From: HobgoblinH-AT-aol.com Date: Sun, 6 Sep 2009 09:04:59 EDT To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Questions about "A Christmas Carol" For myself, having read this book aloud cover-to-cover many, many times to various classes over the course of 30-plus years of teaching, mostly to junior high kids, I prefer certain scenes as the most challenging-- the scene in Old Joe's rag-and-bone shop where the charwoman, the undertaker's man, and the laundress fence their purloined articles is an example. "Putting it on him to be buried in, to be sure," replied the woman with a laugh. "Somebody was fool enough to do it, but I took it off again. If calico an't good enough for such a purpose, it isn't good enough for anything. It's quite as becoming to the body. He can't look uglier than he did in that one." Getting all the voices separated, as Dickens most clearly did, is a fine exercise. He clearly shows the discrete social levels between these four people in their dialects and choice of words. Also, getting the laughs correctly always requires a good ear. "Ha, ha!" laughed the same woman, when old Joe, producing a flannel bag with money in it, told out their several gains upon the ground. "This is the end of it, you see! He frightened every one away from him when he was alive, to profit us when he was dead! Ha, ha, ha!" I have to prefer the Alistair Sim version above all others, as it has no agenda to pursue, no famous actors to showcase. Dickens' agenda, if we may call it one, must dominate all others-- he felt that England had forgotten the fine old traditional Christmas customs of the days of yore, and so he showed Christmas as he wanted it to be-- games, feasts, dancing, children, fellowship. He transformed English Christmas forever in this one book, sweeping the nation with his passionate outburst. For once, the horrors of the underground life of Victorian England were only a subtext to support a greater purpose. Cheers, Alice **************A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy steps! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1222846709x1201493018/aol?redir=http://www.freecreditreport.com/pm/default.aspx?sc=668072&hmpgID=115&bcd =JulystepsfooterNO115) _______________________________________________ List address: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org Admin interface: http://lists.puptcrit.org/mailman/listinfo/puptcrit Archives: http://www.driftline.org
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