I've been trying to get The Pony to read the classics. Not something dry like The House of the Seven Gables, or anything racy like Madame Bovary. But classics. Like The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. The Good Earth. Dracula. Treasure Island.
The Pony actually loves to read. He used to have a book in his hand as often as his GameBoy. Then the electronic age bit him in the rump. He got a Kindle. He got a Kindle Fire. I had Genius load some FREE classics on it for The Pony, so when he unwrapped his Christmas gifts, he would already have some literature waiting for him. While appreciative, The Pony let those classics lie.
Suddenly, Sunday afternoon, The Pony declared he wanted a book to take to school. I was hoping he would choose my unabridged Stephen King masterpiece, The Stand, in hardback. As much for seeing his spine bent lugging it around as for seeing him enjoy the unfolding of an epic struggle of good versus evil. But no. The Pony went to my childhood bookcase, transplanted before The Pony could even read, from my growing-up bedroom to our homestead. Did he choose Gone With the Wind? Frankenstein? Catch-22? Nope. He grabbed The Exorcist.
Yesterday he started it, reading in the back seat of T-Hoe, in class after work was done, after school in my room while I graded papers, and on the way home. I did straighten him out after a comment about waiting for the family to move to St. Louis, because that's where it really happened.
"No. This is fiction. It's set in Georgetown. Washington D.C. They don't move to St. Louis."
"Oh. Good to know."
The Pony also filled me in on what he'd been up to during the day.
"In the lab where we do our college classes, where I was working on my microcomputers class, I sneezed. Dodger said, "God Bless You!" And I just held up my copy of The Exorcist. You should have seen Dodger's face! 'Oh! Well, then, you little Satanist...' Other people in there laughed. But they didn't say anything."
I suppose not. You don't mess with The Pony when he's reading the classics.
If he starts to talk to a "Captain Howdey", call a priest.
ReplyDeleteThe Pony is not a gregarious person. He would ignore "Captain Howdy" as he ignores everyone else.
DeleteMaybe The Pony can use his new info to cast out whatever is making all those disembodied sounds in your house.
ReplyDeleteNot sure about that. As I came upstairs last night, I told him, "I think I just saw something scurry out of the corner of my eye."
DeleteAnd he said, "NO. No you didn't!"
I guess I never thought of The Exorcist as a classic, most of which I haven't read.
ReplyDeleteWell, that was my point. I know it's so seldom that I have one. But here I was, trying to persuade The Pony to read the classics, and he chose The Exorcist.
DeleteWhatever happened to reading? I grew up in a house full of books and now the ones we have are just gathering dust ... Miss Mac is taking English Literature at A'level and is currently knee deep in Lady Windermere's Fan. There's nothing like loosing yourself in a good book especially one's like Tom Sawyer, Swallows and Amazons and (my personal favourite although maybe not a classic) Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals. For the record, I would have laughed a The Pony's response.
ReplyDeleteWhen I used to go to my grandparents' house, I felt like I was in an intellectual desert. The only thing I could find to read was a farm report magazine.
DeleteI think The Pony chose The Exorcist to take to school and read just so he could shock people.
Just so this doesn't make him want to take the classics in college. He'd be so disappointed when Ethan Frome doesn't barf up pea soup. Did you ever watch Cheers when Frasier Crane read the classics to the bar patrons and had to throw in a few sewer clowns?
ReplyDeleteI missed that Cheers. Frasier was my least favorite character, so I might have tuned him out.
DeleteI am trying to think of a classic shocking enough to entice The Pony to take it to school.
I once met my two sons by a previous marriage in Georgetown for dinner. The oldest boy was working in a bar then but he showed me around, including the long outdoor stairway that apparently was used in the filming of the Exorcist. I saw the movie but I think I had my hands over my eyes during that scene.
ReplyDeleteI read the book. I refuse to watch the movie. Even to this day. I would not have taken that tour or the stairway. No sirree, Bob! You are a brave man. I should have known that, what with seeing all those pictures you post in those state-entering shorts!
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