BattementCloche

I saw the Trocks on Bravo last night for the first time, though I missed the first 45 minutes of the show. I watched the rest of it, however (thank goodness I was at my grandparents'; I would have been in bed before it even started at home!). I think my favourite was probably 'Go for Barocco', which was pure comedy; that seems to be what this group does best. I found their serious works a bit odd, except for their 'Le Corsaire'; I found myself hard pressed to remember that the 'leading lady' wasn't a lady at all! Perhaps what we need is an all-female company that performs classical ballets, with the girls lifting the girls. The only problem would be females' muscular structure; theoretically, they aren't supposed to be able to do such steps as are involved in the more difficult male solos, are they?

A few more classics: Any of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's books, but notably his Sherlock Holmes mysteries Some of Jack London's works could be called classics, though I don't think they are generally recognised as such. As someone who loves wolves, I found the general attitude of "wolves are vicious, man-eating devils and we had better shoot them all' exhibited by many of London's characters rather sad and -- for lack of a better word -- disturbing, but I was able to look over that and enjoyed most of his works to some degree anyway. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell David Copperfield by Charles Dickens Island of the Blue Dolphins and the sequel, Kia, by Scott O'Dell — these could be considered young adult fiction but my mother read them and liked them quite a bit. The Borrowers series — these books are good for anyone from 9 or 10 to 90 or 100. Very lovely little books, most certainly classics: The Borrowers The Borrowers Aloft The Borrowers Afloat The Borrowers Afield The Borrowers Avenged I'm not sure of the order, but if I find out I'll edit the list.

Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle In Time is excellent, and I would like to add the three sequels; A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, and Many Waters. A Wind in the Door is not as much about time or time travel as the others, but is still excellent. A Swiftly Tilting Planet is one of my favourites; its relation with what was going on only a year or two ago is amazing, considering it was written in 1978. An exerpt from the back cover: "Meg Murry O'Keefe and her family are just sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner when her father gets a phone call from the White House about a madman's threat of nuclear war..." A unicorn comes when Charles Wallace (Meg's younger brother) recites an old Irish rune and takes him on a journey through time to advert disaster. This is one of my favourites. Many Waters is about Meg's twin brothers, Sandy and Dennys, who accidentally send themselves back to the time of Noah and the Great Flood. For a book centering around this theme, it isn't as religious as you might think. However, this book deals with more mature subject matter and I would only reccomend it for ages 12+. Another book dealing with time is Kit Pearson's A Handful of Time, which won the Canadian Library Association's Book of the Year for children. I loved this book, especially because of its setting in Canada in surroundings that sound, except for the factory and Rec Hall, oddly familiar (anyone who lives on a Canadian Lake other than the Greats or the Winnipeg will say that--they're all the same!). I know it sounds much too book reviewish (I read too many of them), but I hope this helps!

I am a certified Shakespeare Nut, so I have to say right off the bat, anything by him. Ones to get you hooked are Much Ado About Nothing and Love's Labours Lost; there are a few long speeches at the beginning of the latter, but it is worth it in the long run. Darker Masterpieces are Hamlet (of course), Macbeth and Othello, but I would recommend leaving those until you become fond of his work. More Classics... Oliver Twist and A Cristmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Little Women, Good Wives, Little Men and Jo's Boys by Louisa May Alcott Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain These are only a very few of my favourites... I'll add to the list soon.

I just went on the library's website and did a search for James Burke; one book that came up that looks interesting is "The Pinball Effect : How Renaissance Water Gardens Made the Carburetor Possible, and Other Journeys Through Knowledge". I've just found "Connections"; there's three of them (so far). Two are video recordings (Connections and Connections 2) and the other is 'interactive multimedia'. There's also a sound recording which I've just found, but there's no book. Do you know what company publishes it in book form? Maybe I could find the publisher's site and order it through there.

Yes, that does sound very interesting. I'll have to see if the library has it. That sounds more like what I was looking for; though, it sounds as though it's about how what has happened came to happen. I wonder if there are any books out there about what might have happened instead if such-and-such a thing had been done or if so-and-so had done this. What if Cleopatra had tripped and fallen on her face when she met Antony? Maybe we would be living on Mars by now if she had. You never know!

Very true, Hans! I would like to inquire about another book: has anyone read 'What If?' and/or 'What If? 2' ? My father received the second What If? Book for Christmas two years ago, and I read it and loved it. I still have to beg the first book off my grandfather. I must admit that I was rather disappointed at first; I was expecting to have someone start with ‘What if this hadn’t happened’ or ‘What if this had happened instead’ and then launch into how history would have followed after that. Instead, I found that it was rather more of a history lesson. Well, this and this and this and this and this and this and this…(etc. etc. etc.)…happened, but if Caesar had sneezed it wouldn’t have. Still, it was a very good book. One of the reasons I was eager to read it was that I’ve always wondered, as I’m sure many people do, about what could have happened if one little, tiny thing had been changed. What if there had been a thunderstorm on the day the Library of Alexandria burned down? Perhaps the fire wouldn’t have spread, and then all of those thousands of scrolls could have been saved. To be quite honest, the mere thought of the burning library brings tears to my eyes. What knowledge could we have gained if it had not burned? What insight into their lives? How many philosophers are unknown to us because their works were destroyed by fire? If only it had rained torrents on that day… Or what if Archimedes had caught the flu when a baby, and died without the proper treatment? Where would we be now? What if Socrates had accepted the assistance of his pupils and escaped from prison instead of drinking that fatal cup of poison? What if Queen Tiy had decided her son Amenhotep (later Ahkenaton) should marry some other girl instead of Nefertiti? What if Alexander the Great had drunk that flask of water instead of pouring it into the sands and saying, “One should not drink when many are thirsty”? Or, here’s food for thought: what if Mickey Mouse had never been invented? There are so many things you can speculate on--and my deepest apologies for dragging on and on and on...

