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Borribles

18:55 / 05.07.01

Does anyone remember the Borribles books by (I think) Michael de Larrabeiti?

They fucked my head right up when I was little. I read the last one (Borribles: Across the Dark Metropolis) when I was about 12/13 and was depressed for TWO DAYS. (That usually doesn't happen to me.) Haven't dared to read any of them since.

(Hmmm... Harry Potter, Diana Wynne Jones, the Borribles... I'm spotting a theme. I should go read some books for grownups.)

22:35 / 05.07.01

The Borrible books made me want to stay twelve forever; I had hoped to grow pointy ears before hitting thirteen. The death of Napoleon was elegantly written, almost as brilliant and heart-breaking as the unacknowledged romance between Knocker and Chalotte. Yes, the series was a tragedy, but Knocker's sacrifice enabled his beloved friends to live happily ever after and allowed him to gain a form of immortality; unlike Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the loss of the hero was meaningful and profound, not a stupid, pointless twist of fate. I found the ending of the final book in the trilogy to be both depressing and uplifting; all that beauty, hidden under descriptions of boogers and shoplifting, talking rats and sewers, slit throats and slingshots.

22:35 / 05.07.01

Oh God, I'd forgotten about Napoleon... Thanks, flunitrazepam - this has given me the strength to consider rereading them. For some reason only the heartbreak had stayed with me.

(And yes, I was desperate for my ears to grow pointy as well... but it was not to be, and now I have a job.)

15:26 / 06.07.01

Deva, feel not ashamed at your love of kiddy (and/or YA books). they often have an honesty and directness fiction marketed to adults will lack. I don't whether you have noticed by sometimes books will cross categories according to nation. A Wizard of Earthsea, Red Shift by Alan Garner (as adult as anything I have ever read!) and the Borribles book... all marketed as YA's in England and for adults in the states.

15:46 / 06.07.01

i loved them. somehow, every single borrible book i ever owned got lost, left behind or never returned from whoever i lent it to. weird.

and let's not forget the moomins while we're on the subject of kids books, eh?

16:48 / 06.07.01

yes. I read Moominvalley November a few years ago on the reccomendation of someone online and surprised myself to cry while reading three times. something very very rare for me to cry even once. maybe it had to do with nostalgia or the time of my life that I read it echoing the book.

I remembered the Moomin books as eerie and confusing but not like that. I thought of them as I typed my last post in this thread or should have. they have more depth and beauty to them... just about any books, at their best.

Tove Jansson died last week so the series will end there, as it should have, I think.

[ 06-07-2001: Message edited by: Kriztalyne ]

07:32 / 07.07.01

Didn't know about the crossing genre boundaries when crossing national boundaries - that's interesting (though I did know that I always have to look for Diana Wynne Jones in 4 places in every bookshop - children's W, children's J, adult W, adult J...)

And I never read the Moomin books, which strikes me as odd. I shall go and find them forthwith.

02:30 / 11.07.01

Wow. It's been years since I thought of good ol' Knocker Burnthand. Or Flinthead or Napoleon Boot or the Rumbles down in Rumbledom. "Verdammt!" What was the German Borrible's name? I found "The Borribles" in a used bookstore with the cover ripped off. I got it for 50 cents. I was 12 years old and it was raining for days, so I read the whole thing over the space of a weekend. I could not put it down, except to eat. I felt like I was really training and going off to war against the Rumbles. I only ever found one other book, "The Borribles Go For Broke." I still have both of them on the bottom-most "stuff I can't throw away but can't remember why I'm still keeping it" book shelf. Now I'll have to read them again. Were there a lot of titles? I thought those were the only two. Guess I'll have to check Amazon. Thanks for reminding me! Now in all in the mood to go fight some Rumbles. Where's my catapult?

And the Moomins! I had forgotten them, too! I must've read a dozen of those when I was even younger! The Mymble and Little My and The Joxter and the Snork Maiden and Sniff and Snufkin! And the Hemulen. What the hell is a Hemulen? The illustrations were classic! Most of the other kids thought I was crazy, though. Those few who read without being forced to only read biographies of sports "heroes." I do remember making a few converts to the Moomin cause, though. Maybe some of you are out there...

06:40 / 11.07.01

quote:Originally posted by Yagg:
Were there a lot of titles? I thought those were the only two.

As far as I remember it was a trilogy, with The Borribles: Across the Dark Metropolis as the final book (warning, do not read if you can't afford a couple of days' depression afterwards, unless you're more like Fluni than me, in which case you will be uplifted).

I wonder if my local library has them? And the Moomins... Who are they by, btw? [Edit: Just looked about 2cm higher up the page, and have now worked out that the comment that "Tove Jannson is dead" was not just a non sequitur... Duh.]

