Beatrix Potter

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I was looking through some of the books I had when I was little and rediscovered the lovely Ms. Potter (when I first read them I had no idea she was a woman - I mean what kind of a name is 'Beatrix' anyway?), who I haven't thought about in a decade. Most children's books seem kind of twee to me now but what strikes me about BP books is how unsentimental and even mildly disturbing they are. Even as a kid I found Squirrel Nutkin vaguely unsettling - there's no plot, it's just a squirrel being a rude little bastard and singing funny rhymes for twenty pages until the owl rips his tail off. And don't get me started on Jemima Puddle-Duck, that's the most depressing thing ever written.

― Justyn Dillingham, Saturday, 20 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Potter was a great amauter naturalist and the reason why her illustrations avoid sentiment is that she had a tendency to dissect rabbits,ducks,squirels et. al

― anthony, Saturday, 20 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

peter rabbit Vs. brer rabbit: FITE! <-I was going to question w/ this before but I thought better. here it is!

― RJG, Saturday, 20 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Sort of a weird combination of heavily anthropomorphized and heavily not animals, yes? Maybe that's the source of the tension!

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 20 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ms. Potter (when I first read them I had no idea she was a woman - I mean what kind of a name is 'Beatrix' anyway?)

i had the same thing with agatha christie

― minna, Saturday, 20 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

beatrix is the name of our queen, well, a female one that is

― erik in holland, Saturday, 20 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

TS: Beatrix Potter vs. Beatrice Potter!

― rosemary, Saturday, 20 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Hey Justyn, do you view the books diffently in light of the fact that she was female?

― toraneko, Sunday, 21 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

now we are sick

― halo halo, Sunday, 21 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I remember skimming through a BP bio that came out some time back. The only thing I retained from it is that she invented a whole language code as a child so that she could keep her journals confidential. The kind of thing that makes me feel my whole childhood was wasted and I'll clearly never be smaht.

― Pyth, Sunday, 21 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

don't worry, I had one (using some Russian symbols as my mum used to live there and my dad studeied it at uni) but it was so dumb that my sister easily figured it out and read my diary anyway.

― halo halo, Sunday, 21 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

on the "now we are sick" front, i had a peter rabbit bowl AND a bunnikins bowl, i don't recall a preference: i haf eaten so much off the peter rabbit bowl in my four-plus decades of eating that the picture has been wore off it in the miggle

― mark s, Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

nine months pass...

Justyn D has good taste. JD: what happened to your Shakespeare paper?

― the pinefox, Thursday, 24 April 2003 11:30 (twenty-three years ago)

It's still being written. I found the Signet editions with the introductions you mentioned but haven't had time to look closely at them yet.

I'll be doing a lecture on Henry IV for one of my classes late next month so I'll be able to work in all the stuff I've had to leave out of this paper (mainly the parallels with current events).

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Thursday, 24 April 2003 12:05 (twenty-three years ago)

Bunnikins!

― rosemary (rosemary), Thursday, 24 April 2003 14:22 (twenty-three years ago)

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