Groan and complain to anyone who will listen that your knees haven't ached this bad in--amazingly--a week! Then you turn around and say you're a ballet dancer. They won't believe you.

Yes, I thought it would probably be 'goriness' and not 'goryness', but then I like all things "archaic". If I had my way, I would do all my school work in Olde Inglis...but then my mother would not be able to read it. Then again, that is a good point--she wouldn't be able to read it... (BTW, I could always do Paleontological Archaeology and end with Neanderthals--there are only so many ways to spell "ugh". But how would that look on my resumé? "Master's Degree in how to spell UGH". Oh, so many people would want to hire me then...)

To (hopefully) reverse the direction this is going in (full speed ahead to a chat!)... Because this thread is entitled Reading and Teaching History Today, I suppose that it is acceptable to discuss good historical literature? If so, I would like to inquire as to whether or not anyone has read Vimy by Pierre Berton... April 9th was Vimy Ridge Day, commemorating the day in 1917, when, at 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning, the Canadian troops captured Vimy Ridge in an early dawn raid. Wonderfully written, well researched, and very insightful (though, a warning to those faint of heart: it can be gory, like all war books), I loved this book, just as I do all of Pierre Berton's books. He writes as though he was there, and the way in which he describes the conditions the soldiers had to endure, day after day, month after month, is such that you can feel the rats biting your legs and lice crawling up your back. Of course, I do NOT like that part (all I like about war books is the strategy involved), but it really makes you appreciate what these men (and boys) went through and the things they did in these conditions. All (moderate) goryness aside, This book was really wonderful. It explains the differences between the Canadians, French, and British armies, and why one army with four divisions conquered when the other armies with 20 divisions couldn't. Speckled with letters from the soldiers to their parents and first-hand accounts, I would reccomend this book to anyone who does not mind a moderate level of goryness and who is interested in this part of history (or who just plain likes the strategy and the personalities behind it all, like I do). ~*~Rosalind P.S. Is goryness even a word?

A chat? Oh dear.... Only adding to the risk of turning this into a chat : Yay! Another reason to get another degree. "Mom, Dad, I'm really sorry, but if I want to get a degree in Archaeology I have to get one is History and Ancient Languages too! I'm afraid you'll have to dredge up more money for me..." More than likely I'll just have to get five or six jobs that will keep me going around the clock in order to pay for it. :rolleyes:

Juliette, my deepest apologies for not responding sooner. Due to computer problems :rolleyes:, I haven't been on in nearly three weeks! Thank-you for the briefing on how the French system works. I'm actually not sure if I will be able to take History courses once I get into University...there's too many other courses I want to take! Political Sciences, Computer Sciences, a Second Language (French), perhaps more languages (Latin, Greek, Russian, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic languages and Hawiian are all high on my list of 127 languages I want to learn). History would be a must if I decided to get a degree in Archaeology, which I am considering, but otherwise I'm not sure if I could fit it in.

Maj. Mel, thank-you for the history lesson and the (albeit very much edited) quote, and thank-you, GWTW, for the book recommendation! Perhaps instead of going to University and studying History I could go to a Canadian University and study Political Science (ah, politics, the fourth great love of my life next to history, literature, and ballet!). Then I could go to a University somewhere in Europe and study Computer Sciences... to Rome to study Latin and to Greece to study ancient Greek (you have to learn the languages where they originated! I could sit next to the very spot where Antony said his spech over the dead Julius Caesar's body, and read all of Cicero's thirteen orations denouncing Antony as a traitor!!!)... And for history, I could just log on to Ballet Talk and have you educate me! Maj. Mel could write up biographies of the people I'm learning about, and everyone else could teach me the facts and recommend good books to read. Then, once a week, we should all get together and have good long arguments about history... P.S. GWTW, "In Flanders Fields" has been my favourite poem ever since I read it when I was 5. I memorized it at age 8 and it has stuck with me ever since; that's the only reason I used it in my signature. I'm actually studying the Medieval Ages right now, but thanks for the book recommendation, anyway

Thank you for the tip, GWTW! Maj. Mel, What did George S. Patton say? This must be that "How does that sound like Napoleon's experience at the Battle of Austerlitz?" trick you were speaking of. Give the least amount of information possible, and you've got their attention for as long as it takes to tell them the whole story! In my new History of English Literature book (English Literature: Its History and its Significance for the Life of the English-Speaking World, A Text-Book for Schools by William J. Long, Ph.D.), I found the preface, of all things, striking in that the author seems to know the reasons for the problems of children not liking literature or history. (…) Indicates portions I have not included due to length. All of this is pertaining to literature, but really, most of it corresponds directly to history. Personally, I think that the best way to learn history is to read books and biographies, etc. written during the time they relate to; it is very easy for a modern author to criticise what people thought and did during the time he/she is writing about, but if you read something written by someone who actually lived the history, you get an insight to how they thought and how they regarded things. I am afraid I might have repeated myself there... sorry!

Is this quote better? ~*~Rosalind "The more the words, the less the meaning, and how does that benefit anyone?"