tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post3181553409219131982..comments2024-03-28T12:46:54.004-05:00Comments on Every goddamn day: 03/28/24: Raggedy Ann and Andy: A critical analysisNeil Steinberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11468057838260476480noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-85690321870404473352019-02-24T16:22:43.152-06:002019-02-24T16:22:43.152-06:00Some very interesting comments here; including the...Some very interesting comments here; including the tone-deaf faction.<br /><br />BobYauld bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05738276939260500986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-66637373213482688802018-02-25T00:15:09.127-06:002018-02-25T00:15:09.127-06:00Oh, hell, yeah, "Tree Grows in Brooklyn"...Oh, hell, yeah, "Tree Grows in Brooklyn" was a favorite of mine and of my wife as well. We own a yellowed first edition from 1943. Grew up in different cities (Chicago and Cleveland) at the same time--but we both "read the same books together" as we like to put it. We were around 14-15 and JFK was in the White House. We still quote lines from that book at appropriate moments. Betty Smith's classic story also transferred very well to the big screen in 1945, and it's still a treasure to watch.<br /><br />As for the "thick Southern accent"...it was what white authors thought black speech actually sounded like, so they wrote it that way. It was standard in juvenile fiction right into the late Fifties. "I'se gwine to de stow foh some o' dem vittles dat Ah lahks so, Mizz Kitteh..." <br /><br />I lived in East Garfield Park until age seven, and my grandmother lived in Lawndale a bit longer. I grew up less than a dozen miles from one of the largest concentrations of blacks in America. And yet, reading that nonsense never bothered me, because I thought all blacks talked in that fashion, thanks to years spent with the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and the Bobbsey Twins. <br /><br />Each of those series were extremely politically incorrect, and later printings were completely revised so much that they became almost unrecognizable to the Baby Boomers who wanted their kids to share the same stories they recall so fondly. <br /><br />The original editions, bad dialect and all, are now highly sought-after, despite their depictions of blacks, Asians, Hispanics, Native Americans, and Southern whites as either hopelessly corrupt villains or mentally-challenged housepets.Grizz 65noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-34507008505067766672018-02-24T16:17:29.456-06:002018-02-24T16:17:29.456-06:00There's no such thing as "cultural approp...There's no such thing as "cultural appropriation" or "cultural expropriation" as Neil put it.<br /><br />That's just bullshit made up by a bunch of whack jobs that needed something to complain about!Clark St.https://www.blogger.com/profile/09634234069783123180noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-55092341740574689212018-02-24T14:08:19.735-06:002018-02-24T14:08:19.735-06:00I still have my Raggedy Ann doll that I got when I...I still have my Raggedy Ann doll that I got when I was two. Ann's hair is all gone in the back, her limbs have been reattached numerous times by her personal surgeon, my mom, and I put a few dots on her face so we both could have chicken pox. She's sitting right now in my studio on a shelf with other special items. It would be a sad day if she were lost. NikkiDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15226032148784322997noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-43710652616092816162018-02-24T12:43:20.771-06:002018-02-24T12:43:20.771-06:00Loved that book as a teen, though it was old by th...Loved that book as a teen, though it was old by then, but it's certainly not pc.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-3164132538555546772018-02-24T11:30:14.512-06:002018-02-24T11:30:14.512-06:00"The past is a foreign country. They do thing..."The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there." L.P.Hartley<br /><br />TomTomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09641357239788323783noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-53833774120927426722018-02-24T09:38:23.766-06:002018-02-24T09:38:23.766-06:00A Tree Grows in Brooklyn also would raise a howl t...A Tree Grows in Brooklyn also would raise a howl these days (and shocked me when I read it a few years ago). I believe it was the candy store owner who was inordinately fond of hugging (fondling?) children, who were very much aware of his propensities and not above exploiting them.<br /><br />johntatehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10088632798195131329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-62707588083628331342018-02-24T09:36:36.873-06:002018-02-24T09:36:36.873-06:00Well looks like someone else noted the Toy Story a...Well looks like someone else noted the Toy Story and Raggedy Ann identical plot point. After viewing hundreds of hours of videos, I found this <a href="https://youtu.be/51wc0TXLsGo?t=20" rel="nofollow">2014 observation</a>. No one sells actual vintage toys. The ones being sold are replicas and reproduction Raggedy Ann and Andy toys. Understandable, who besides John Tate would give a kid a vintage toy that may be a carrier of polio or smallpox?<br />The U.S. Census sheets are a good source of information when researching genealogy. Every now and then there is a kid listed as lodger or boarder in an apartment crammed with strangers. Those were the orphans that earned their board-an’-keep. Seems cruel but by many accounts preferable to growing up in an orphanage.Berniehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17157600812959885192noreply@blogger.com