Literary Allusion

[editec]

I loved Davey and Goliath when I was a kid.

Now my favorite kid's show is Spongebob Square Pants.

I'm dead serious about that, too.

It is, in my opinion, one of the best things on TV for kids.

It is always a morality tale of one kind or the other, and the lesson is inevitable that being a decent person is the best recourse.

No bombs, no super powers, not violent nonsense.

It's quality kids TV that isn't enitely devoid of humor that an adult can appreciate, too.

 

[Anguille]

I loved Davey and Goliath when I was a kid.

Now my favorite kid's show is Spongebob Square Pants.

I'm dead serious about that, too.

It is, in my opinion, one of the best things on TV for kids.

It is always a morality tale of one kind or the other, and the lesson is inevitable that being a decent person is the best recourse.

No bombs, no super powers, not violent nonsense.

It's quality kids TV that isn't enitely devoid of humor that an adult can appreciate, too.

I confess I was really into Teletubbies for a while when I was Italy. It was really strange. That show had a very calming effect on me. Maybe I drank too much espresso then.

 

[del]

I loved Davey and Goliath when I was a kid.

Now my favorite kid's show is Spongebob Square Pants.

I'm dead serious about that, too.

It is, in my opinion, one of the best things on TV for kids.

It is always a morality tale of one kind or the other, and the lesson is inevitable that being a decent person is the best recourse.

No bombs, no super powers, not violent nonsense.

It's quality kids TV that isn't enitely devoid of humor that an adult can appreciate, too.

i did too. not crazy about spongebob, but i did really like watching Doug with my son when he was little. same kinda deal- a little morality and a little something for th adults. the alltime great carton for adults that was marketed to kids was rocky and bullwinkle, imo.

 

[Diuretic]

Editec - There's a lovely description in Jack Kerouac's "Lonesome Traveller" of him being drawn to a church in London because the organist was playing "St Matthew Passion".

For me - Biblical knowledge=crap. 3/10 one guess, two I knew.

Literary knowledge=crap as well.

 

[Diuretic]

...........

It was the 1950s.

There was nothing good on TV, anyway.

There's still nothing good on tv (here) - see my signature line

 

[Peejay]

8 of 10.

Completely wild guesses on 4 of them I got right. I'm going to go play my lottery numbers.

 

[N4mddissent]

I managed 7 out of 10. But, I don't think everything on quiz reflects the issue brought up in the story. After all, a student knowing the story of the "writing on the wall" and understanding it is a biblical reference would most likely be enough to understand its literary context and knowing in which book it occurs would add very little to that.

When I consider how the bible should be taught from a secular perspective, I categorize it like any other work from the ancient world. The Iliad is full of violence and miracles. Beowulf likewise. And what about Oedipus Rex? Incest followed by eye-gouging. Yet these are still taught. Of course, it must be appropriate to the child's maturity level, and I certainly don't think we would teach that the competition for the golden apple which led to the Trojan War as historic events that actually happened. Same for the bible with talking snakes and giant boats.

 

[Agnapostate]

I got a 7 out of 10. I suppose there's an asymmetry in that I may arrogantly say that I have a rather expansive knowledge of the Bible, yet know little of "classic" novels or the like.

 

[jillian]

"davey, if god loves us, why don't we have any knees?"

this was the only thing on tv that was remotely watchable on sunday mornings when i was a kid. by remotely watchable, i mean animated.​

My dad and I used to watch Bugs Bunny together on Sunday mornings. And I loved Wonderama. Right now I like watching Phineas and Ferb with my son the most.

 

[Anguille]

I got a 7 out of 10. I suppose there's an asymmetry in that I may arrogantly say that I have a rather expansive knowledge of the Bible, yet know little of "classic" novels or the like.

That's an interesting point you make. I guess I can feel better now knowing that I probably have read and thought more about the classics than the Bible.



Thanks!

 

[Anguille]

Oh bugger.

The British Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion, recently contended that students of English Literature are struggling because so many do not understand biblical references that would have been common knowledge 50 years ago.

The BBC is testing this hypothesis with 10 questions. I thought I woud be pretty good at this becausae I really love a lot of what are regarded as great books. However, I got only 5 out of 10, and more than one of those was an educated guess.

