Snoopy and the Red Baron

so, out of nostalgia I ordered a copy of this book online. got it in the mail yesterday. it's not a great book, by any means. it doesn't have a plot--it's mostly a series of vignettes or episodes strung together in a hap-hazzardly "chronological" manner. I read through the whole thing (for the hundredth time, probably) in about three minutes. but it's still fun.

I forgot about the colored pages... which at first I wasn't so sure of, but I remembered that the book I read as a child also had black line-work and lettering on variously colored pages.

it's kinda funny. when I was a kid I absolutely loathed nostalgia. the idea of fondly remembering time pasts always seemed to be associated with this romantic notion of the past being inherently glorious and wonderful than the present. the idea of "the old days were better than these" seemed a foolish and destructive way of thinking. it also seemed to be wholly irrational and sentimental in nature.

so, here I am, purchasing a copy of a book that I loved as a child. and while it retains the shadow of it's former charm--it clearly does not enthrall me in the way that it once did. it is now not so "awesome" as it is "charming" or "cute"... perhap even "quaint".

but it's also worth remembering that Charles Schultz was something of a revolutionary in the sphere of comics in that he even granted a dog the liberty of having an imagination! that a ordinary, if you could dare to call Snoopy that much, dog could have wild and bizarre fantasies of being a romantic warrior-knight of the air.

Schultz was obviously influenced by the plethora of purple prose narratives and novels released during the Inter-War period. oddly enough, this book had no impact on my choosing the path of an amateur WWI aviation 'historian' (for lack of a better word, I like to research this historical stuff for fun).

nah, the main influence towards me pursuing this path was a video game released way back called "Red Baron" that got the ball rolling.

but... more on this kinda stuff later

what I'm reading right now:

"Pride and Prejudice"
this book is a lot of fun. it's hard to wrap my head around the language at times, but I can infer what is being said after reading through things twice.

"Pride and Prejudice and Zombies"
not quite as fun as the original--but still pretty entertaining. the original Jane Austen is actually more amusing for me. in spite of the claims to the contrary on the back of this book!

"All Quiet on the Western Front"
this is supposedly the greatest novel about WWI ever written (I'll get to some of the others later)... and while I'm enjoying this book a great deal... I find myself at odds with some of the rather vacant theories being put forth by the narrator! the idea that somehow one generation is intrinsically more trustworthy and honest than another is something that only a foolish and ridiculous young man or women could come up with. even when I was in the midst of puberty and all-knowingness I never once imagined that my generation was somehow wiser and superior to all preceeding generations-- but, this appears to be a fairly common assumption on the part of some young people in every generation.