Scape Ghost
It’s like an elephant went tromping by my window and shook the floor, skipping the record player to an irregular rhythm. I suddenly find myself dancing to the wrong beat.
You can find me under the hoods of cars these days, long-boarding through empty campuses, rewiring electrical outlets; places where if you saw me before, I probably had a drugged grin, strings tied to wrists and ankles, flailing to perform what I thought were empty tasks.
These days all books are as incomprehensible as Finnegan’s Wake; I’m as clumsy with writing as I was at sports, my hands like sledgehammers mashing keys. Inspiration is about as dependable as a sneeze. So I’m gonna dig up some old work: pages yellowed with age and humiliation.
Love sickness is real and I am infected. Either that or I have swine flu.
Here’s hoping for the latter,
CMH
April 20th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
EW.
April 21st, 2009 at 12:04 pm
I agree; I really like that artist’s style.
April 24th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
“The author has stuck to the original plot of WoO, including… the brutality: the tin man slowly hacking away all his body parts and replacing them with tin pieces.”
“Recommended to: …kids”
Hm.
April 24th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
I’m really glad you brought this up, Kevin.
Honestly, I think kids can deal with a lot more than we give them credit for. Look at some of the classic stories before they were adapted by Disney. Pinnochio kills Jiminy Cricket with a hammer in the first chapter, a woodsman abandons his children in the forest because his wife demands it, Ariel stabs herself in the heart. These were the tales our grandparents read, the stories that shaped their morality, their caution when they stepped out into the world. I for one think we’re too careful with kids these days, save a few exceptions. I guarantee the last three Harry Potter books are more inspired and educational than anything that can be seen on Saturday Morning.
What do you think? Have you read the original Wizard of Oz?
(Just for the record, I wouldn’t recommend this site to little kids. Not because we do anything terribly offensive, but because I think it would bore them to tears.)
-Christian
April 28th, 2009 at 5:26 am
Sadly, a lot (but not all) of today’s children’s stories and movies are nothing more than watered down and censored versions of the stories from my childhood - the stories that had me cuddling a little closer to my dad during a movie, or pulling the covers over my head at night. Stories by the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen are scary - and rightfully so! Children love the thrill and excitement of not knowing what might be around that corner. I think parents are often more frightened by the unknown or macabre than their children are. The Neverending Story, The Labyrinth and Dark Crystal are gloriously frightening, and they teach an important lesson to children - that the world isn’t all unicorns, marshmallow fluff and friendly dinosaurs. Some stories don’t have happy endings, and there is usually at least some grief, loss or irony in those that do. The tin woodman loses all of limbs and doesn’t get the girl in the end, and call me morose, but I rather like that.