Don't cheat to make yourself look smarter (nor even to make me look dumber...)

BBC - Today

Hey Bob,, I meant to tell you that few days after taking your quiz, it came in useful to me. I was realling a preface to Wuthering Height's by the author's sister and "the writing on the wall" was referenced along with the actual words written on the wall. So I knew exactly what she was writing about.
Thanks!

 

[tigerbob]

Oh bugger.

The British Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion, recently contended that students of English Literature are struggling because so many do not understand biblical references that would have been common knowledge 50 years ago.

The BBC is testing this hypothesis with 10 questions. I thought I woud be pretty good at this becausae I really love a lot of what are regarded as great books. However, I got only 5 out of 10, and more than one of those was an educated guess.

Don't cheat to make yourself look smarter (nor even to make me look dumber...)

BBC - Today

Hey Bob,, I meant to tell you that few days after taking your quiz, it came in useful to me. I was realling a preface to Wuthering Height's by the author's sister and "the writing on the wall" was referenced along with the actual words written on the wall. So I knew exactly what she was writing about.
Thanks!

Glad it came in useful.

I took my daughter to Barnes and Noble over the weekend. She was looking at the "classics" rack and noticed Jane Eyre. She then noticed that Wuthering Heights was also written by someone called Bronte. When I told her they were sisters and that there was a 3rd sister who had also written books that are regarded as classics she was absolutely stunned!

She's a big Harry Potter fan, but has also always been fascinated by Jane Austen. Maybe the Bronte sisters are next!

We watched 'Becoming Jane' and 'Finding Neverland' this week. Lots of good films about literature over the last few years. There's one about Beatrix Potter as well which I really enjoyed. It's nice to see films being produced that allow the younger generation to get into things like that.

 

[Anguille]

Glad it came in useful.

I took my daughter to Barnes and Noble over the weekend. She was looking at the "classics" rack and noticed Jane Eyre. She then noticed that Wuthering Heights was also written by someone called Bronte. When I told her they were sisters and that there was a 3rd sister who had also written books that are regarded as classics she was absolutely stunned!

She's a big Harry Potter fan, but has also always been fascinated by Jane Austen. Maybe the Bronte sisters are next!

We watched 'Becoming Jane' and 'Finding Neverland' this week. Lots of good films about literature over the last few years. There's one about Beatrix Potter as well which I really enjoyed. It's nice to see films being produced that allow the younger generation to get into things like that.

PBS has been doing a bunch of Austen, Bronte, Dickens and Hardy on Masterpiece Theatre this year. Sumptuous productions but most of them just come off as period Harlequin romances. After watching a particularly bodice ripping production of Wuthering Heights a few weeks I took a look at an old copy of the book to see if the book is really as vapid as the Masterpiece production was. It's an old family copy handed down full of gruesome old woodcuts that scared me and my brother when we were kids. To frighten each other all we had to do was whisper, "Heathcliff" to the other and it would mean a night when the bedroom light had to be left on all night. So as an adult, I took a look at the original text and was glad to see it was more serious and addressed more social issues than the thing I saw on TV. But it was almost impossible to read. A lot of dialogue in some old country dialect that was in decifferable. Probably like roomy after a night of beer drinking and the Rugby.

If your daughter manages to read it, kudos to her.

 

[jillian]

Glad it came in useful.

I took my daughter to Barnes and Noble over the weekend. She was looking at the "classics" rack and noticed Jane Eyre. She then noticed that Wuthering Heights was also written by someone called Bronte. When I told her they were sisters and that there was a 3rd sister who had also written books that are regarded as classics she was absolutely stunned!

She's a big Harry Potter fan, but has also always been fascinated by Jane Austen. Maybe the Bronte sisters are next!

We watched 'Becoming Jane' and 'Finding Neverland' this week. Lots of good films about literature over the last few years. There's one about Beatrix Potter as well which I really enjoyed. It's nice to see films being produced that allow the younger generation to get into things like that.

Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre were two of my favorite books when I was little... right after Little Women. Those were fantastic stories. I hope your daughter decides to read them and loves them as much as I did.

Jane Austin books were a lot of fun, but didn't have all that wonderful, dark melodrama.

 

[Amanda]

3 of 10 all guesses I never read any of that stuff.