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Fascinating... who is the narrator here?

Here's a excerpt from Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White it's a book that I loved to read to my daughter when she was a tot. It is (IMO) an extremely nicely written story for the narrator. A pleasure to read aloud. The story captivates because (IMO) the prose captivates. No sophisticated word-play or play on words but simple clarity composed with rhythm. The descriptive text in tempo seems to match the action of the rope ride?

I think the passage  below is worthy of some analysis in order to understand how it swings so beautifully.

Mr. Zuckerman had the best swing in the county.  It was a single long piece of heavy rope tied to the beam over the north doorway.  At the bottom end of the rope was a fat knot to sit on.  It was arranged so that you could swing without being pushed.  you climbed a ladder to the hayloft. Then, holding the rope, you stood at the edge and looked down, and were scared and dizzy.  Then you straddled the knot, so that it acted as a seat.  Then you got up all your nerve, took a deep breath, and jumped.  For a second you seemed to be falling to the barn floor far below, but then suddenly the rope would begin to catch you and you would sail through the barn door going a mile a minute, with the wind whistling in your eyes and ears and hair.  Then you would zoom upward into the sky, and look up at the clouds, and the rope would twist and you would twist and turn with the rope.  Then you would drop down, down, down, out of the sky and come sailing back into the barn almost into the hayloft, then sail out again (not quite so far this time), then in again (not quite so  high), then out again, then in again, then out, then in; and then you’d jump off and fall down and let somebody else try it.

The reason that I never noticed (or took notice of) 'Sophie's Choice' is because of a bizarre brain freeze ailment that I have.  I used to read to my eldest daughter when she was a tot (she loved/loves books so much more than her younger sister who lived/lives for music). Anyway one of the books she was very fond of is E. B. White’s ‘Charlotte’s Web’ and I read it to her two or maybe three times.

Somehow -- and I don’t know why -- if ‘Sophie’s Choice is mentioned, within the back of my mind (an automatic subliminal substitution) I was hearing ‘Charlotte’s Web’ and in the front of my mind I was visualising that children’s story.

This has happened to me a few times now; where I hear the name of one thing and seamlessly associate that thing with something else. Usually it is movies rather than books, but in the case of 'Sophie's Choice' V ‘Charlotte’s Web’ I think it is both. Yes, I know that I’m an idiot

Two stories about as far apart as can be… but then again as I think upon it, maybe not.

Good stuff!

Someone pointed me toward the old movie, 'Sophie's Choice' the other week. I'd never seen it. I found Meryl Streep's - 'They Had Courage' monologue to be  compelling.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70_1MW46G9I

I assume this is 'Ulysses S. Grant' the ACW General rather than Hugh Grant the fop actor? (available in hardback for one penny, and no takers )

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hugh-Grant-Una … +biography

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKyuzXw … JwwJbQu7xs

A couple of years ago I was driving from London to Birmingham, the motorway is dull and straight, no turns or distractions and it was night, so the traffic was sparse.  As I drove I listened to a John le Carré novel on audio, unabridged and narrated by the man himself. I was so totally absorbed that by the time I came to and recovered self awareness, I was way north of Manchester having overshot Birmingham by over a hundred miles.

I'm liking the look of the 'Genius' movie. All those Brits and Aussies doing American accents is a bit odd though. I have a soft spot for Kidman. Ever since the Cold Mountain film (which is one of my favorite movies - and she's paired with Jude Law in that one too). The Siege of Petersburg sequence is fantastic cinematography IMO.

I've never professed to be pleasant. Actually I am still disgusted by your vile 'WTF' and 'LMAO' responses on page 37 of this thread.

Aren't you a thoroughly unpleasant big fellow.

Brule it is then.

The Girl With All The Gifts by M. R. Carey   

The last of my Xmas presents

I'm finding it much better than I'd expected. Never judge a book by it's giver.

Now I'll have to get back into the habit of buying my own books.