Books BC (Before Cinderella)

The Hobbit-- 1937.

Remember how Hitler was the Time Man of the Year in 1938? (Referenced in such movies as "Death at a Funeral" and "Beginners"?) Well, this is actually from BEFORE Hitler was the Time Man of the Year. That hadn't happened yet, for, like, a whole other year.

Which doesn't mean that this a bad book. No, it's good.

Although it does sorta explain, I think, one of the reasons, at least, why John Tolkien was so interested in creating imaginary worlds in his mind-- *because the world that he lived in sucked, really, really bad*. Incidentally, Chapter II of The Hobbit (the book, obviously) sorta explains how he felt about his own times-- what with trolls with really exotic made-up names like William and Bert and Bill or something. (Although I like to call him John, since he wasn't an elf, but English, and the way that George Martin stylizes his name to make it sound the way that John's name is stylized, sickens me, if you follow.) (Also, incidentally, how you get a three-part nine-hour movie series out of a simple novel that's about three hundred pages, (small pages, in my edition), is, like.... 'Hi, my name is Peter Jackson. Your name is shill, no?' So.... IMO, yo.)

This was also the year that Steinbeck, (another John, lol), wrote something.... 'Of Mice and Men', right.... yes. Which is actually a pretty good book, I think. So it was during the career of that Twentieth Century Classics Guy. Hemingway was active during this year/time too, I think.... yup, he wrote 'To Have And Have Not'. Which I actually have not read, since there are alot of books in the world, even if you don't count the ones that suck, which are numerous.

And, yes, 1937 was also the year of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs".

Or the Seven Trolls, if you like.

Or the Many Unpleasant People.

(Although at least now we know that 'The Hobbit' is about as long as 'The Lord of the Rings', thanks to our advanced modern knowledge.)

.... It was also the year that they made a film called "The Hurricane", with.... actors, I guess? Although the 1999 film with Denzel Washington, ("His greatest fight was for justice", such a cheezy tagline, although sometimes that's exactly what taglines are for), is, I think, *slightly* more famous. Yes.... with movies, you're usually not bothered by the cr--*cough*, *stuff*, that happened before the middle-80s, at least.... even though there were practically no good movies until the middle-90s, at least.... *usually*, at least.... IMO.

.... Were there television shows in the 1930s? Were there televisions? Wasn't that one of those 50s/60s things?

I think it must have been.

Pride & Prejudice-- 1813.

This was actually about the time that the Brothers Grimm were compiling the ancient fairytales which Disney's movies are based on.... well, the ones that aren't fake-o nerf-y sci-fi movies like "Atlantis: The (*cough*Spock*cough*) Empire".

It was also the time that Franz Schubert was active.

Mozart's opera "The Marriage of Figaro" wouldn't premiere in America (in New York) until 1824.

I think that there must have been at least a few thousand in New York City by 1813.

Although the weather was probably about the same.

Yeah.... I bet that it was probably pretty much the same.

.... I'd wonder aloud when Disney is going to do Jane Austen, except I'm afraid they'd cast Leonard Nimoy and George Takei.

(BTW-- Star Trek: 1966. Target audience: cast of "Apollo 13".)

The Symposium-- kindof a long time ago.

(No, really, think about it-- John Tolkien was born in 1892, and he was 25 in 1917. Plato was born in 424 BC or thereabouts, or he was 25.... uh.... Well, incidentally, I'm not sure if Plato was ever *really* 25 in the sense that would be even vaguely intelligible to us-- Owen Wilson was born in 1968; he turned 25 in 1993. For Plato it never happened like that. Nor with John Tolkien, but with him, you can *almost* figure it out, *kinda*.... but with Plato the distance is so vast....)

Not as good as Jane Austen.

Actually rather disturbing.

Also happened indescribably long ago.

Actually a good book.

It's interesting to look at the work of Aristotle to see which ones are still useful in a sense of actually being good for something and practical, and which ones are merely.... of antiquarian interest, and making money for Loeb and Barnes & Noble or whatever.

Is his "Politics" really useful? In the way that John Locke is, I mean? (Even that isn't, you know, but I think you know what I mean?) What about what he wrote about.... I don't know.... the noble walrus, perhaps?

But there's still this.

1536.

And Psycho.

They didn't even have Vivaldi back then, *let alone Mozart*.

.... But, you know, they were still trying to convert the Jews and all that bogus stuff in 1950, sure.

So.....

(It amuses me that Wikipedia is pedantishly delighted every time a lady is appointed as senator ('old man') in the distant land, but he can't bring himself to say anything bad about JOHN CALVIN, or *actually* listen to any of John Lennon's or Paul McCartney's songs....)

('.... thunderstruck theocracy!....')

{*cough* I mean, 'I wake up to the sound of music....' I do like the Beatles, you know.... only psychos don't, don't ya know....}

1911.

Also 1911-- "The Secret Garden".

(As well as before the whole prolonged incident with the creepy Germans....)

{And, yes, Bismark and his sons weren't stupid-- they were just creepy.... sorta like Stephen King, you know....}

.... Count how many people named John, though. (No, really.) John is such a great guy; he can do so many things, both good, and evil.

*smiles* Drama, lol.

{'John naturally desires to know....'}

{And he doesn't have to be bad....}

Dear John (novel)-- 2006. movie-- 2010. Peripherally related: I saw the movie Ryan the Gosling was in, with Steve Carell-- "Crazy, Stupid Love" (2011); Ryan was also in "The Notebook" (2004), based on another novel by Mr Sparks.... 1996. (I did not know that.) Oh, my, god, Ryan Gosling is *so* much cooler than Channing Tatum.

I mention this because--

*has a thought*

John Tolkien: Cast it into the fire! Destroy it!

Peter Jackson: No.....

And that's why you suck.

{"I studied at Oxford University." BECAUSE YOU'RE A STUPID BROAD!}

*remembers something* *laughs*

Why Wic-- *coughcough* Why we suck.

*laughs*

*smiles*

Witches really do suck though; they're (all) so goddamn immature.

.... Now, Odin, on the other hand, he doesn't need books-- if he needs to write something, he just carves it into a tree with his magic runes.

(That's so metal. So fucking metal. ^^)

Maybe Odin will give you wisdom for the yuletide.... which is actually.... yesterday. I always think of it as being the 23rd, but it isn't always, is it.

"Excavation"-- what a great song. And that's the year Adam made the "Mr. Deeds" picture, and it's the year that "50 First Dates" happened.

.... 'TO BE GIVEN THE MEAD!' ^^