Overheard in My Imaginary Future

Me: You know, back when I was a kid we hadn’t invented the ironic statement as a fall-back excuse for just being plain geeky. My kids: Whatever, Mom.

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Posted by Mara Collins on Sep 10, 2007 | 0 comments

The problem with time travel, or thoughts while listening to NPR podcasts

So at dinner last night the conversation went like this, oldest son: So you know what the trouble with time travel is?      his father: There are a bunch.  Like the assumption that time is this constant, static thing to travel through… o.s.: No, I was thinking that it was if you brought currency with you into the past, everyone would think it was counterfeit. h.f.:  Well, one depressing theory I have heard is that time travel is scientifically inevitable, and the fact that we have not been visited by people from the future is evidence that we’re going to destroy ourselves. (Cheery thought and I am not even going to go into the problems with that argument, because nothing tops my son’s response) o.s.:  What makes anyone think that any time...

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Posted by Mara Collins on Sep 1, 2007 | 1 comment

The Folly of Metaphor

So a few weeks ago, I was listening to a free iTunes U lecture, Penn State’s Dan Hade on children’s literature, and he referred to a book that puts forth the theory that there are only seven basic kinds of stories, which thanks to the internet, I am pretty sure was Christopher Booker’s The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories. I probably won’t read it, I was able to read enough reviews to realize it doesn’t do what I want it to do, (the Telegraph describes the venture as ‘procrustean’ in his disregarding deep differences between similar events in different stories; others charge him with disregarding major works of literature that don’t fit his theory.) What a strange and sweet thing, I waver between being...

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Posted by Mara Collins on Aug 17, 2007 | 0 comments