(no subject)

The episode of Planet Earth I was just watching could have been designed for me, as it contained many of my favourite natural things - frogs, fungi, elephants, even carnivorous plants.

The bit on frogs was especially good fun - mainly concerned with the mating habits of tree frogs, which can tend toward the frenetic, Attenborough delivered the voice-over with enough offhand suggestiveness to render the whole thing quite hilarious.

Talking of hilarious, there is also footage of a male Bird of Paradise boinging arouind trying to impress a clearly unimpressed female which could have been shot at 1am on any Saturday night in this country.


Another thing worth noting is that I came across a very useful German word in the Economist today - Denkverbot, meaning "thought embargo" (usually as siomething which must be avoided). This is a wonderful word, not least because the prevalence of Denkverbot uin this country, mainly due to our repulsive press, that exacerbates half the problems we are currently wading through...

(no subject)

What apleasure it is to be back once again in the endless summer of Arthur ransome's lakeside imaginings c 1930, al terrific adventures and jolly chums together.

The world of the Swallows and Amazons books feels utterly fantastical to us now, and I daresay was a little so even then (I imagine the Lakes had more than a handful of tourists even in the Thirties), but it is a seductive fantasy. What I love is the sense that the whole world waits only for a mind (usually Titty's) to weave it into the story the characters are telling that day - that access to the imagination is something becoming rarer these days, and given the glorious pleasure an active imagination can provide you with, that is saddening.

The active, adult and cynical imagination, of course, also has a lot to play with through the S&A books. Quite apart from characters called Titty, Nancy, and Roger the Ship's Boy (no, really), there is enough intensity in tents and working up of muck sweats to fire the imaginations of a thousand bedroom scribblers. I would be very surprised if there isn't a healthy (?) trade in Swallows and Amazons slash, as there is certainly the opportunity, and there is the faintest suggestion sometimes that the Ransome kids might not be quite so wholesome as the lashings-of-ginger-beer mob over the way at Blyton Rock.
In fact, come to think of it, I do have a paragraph along those very lines somehwre in a wonderful book called "Never Rub Bottoms With A Porcupine", which only one person on my friendslist is ever likely to have heard of... Now, where is it...

(no subject)

Lo and behold, a Google search instantly spat out someone on LJ who writes S&A slash (and - gasp ye all in amazement at the originality - Harry Potter slash).

Apparently (and I quote her infotext) one of her favourite pairings is Dick and Titty. Not without allies there, I'd hazard...