[ 11-07-2001: Message edited by: Deva ]

01:54 / 12.07.01

I found an "official" Borribles site, and if I remember right, this is it:
www.theborribles.co.uk/

Mr. DeLarrabeiti's bio is quite interesting. That guy has lived! Also, a check of Amazon reveals that none of the books are in print anymore. Someone has a used copy of "Dark Metropolis" for like $50. That's a little steep. Drat.

There are a lot of Moominsites out there, as well. Awww, I'm getting all misty eyed and nostalgic. Better shut the hell up before I embarass myself anymore.

11:27 / 12.07.01

here's a moomins link:
http://www.geocities.com/lindashippert/moomin/moominnf.html

21:40 / 12.07.01

Thanks for the links - the moominfolk look cute!

(though I'm very upset that the Bozzas are out of print... I liked finding out that they're called the Zorribles in France, though.)

And Yagg: don't get embarrassed about loving kidfic, or I'll have to get embarrassed about it as well, and that won't be any fun.

11:53 / 13.07.01

I don't remember the Borribles. I'll keep an eye out for them, they sound pretty. Good.

I read books intended for Children and Young Adults all the time. Why deny yourself some fantastic stories just because they're being marketed to a younger audience... I'm currently re-reading the Dark is Rising Series (buying them up Second hand, looking for 'The Grey King' at the moment) and I lve Alan Garner's Elidor, Moon of Gomrath and Weirdstone of Brisingamen. Fantastic stories. Need to read Red Shift and the Owl Service....

Ah, Diane Wynne Jones - magnificent Stories: Howl's Moving Castle, The Homewardbounders, Witch Week.... etc.... fan bloody tastic stuff.

The Moomins, I remember the fuzzy felt animations (not the appalling cartoon series) - the books I'd love to read as well...

I'll keep an eye out for Borribles stuff in Second Hand bookshops and charity shops.

I've also been trying to collect all the Marmelade Atkins books... which are fun...

15:35 / 13.07.01

I'm with Opal...What's wrong with being a kid again sometimes? And thanks for reminding me of Alan Garner. I've been trying to think of his name for awhile now. I read "Weirdstone" when I was a youngster and have been meaning to find it and read it again. What were the little baddies called? Svarts?

My favorite young adult author is Daniel Pinkwater. He wrote a lot of quite surreal novels and short stories in the 70s and 80s that probably helped bend my mind into it's current odd shape. I'd suggest "Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy From Mars." Or anything involving The Snark Out Boys. I rediscovered him just last year and his stuff makes me laugh almost as much now as it did when I was 10.

My, but we've drifted far from the subject, haven't we? Oh, well.

22:06 / 13.07.01

I remember a handful of young adult books that were scarier than the stuff Stephen Kind wrote: House of Stairs and Into the Dream, by William Sleator; Kept in the Dark, by Nina Bowden; and The Westing Game, by Ellen Raskin. Nowadays, they're not so blood-curdling, but they're still very eerie. Especially the Sleator novels. ("Maybe you're going schizo...I read a story about that once. There was a kid who kept thinking about snow all the time. It was the only thing he thought about. And he stopped caring about anything else...")

While we're at it, I'd also recommend the first few issues of the "Power Pack" comic to anyone of any age. It goes downhill after that, though.

22:06 / 13.07.01

The Dark is Rising

'Nuff said. The whole arc is fabulous, takes a while to get going, and the second book (TDiR itself) is possibly the best. I really wasn't keen on Over Sea, Under Stone... until I got to book 4 or 5, and suddenly it all fell into place. I love the way the novels are almost timeless in their description. And there is a degree of characterisation that does progress over the books - Will's maturing notably.

Great books. I still recommend them to younger people I know.

Oh, and I'm awfully fond of Phillip Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy. OK, so it's very Milton-for-beginners, but it has some interesting concepts, and anyone introducing kids to Milton deserves a doff of my cap. It's good stuff... even if the last book goes on a bit (the best stuff of Amber Spyglass is at the end, sadly). Ah well. Do read them, they're very fine.

I do read proper books, too...

13:50 / 14.07.01

Oooh! Oooh! More kidfic/YA recommendations! I'm a happy Deva.

(Never really got on with Alan Garner for some reason, then found out he hated Tolkien and stopped trying. I might give him another go, though.)

I recently reread the Dark is Rising sequence, which I enjoyed most thoroughly (though no girl Old Ones - boo! - and I always get a bit antsy about stories that have a Super Race of people who Know More Than Ordinary Folk... hey ho. I saw some lovely Bran/Will slash over on fanfiction.net, so that cheered me up.)

