“Obsession has to
have action;” (Neil Peart) it also apparently requires reading material
If we’ve spent any time together, you know that I love
things in a pretty emphatic manner. I can’t help it. I suspect it fuels my
study of museums; what place could be more magical to a person with an
obsessive temperament, after all, than a giant jewelry box of collections? And
unlike more refined persons, I don’t seem to outgrow things I have loved. They
become talismanic and as comforting as stuffed animals or warm blankets.
The first obsession I can remember from childhood is
dinosaurs. “Dinosaur” and “telephone” were some of my first words (the latter
apparently annoyed me) and my parents probably quickly came to regret the fact
that I could talk at all as I had a mania for learning dinosaur names… and
making sure the adults in my life pronounced them correctly! Reading The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs takes
me back to days in museum gift shops where I would beg my parents to buy me
just one or two more plastic beasties to join the herds that lived in my
playroom and devoured the Barbie dolls that were careless enough to try to
cross the garish 70s-style cow-hide carpet. [When I was particularly angry at
my mom for something, I would stud her path to the deep freezer (also in the
playroom) with stegosauruses and other spine-bearers, thinking this the height
of cunning. She proved more than capable of manipulating around my vengeful
plastics; clearly only Lego blocks are parental Krytonite!] Rise is also full of the latest dino
research and discoveries; things have changed since I was a kid! There are all
sorts of new species and new theories, which means my days of knowing all the
names are at an end!
Also high on my list of childhood obsessions was the ‘80s
cartoon show: He-Man and the Masters of
the Universe. I don’t know (and maybe don’t want to know) what part of my
psyche was drawn to a sword-wielding muscle man in furry underwear on a quest
to defeat a castle-hungry skeleton… but I will admit to having action figures
long past the age you’re supposed to do so (I kept them at my dad’s house where
there was no chance anyone from school would see)! He-Man and company are
enjoying something of a revival as of late and my awesome husband got me the Masters of the Universe Omnibus for
Valentine’s Day. It’s a hefty read – literally – coming in at over 1500 pages
and probably over five pounds. That’s a lot of nostalgia! Here’s hoping She-Ra
soon receives the same treatment!
When I got a little older, mom bought me the Little House books – igniting a whole
new obsession. My best friend and I tried to cook the “pioneer” food Laura
mentions. We commandeered our parents’ scarves for bonnets and packed to go to
Indian Territory. We built little log cabins out of Lincoln logs. Apparently, a
whole new generation of readers is probably doing the same thing and there’s
still plenty to say about Laura and her family, as Prairie Fires was recently published. I haven’t read that one yet,
but I am working my way through Caroline: Little House Revisited. I like the
author’s choice to foreground the woman who did so much to keep her family
together and safe, but who sort of fades into the background of the original
series.
Another series I loved as a young reader was Mercedes Lackey’s
Arrows of the Queen. I remember being
breathless with worry about the heralds – would they make it out!? As a sort of
break from some of my more serious reading, I’ve returned to the first book in
the series. The series seems to jive nicely, to my mind, with a more “grown up”
version of the same sort of work: Lynn Flewelling’s Nightrunner series – so I’m also re-reading Luck in the Shadows. 
No comments:
Post a Comment