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LOST Between Times

Oct3

I am really excited. Just in time for the new season (which starts tomorrow night for those who do not live in a household full of LOST fanatics), I have deduced the exact location of LOST island. Well, almost, I know the longitude, not the latitude.

Let me back up and tell you where I got the brilliant idea that led me to this knowledge. I’ve been reading In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson. I have never read anything by Mr. Bryson, but he makes me laugh so I’ll be reading more of his stuff. Anyway, this book is about Bryson’s travels to and through Australia, and right at the beginning of the book I found it. Here’s the seminal quote:

Each time you fly from North America to Australia, and without anyone asking how you feel about it, a day is taken away from you when you cross the international date line. . . . For me, there was no January 4. None at all. All I know is that for one twenty-four hour period in the history of earth, it appears I had no being.

There is, it must be said, a certain metaphysical comfort in knowing that you can cease to have material form and it doesn’t hurt at all, and to be fair, they do give you the day back on the return journey when you cross the date line in the opposite direction and thereby manage somehow to arrive in Los Angeles before you left Sydney, which in its way, of course, is an even neater trick.

You see it immediately, don’t you? The LOST plane survivors somehow crashed exactly on the international date line, and they’re caught between two days. It’s not purgatory or heaven or hell, or a science lab, or even a real honest-to-goodness island; they’re in limbo. (Limbo: the supposed abode of the souls of unbaptized infants and of the just who died before Christ’s coming.) I just stuck the definition in for fun, although I’ll bet half of those LOSTies were unbaptized infants; I mean the kind of limbo where you’re in between two places, or in this case, two dates.

They’re stuck. They can’t go back to Australia, and they can’t go on to LA because they’re crashed in a time warp on the international date line. And when you get stuck outside of time or in between times, anything can happen. Polar bears survive on a tropical island. Dead men walk. Certain numbers might be holding the world together. Diseases are healed. Your raft gets pulled back to the same island you left. And when they do escape, they’ll arrive in LA on the same day that they left Australia —or the day before.

NOTICE: DO NOT tell me someone else already thought of this theory and posted it on some message board somewhere and it’s already been discredited. It may not be right (or even profound), but it’s mine, and I’m sticking to it. Unless one of you independently discredits my theory. Or I find a better one.

I’ll see you on the other side of the date line tomorrow night after LOST. May the good guys win, whoever they are.

Late-breaking news: The LOSTies may be lost forever. The Pope has abolished limbo. Question: If you get stuck in a time warp, and the time warp sort of limbo place you’re stuck in gets abolished in real time, where are you?
LOST!

The Secret River by Kate Grenville

Oct3

We just finished watching the PBS series, Colonial House, where a group of twenty-first century Americans and Britishers go back in time to the year 1628 and attempt to build a colonial settlement in rural Maine. One of the issues with which they had to grapple was their relationship to the Native Americans upon whose land they were building. I thought the issue was handled with way too much “sensitivity” and political correctness in Colonial House with the erstwhile settlers hanging their heads in shame and guilt over what their ancestors had done to the Native Americans and the native representatives obsessing over their lost heritage and the wrongs their ancestors suffered.

Then I read Kate Grenville’s Booker-prize nominated The Secret River. It’s not about Native Americans at all; it’s set in Australia, New South Wales. But it does show the ruthless subjugation of a native people from the point of view of the invaders, and yet I was brought to see the horror of what was done to the aboriginal people in Australia and, by analogy and implication, of what was done to the native peoples of America. The strength of this novel, however, is that the reader can see the tragedy of what happened when the British settled Australia and engaged in genocidal warfare against the native people, tragedy both for the aborigenes and for the English.

The Secret River is the story of William Thornhill who grows up in the late eighteenth century in the slums of London, has the great good fortune to become an apprentice and marry his master’s daughter, loses his livelihood because of medical bills and bad luck, becomes a thief, and is caught and transported with his family to Australia. That’s just the first part of the book, the lead-in to the real central purpose of the story which is to portray the “depredations and outrages” perpetrated upon and by the native aborgines and by and upon the English ex-convicts who took the aborgines’ land and made it their own. There’s plenty of violence in the book, not gratuituous, but rather uncomfortable. William and his wife, Sal, are fully drawn characters with completely believable motivations. They want security, a dependable living, a place for themselves and their family. The aboriginal people are less clearly portrayed, shown as they most likely were seen by the settlers, to be mysterious and unfathomable in their actions and motivations.

