years. I used to listen to the album on headphones. I could still describe half the scenes in the movie. The book itself was amazing. I loved it as a sci-fi novel.

I remember when Winston was in his secet little rented room, and through the window he oculd hear a 'prole' woman singing a maunfactured pop song. Something thrown together by a computer to entertain the proles. She was hanging out washing on a line, singing her little song along to the radio. That whole room. The privacy of it and the way that's shattered. The way allies are traitors and lovers a risk. And the joy of some simple little ordinariness, some innocent little pleasure away from the overbearing state.

[eta] This stuff still sends a shiver down my spine. This was the atmosphere of the book for me.


terribly dated now of course :p

[DanaC]

I wasn't that bothered about literary classics on the whole. But 1984 and Lord of the Flies both played straight into my adolescent love of dark and dystopian visions.

[xoxoxoBruce]

terribly dated now of course :p

Unfortunately, no. Very relevant today.

[DanaC]

Oh heck, I just meant the electropop :p Alas, very relevant in content.

[glatt]

I think she meant all that synthesizer music. I love me some Eurythmics, but the synthesizer stuff is hard to take in large doses.

Edit: Double plus un-good, me typing just a little too slowly.