Brin (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
brin_bellway) wrote2019-08-10 09:28 am
brin_bellway) wrote2019-08-10 09:28 am
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(no subject)
[cw: amnesia]
George Orwell: ""E could 'a drawed me off a pint,' grumbled the old man as he settled down behind a glass. 'A 'alf litre ain't enough. It don't satisfy. And a 'ole litre's too much. It starts my bladder running. Let alone the price.'"
Me, age ~6: *is vaguely aware that litres are a unit of measurement but doesn't know how big they are; shrugs and moves on*
Me, age 13, significantly more Canadian (though not yet *quite* living there): "Hey, wait a minute! A half-litre is slightly *bigger* than a pint! ...huh, that's actually a pretty good way of subtly indicating that the old man's memories can't be trusted."
Me, age ~21, reading about the imperial system on Wikipedia: "Wait, you're telling me that a *British* pint† is slightly different from an *American* pint, and actually *is* a bit bigger than a half-litre? ...okay, I understand the appeal of the metric system on a somewhat more visceral level now. Shame that the subtle-indication-of-warped-viewpoint reading is wrong, though, that was neat."
---
†Bear in mind that 1984 is set in what was once Britain.
George Orwell: ""E could 'a drawed me off a pint,' grumbled the old man as he settled down behind a glass. 'A 'alf litre ain't enough. It don't satisfy. And a 'ole litre's too much. It starts my bladder running. Let alone the price.'"
Me, age ~6: *is vaguely aware that litres are a unit of measurement but doesn't know how big they are; shrugs and moves on*
Me, age 13, significantly more Canadian (though not yet *quite* living there): "Hey, wait a minute! A half-litre is slightly *bigger* than a pint! ...huh, that's actually a pretty good way of subtly indicating that the old man's memories can't be trusted."
Me, age ~21, reading about the imperial system on Wikipedia: "Wait, you're telling me that a *British* pint† is slightly different from an *American* pint, and actually *is* a bit bigger than a half-litre? ...okay, I understand the appeal of the metric system on a somewhat more visceral level now. Shame that the subtle-indication-of-warped-viewpoint reading is wrong, though, that was neat."
---
†Bear in mind that 1984 is set in what was once Britain.
no subject
(Also, you read 1984 at age six? Why? I feel like there's a story there.)
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I think Dad linked me to it, maybe as part of some classics thing? (I know I originally read it on online-literature.com, back before their copyright issues.)
I don't remember what I thought of the bleakness on my *first* read--I *was* a very psychologically fragile child, but sometimes that means that Objectively Horrifying things don't actually stand out against the high background levels of horror (I'm reminded of that "he's equally terrified of everything, and that's what makes him invincible" post)--but in my later childhood I rather enjoyed the sadistic brainwashing scenes.
As for the length, I read Goblet of Fire around the same age, so 1984 is very manageable in comparison (*checks* about half the wordcount).
(I read Brave New World pretty young, too. My copy of the Iliad/Odyssey was a children's version (Black Ships Before Troy / The Wanderings of Odysseus), but apparently was enough to impress grownups when they asked me about the Cyclops I was building out of Lego and I told them the story of Nobody.)
((I don't think I was *intending* to show off with the Nobody thing, but I did take pleasure in naming obscure presidents for the "kids who come in on Presidents' Day and name three presidents get a free box of mini cookies" thing one of the bakeries did. Chester A. Arthur, Millard Fillmore...))
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... adults are easily impressed by small children having literally any skills or knowledge. It's weird sometimes.