Since Ms. Grenville doesn’t choose to rewrite history, the fate of the aborigines in the book is clear from the beginning, and the fate of Thornhill and his wife is true to history, too. Thornhill gets what he wants, but “he could not understand why it did not feel like triumph.” A narrative picture like the one in this novel is worth a thousand pretend colonials feeling the pain of the native Americans for an hour or so on television. If we’re to avoid further genocidal episodes in our own time, we must understand not only what was done to the victims, but also why and how the perpetrators felt they had no choice but to commit genocide. Perhaps, then, such disasters can be avoided or stopped before they start.

The Secret River is a good, thought-provoking read. I don’t know if it will win the Man Booker Prize or not. Since I’ve not read any of the other nominated books on the short list, I can’t compare them. However, The Secret River at least deserves the recognition of having been nominated.

Visit Semicolon’s Amazon Store for more great book recommendations.

Week 8 of World Geography: Japan

Oct2

Music:
Robert Schumann—Symphonic Etudes
Robert Schumann and Mascot Ziff–Wheeler

Poems:
More haiku

Science:
Physical Science: Force, work, and energy

Nonfiction Read Aloud:
Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun–Blumberg

Fiction Read Alouds:
Li Lun, Lad of Courage–Treffinger
Born in the Year of Courage–Crofford

Picture Books:
What Does the Rooster Say, Yoshio?—Battles
How My Parents Learned to Eat—Freidman
Count Your Way Through Japan—Haskins. There is a whole series of these count-your-way-through books, and I think they’re lots of fun for little ones and elementary age children.
Tree of Cranes—Say. Allen Say is an amazing Japanese American picture book author and illustrator.
Tea With Milk—Say
Grandfather’s Journey—Say
Welcome to Japan–Auch
An Illustrated History of Japan–Nishimura
This Place Is Crowded: Japan–Cobb

Elementary Readers:
A Samuraii Castle—Macdonald
The Cat Who Went to Heaven—Coatsworth
The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn—Hoobler
Shipwrecked! The True Adventures of a Japanese Boy–Blumberg

Two Books by Nevil Shute

Sep27

On the Beach by British author Nevil Shute was published in 1957, the same year I was born. It tells the story of the last survivors of a nuclear war that has left enough radioactive fallout to eventually blanket the entire globe and annihilate all humankind. Almost the last inhabitable places are near Melbourne in southern Australia. The book is set in and near Melbourne and begins with T.S. Eliot’s famous words:

In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river . . .

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.


On the Beach may be the saddest book I’ve ever read. I’d add it to my list of Best Tear-Jerkers, but it’s not exactly a tear-jerker. It’s just ineffably sad. The world is ending with a whimper, and Shute describes the effect of that sort of hopeless situation on a group of rather ordinary people. I have a few quibbles with the way he describes it all; I think there might be more religion, and more violence at the same time, in such a world, but maybe it would be just as Shute says. I hope I never live in such a time and place to find out. This book was fascinating, in a morbid sort of way, but it’s as close as I want to get to the edge of hopelessness.

Nevil Shute Norway was an aviation engineer who started his own aircraft company and worked on the development of secret weapons for the British during World War II. Before and after the war, he worked as a novelist and wrote a total of twenty-four novels. He’s said to be better at plots than at characterization, but I found his characters in On the Beach and A Town Like Alice, the other of his books I read, to be quite memorable. Commander Dwight Towers of the U.S. Navy is a law-abiding faithful Dobbin of a ship’s captain who nevertheless is attracted to Moira, an Australian party girl. Jean Paget, in A Town Like Alice, is a heroine of uncommon depth and character although it takes a war and the Australian outback to bring out all the resources she finds within herself.

I must say something more about A Town Like Alice, especially since it was my favorite of the two books by Nevil Shute that I read. If the the two books have a common theme it’s that of ordinary people responding to extraordinary circumstances with courage and ingenuity. Much more upbeat than On the Beach, A Town Like Alice is a novel in two parts. The first part is about Jean Paget, one of eighty women captured by the Japanese on the Malay pennisula and then marched from place to place because their captors don’t know what to do with them. (This first part of the novel is based on a true event that happened in Sumatra rather than Malaya.) The second part of the story takes place in Australia as Jean comes to see that she is more than just a survivor; she’s also a builder, able to grow and thrive in the Australian desert.

Engineer Nevil Shute Norway does know how to tell a good story. I recommend both of the books I read. Just don’t choose On the Beach for a day when you’re already depressed about life and the world in general. It’s more appropriate for the times when you’re feeling a little cocky and need a bit of a sobering reality check. A Town Like Alice is useful for inspiration and a good, decent story.

On the Beach and A Town Like Alice have both been made into movies, each one twice in fact. The 1959 version of On the Beach starred Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astair, and Anthony Perkins. Nevil Shute hated the movie, but it made him famous and probably scared the heck out of a whole bunch of people.

Links:
Nevil Shute Norway Foundation.
Will Duquette at View from the Foothills has reviewed several of Nevil Shute’s novels.

