Books and stuff

[owl]

I'm liking O Come O Come Emmanuel at the minute, for a carol. It doesn't cloy. It's the combination of its expectation, rather than realised triumph, and its minor key, I think.

I don't know what masochistic influence made me go trawling around the Pit of Voles, but when I turned up this horrible thing (Willie goes to act Romeo and Juliet on Broadway, yeouch) in the Goodnight Mister Tom section, I couldn't help thinking of what one or two of you would think of it. Talk about missing the whole tone, setting and point of your canon....It looks like a school assignment; imagine how depressing to be an English teacher and have to read through what are essentially 25 Pit-worthy fanfics of whatever children's book the class is doing, in the guise of homeworks!

Talking of children's books, I've had a scenario in my head, but I can't remember what book it comes from and it's driving me crazy. Basically the currently absent father, before he left, told the children not to worry their mother; one of them is using this as an excuse not to tell her what they're up to, and another offspring comments, 'He meant not do things to worry her, not tell her lies to make her happy.'
Can anyone place this for me? I'm thinking Antonia Forest or Arthur Ransome, but I may have been misled by the naval fathers.

And lastly, a grammar peeve.

If Blank would have verb-ed

What is this grammar construction I see everywhere? What ever happened to 'If Blank had verb-ed'?

Comments

[anstruther.livejournal.com]

Run Away Home, Rowan to Nicola when they're discussing whether and how to break the news to their returning mother that Giles and Peter were last seen on their way to sea in Surfrider.

Can't say I've particularly come across your grammar peeve, but it is fairly annoying.

[owl]

Thank you muchly! I shall be able to go to bed content, now.

[anstruther.livejournal.com]

Any time! I would be more content if I'd actually gone to bed myself, I keep meaning to log off at a sensible hour but there's always one more lj discussion thread to check up on, or one more post to reply to...

[owl]

Oh, I know the feeling....

[lesserstorm.livejournal.com]

When I was about 7, I had a teacher who set us to writing a whole series of what was essentially RPF about what her pet dog (and by extension she) had done in the summer holidays. IIRC (it was many years ago) the class divided fairly neatly into people who wanted to write about actual dog-like things - running across moors etc - and people who thought the stories would be much more interesting if they included spaceships, time travel or witches.

[owl]

*laughter*