In the search for wierd and wacky books...

I managed to track down some of the original Rescuers novels from the Hamilton library.

You know, cute little 1977 Disney film about the mice that save people?

Well, the movie is based on an out-of-print series of books that started in 1959. I recalled reading a book on animation history that discussed that the original content of the Rescuers novel had to be changed to appeal to a wider audience. Thus, my curiosity in finding the novels.

I mean, it's a KIDS book. It can't be that bad, can it?

The Rescuers (the first one, at least) is, in fact, a very Cold War book. The main plot deals with the rescue of poet from what may be in the Eastern Bloc. His crime? "Free verse", apparently. The Rescue Aid Society, the name of the mouse-run organization in the movies, was the Prisoners' Aid Society in the books, a group founded because mice are the only friends that prisoners have. While the subject matter is handled gently in the book, it's not hard to imagine that it could get heavy very quickly.

Another odd point of note is the way females are portrayed in the story. The books are written by a woman, Margery Sharp. Yet, you get these odd references to the female gender throughout the first novel. One of the leaders of the Prisoners Aid Society is female and supports other females because "has great faith in her own sex". Not too odd, but it's kinda strange that the book makes a big deal of it. Miss Bianca, the female protagonist, is able to find a pantry early in the novel because "However sheltered, all women have certain domestic instincts", meaning that women have built-in kitchen radars, I guess. I'm not sure if that's sarcasm or not.

Poor Bianca has the short end of the stick in the books. I remember her in the movies being a smart and brave, if sometimes culturally confused, female character. She's noted as being one of the first true Disney heroines. In the book, at least the point I'm at, Miss Bianca is this stuffy upper class mouse who doesn't want to leave her current lifestyle to help someone. Yes, it's 1959, buuuuut this isn't the Bianca I remember. D:

Hopefully, she's going to have more character development as the books go on. The world of the 1950s is a strange one.

(no subject)

This was my morning:

Me> ::wakes up, looks outside::
Outside> ::SNOOOOOOOOW!::
Me> Ugh! ::flops over and tries to get back to sleep::

So much for it being later in the evening. o___O

I missed the snow. Kinda. Could be up to 50 centimeters here. We're safe, though - we did our grocery shopping yesterday and we don't need to go out for anything. It's just waiting out the storm, which tends to be very boring. XP

For snowed in people!

If you're stuck inside, it should be noted that the Adult Swim Fix now works in Canada.

http://www.adultswim.com/adultswimfix/index.html

Until a few days ago, it was being blocked if you didn't live outside of the US. Of course, how valuable this is depends on what you want to see... and that can vary, given that the quality of the shows is all over the place. Adult Swim is the adult programming block for Cartoon Network. Some of the series are aired up here in Canada on Teletoon (the comedies) and Razer/YTV (the anime), but not all of them.

For me, this means more Space Ghost and Birdman. Yes, I like stupid things. Why do you ask?

WHAT THE HECK?

I went out to do a partial shovel this evening (partial shovels are better that just doing it all at once) and I discovered our nice yellow-and-black-shovel-that's-easy-on-my-back was gone and replaced with this piece of crap metal shovel I've never seen before.

WHO STEALS SHOVELS?!? Or, rather, WHO STEALS GOOD SHOVELS AND REPLACES THEM WITH CRAPPY ONES?!?

Usually this shovel is in the mud room, so it doesn't go "missing" like this. I left in on the front porch because I knew I'd be using it again soon.

I'm not sure if I should laugh that this or find the person and beat them senseless with their own shovel. o_O