Visit Semicolon’s Amazon Store for more great book recommendations.

Week 7 of World Geography: Japan

Sep24


Music:
Franz Peter Schubert—C Major Symphony
A Little Schubert–Goffstein
Franz Schubert and His Merry Friends–Wheeler

Mission Study:
1. Window on the World: Japan
2. Bold Bearers of His Name: Kanzo Uchimura
3. WotW: Buddhism

Poems:
Haiku

Science:
Atoms and Molecules

Nonfiction Read Aloud:
Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun–Blumberg

Fiction Read Alouds:
Li Lun, Lad of Courage–Treffinger
Born in the Year of Courage–Crofford

Picture Books:
Take a Trip to Japan—Ashby
Hachiko, the True Story of a Loyal Dog—Turner
The Bicycle Man—Say
The Funny Little Woman—Mosel
Crow Boy—Yashima
Umbrella–Yashima

Elementary Readers:
The Master Puppeteer-Paterson
The Big Wave–Buck
Takao and Grandfather’s Sword–Uchida
Sadako and the 1000 Paper Cranes–Coerr
Easy Origami–Montroll

Movies: Are there any good (English) family movies set in Japan? I’m coming up blank. I don’t really want WW 2 because that would probably present an American point of view.

Stay tuned for more on Japan next week. . . .

Week 6 of World Geography: South Pacific Islands

Sep18


Music:
Ludwig Beethoven—Ninth Symphony
Ludwig Beethoven and the Chiming Tower Bells–Wheeler

Mission Study:
1. Bold Bearers of His Name: Kiayi Palus Tosari
2. BBOHN: Ruatoka & Tungane
3. BBOHN: Joseph Kam
4. BBOHN: Deu L. Mahandi
5. Window on the World: Indonesia

Poems:
Rime of the Ancient Mariner–Coleridge

Science:
Measurement

Nonfiction Read Alouds:
KIDS Discover: Equator

Fiction Read Alouds:
A Question of Yams–Repp
Born in the Year of Courage–Crofford

Picture Books:
Come to My Place: Meet My Island Family–Kamikmica

Elementary Readers:
Call It Courage—Sperry
Twenty-One Balloons—duBois
Kensuke’s Kingdom—Morpurgo
Island of the Blue Dolphins—O’Dell
Kaiulani: The People’s Princess–White

Movies:
South Pacific
Father Goose

Any other suggestions? Do any of you know of any really excellent books for children that are set in Indonesia, the Philippines, Fiji, Samoa, or any of the other 30,000 islands of Polynesia, Melanesia or Micronesia?

Week 5 of World Geography: Australia and New Zealand continued

Sep11



Music:
Wolferl, the first six years in the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1756-1762–Weil
Mozart, the Wonder Boy–Wheeler
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Ein Kleine Nachtmusik K.365

Mission Study:
1. Windows on the World: Minangkabau
2. WotW: Sundanese

Poems:
Anne Bradstreet. We’re reading her poems not because she has anything to do with Australia, but because my American Literature at homeschool co-op is studying Bradstreet this week.

Science:
Boats

Nonfiction Read Alouds:
FACES: Australia through Time
KIDS Discover: Australia

Fiction Read Alouds:
Ice Drift–Taylor
And the Word Came With Power–Shetler

Picture Books:
My Grandma Lived in Gooligulch–Base
Koala Lou–Fox
Are We There Yet?–Lester
The Muddle-headed Wombat–Park
Diary of a Wombat–French
Pete the Sheep Sheep–French
Wombat Stew–Vaughan
We’ve already read several of these picture books, and so far my favorite is Diary of a Wombat while Z-baby likes Wombat Stew.

Elementary Readers:
Don’t Pat the Wombat–Honey
Walkabout–Marshall This book may be too hard for elementary age chidren, but I’m going to re-read it and see if I remember it accurately.
Storm Boy–Thiele Colin Thiele, the author of this book, just died last week. His most famous book, Storm BOy, was also made inot a movie. It’s about a boy and a pelican.
Blue Fin–Thiele
The Magic Pudding–Lindsay
The Complete Adventures of Blinky Bill–Wall

Movies:
Amadeus (for the older set)
Man from Snowy River

I got some of these ideas from the comments on my last curriculum post. Don’t be shy; if you have suggestions about what books, movies, or other resources we shouldn’t miss before leaving Australia to travel on through the South Pacific, please leave your ideas in the comment section.

Speaking of New Zealand

Sep5

Catez (see previous post) lives in New Zealand, a country she calls the Narnia Zone. We’re studying Australia and New Zealand together this week and next, and a kind reader from Australia gave me lots of suggestions for Australian children’s books and movies. She also suggested one movie/book for New Zealand, Whalerider.

Calling all Kiwis, any other suggestions? What books or movies would give my urchins a taste of New Zealand (other than LOTR)?

Week 4 of World Geography: Australia and New Zealand

Sep4


Music:
Franz Joseph Haydn—Farewell Symphony 45
Joseph Haydn, the Merry Little Peasant–Wheeler
The Boy Who Loved Music–Lasker. We have an ex-library copy of this picture book about Haydn’s Farewell Symphony, which is why I chose that piece for us to listen to this week..

Mission Study:
1. Window on the World: Fiji
2. WotW: New Zealand
3. WotW: Papua New Guinea
4. WotW: Samoa

Poems:

My Poetry Book
My Poetry Book: At Our House. This book is my favorite poetry book, published back in September, 1956 and nostalgically remembered from my childhood; it includes favorite poems by James Whitcomb Riley, Eugene Field, Nancy Byrd Turner, Laura Elizabeth Richards, Thomas Augustine Daly, Lewis Carroll and other old-fashioned poets. We’re going to read some poems from the chapter entitled, “At Our House” this week, and I might even be able to post some of them here since the poems are even older than the book and may be out of copyright.

Science:
Airplanes and Flight

Nonfiction Read Alouds:
Usborne: Australasia and Oceania
FACES: Australia through Time

Fiction Read Alouds:
Ice Drift–Taylor
And the Word Came With Power: How God Met and Changed a People Forever–Shetler

Picture Books:
Koala Christmas—Bassett
The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo–Kipling (Illus. Michael Taylor)
Take a Trip to Australia–Truby

Elementary Readers:
The Boy Who Spoke Dog–Morgan
Trouble on the Tracks–Napoli
The Pirate Uncle–Mahy
Red Sand, Blue Sky–Applegate
Playing Beattie Bow–Park. I read this time travel book that takes an Australian girl back to Victorian England a long time ago. I’m looking forward to finding it and recommending it to Brown Bear Daughter.
Sandy, the Girl Who Was Rescued–Blackwood

Movies:
Rescuers Down Under
OR Crocodile Dundee

Do my Australian readers have any suggestions about fiction, nonfiction, or movies that would give the urchins a taste of Australia?

Week 3 of World Geography: The Arctic and the Antarctic

Aug28


Music:
George Frederic Handel—Water Music

Mission Study:
1. Window on the World: Madagascar
2. WotW: Zulus
3. WotW; Animism
4. WotW: Hinduism
5. WotW: Islam

Poems:
It’s About Time—Lee Bennett Hopkins

Science:
Scientists and Inventors

Nonfiction Read Alouds:
Trial by Ice; A Photobiography of Sir Ernest Shackleton–Kostyol

Fiction Read Alouds:
And the Word Came With Power–Shetler
Ice Drift–Taylor. I’m looking forward to reading this Arctic adventure story with the urchins. Taylor is also the author of The Cay, a wonderful story about adventure and racial reconciliation and intergenerational friendship that takes place on a Caribbean island.

Picture Books:
Antarctica—Bagley
Anarctic Ice—Mastro and Wu
Little Penguin—Benson We read this picture book about a three year old Adelie penguin.
Little Penguin’s Tale—Wood Betsy-Bee read this story to me and to Z-baby.
Take a Trip to the Antarctic—Lye
Little Polar Bear and the Brave Little Hare—de Beer Betsy-Bee read this easy reader to me, too. It’s a simple story about a polar bear who gets trapped in an arctic research station, and his friend the snow hare who rescues him.

Elementary Readers:
Julie of the Wolves—George
Woodsong—Paulsen. Karate Kid is reading this adventure/nature story.
Trapped in Ice—Walters
How Did We Find Out About Antarctica—Asimov
Amazing Penguins and Other Polar Creatures—Johnson
Torches of Joy—Dekker. Brown Bear Daughter is reading this missionary story about the Dani tribe and missions in the South Pacific.

Other Books:
Wheeler, Opal. Handel at the Court of Kings. Again, I wish I could find this series of biographies of famous composers at my library or at a used bookstore.

Movies:
Shackleton. Actually, we watched this dramatizatization of the Shackleton expedition to the Antarctic on Friday night, and it was great. Kenneth Branagh made a convincingly strong explorer/leader, and we learned a lot about the dangers and beauties of the Antarctic and about the courage of some of the men who explored it. There was a subplot about two women in Sir Ernest Shackleton’s life, one his wife and the other his mistress, I suppose. I couldn’t figure out what having both of them in drama added to the story, nor did I even figure out who the second woman was until three-fourths of the way through the movie. Why, oh why, do film makers add in such extraneous stuff and confuse the issues?