I'll definitely check out Sleator and Pinkwater, who I hadn't heard of. And I'm going to put in a word for Jenny Pausacker - YA novels with gay characters. You don't get many of those to the pound.

14:52 / 14.07.01

Yagg, I didn't like Alan Garner's first two books which include Weirdstone...
and The Moon of Gomrath but Elidor and Red Shift and to a lesser extent The Owl Service (last established an idea already given away by the back cover blurb and didn't develop it)... and for that matter that classic essay "Inner Time"... I will tell you reading Red Shift allowed me to experience parts of me I didn't know I had.

Pinkwater... really good too. reads like William Burroughs in places, weirdly enough, if you'll notice in the adult book he wrote recently.

Paleface, The Dark Is Rising cycle... not in the same class as literature but some of my favorite novels because they have such neat ideas and perfect execution. like 'em a lot. as for the superior to other people theme... yeah, so? it justified some neat scenes and as a kid I wanted to identify as someone powerful and special.

I find the idea of Dark Is Rising fanfic bothers me (not a lot) not because of the slash aspect but the interposing your own text on good books. as opposed to bad books.
much like sequels to books by writers who have died.

[ 14-07-2001: Message edited by: Kriztalyne ]

08:53 / 15.07.01

I never said it was as good as "literature" but I was trying to avoid the L-word. They're great books for young people, no matter how old the books may be.

Fanfic, by contrast, I just don't get. And in the context of DiR sounds shite. Don't get me started on the slash stuff.

17:03 / 15.07.01

quote:Originally posted by Paleface:
The Dark is Rising

'Nuff said.

yes. i still reread this one, too. though i love the first book on its own. the haunting stuff in green witch is really creepy.

21:23 / 15.07.01

quote:Originally posted by Kriztalyne:
as for the superior to other people theme... yeah, so? it justified some neat scenes and as a kid I wanted to identify as someone powerful and special.

I don't know how seriously I take this, to be honest - it does bother me, but it's such an all-pervading theme, like superheroes' secret identities, and I think it *can* do kids a lot of good to identify as powerful and special. I guess I'd just rather there were more books where characters didn't have to be *born* different in some way to be powerful and special (the Borribles became different, for example, which thinking about it might be one of the reasons I like 'em so much. OTOH I'm a huge Diana Wynne Jones fan and her characters are born either with or without witchcraft, so... go figure).

quote:Originally posted by Kriztalyne:
I find the idea of Dark Is Rising fanfic bothers me (not a lot) not because of the slash aspect but the interposing your own text on good books. as opposed to bad books.
much like sequels to books by writers who have died.

Well, if it makes you feel any better, there's very very little of it (there's very little book-based fanfic at all, and most of that is Vampire Chronicles as far as I can tell), and it's all short and poorly publicized. I think it's a valid (and creative) way of responding to a book, meself - writing high school essays on good books is also imposing your own text on them, but less fun.

I don't like sequels to books by dead authors, either, but that's more because they're "authorized" and trying to have the same status as the originals, which fanfic isn't. Hey ho. I'll start a different thread if anyone wants to discuss this.

(see me not get you started on slash, Paleface...)

13:49 / 16.07.01

quote:Originally posted by Princess Kooky:

yes. i still reread this one, too. though i love the first book on its own. the haunting stuff in green witch is really creepy.

I the Greenwitch to be very sad, tragic even... very good story..... I do wonder if there's any truth in the rite of the Greenwitch? It's got a lovely... real feel to it.

Hmmmm, the Borribles....the name makes me think of.... well I don't suppose people watched the Rottentrolls at any point? I suppose that should a TV thread really... but that was fantastic too.... only a few years old...

14:45 / 16.07.01

Deva, I see your point as to "born different". in this case I more notice the prevalence in schlock imaginary world fantasy (and in the case of one Luke Skywalker and his sister) the royal blood equals better blood concept. though it ain't exactly an original observation.

as for high school essays and fanfic based on books, eh, writing an interpretation and making the characters do things without the consent of the writer... you know... but I won't fight over it. in some cases I don't doubt the fanfic writer might have more skill than the original one.

14:30 / 19.07.01

quote:Originally posted by Opalfruit:
I do wonder if there's any truth in the rite of the Greenwitch? It's got a lovely... real feel to it.

kinda like the wicker man. well, there are all sorts of weird pagan things in cornwall... like the obby-oss thing in padstow and mazey day in penzance...

16:32 / 19.07.01

"I do wonder if there's any truth in the rite of the Greenwitch? It's got a lovely... real feel to it."

any fantasy writer who can't write a decent (or true) ritual doesn't deserve the title!

13:33 / 08.06.04

Resurrecting this old thread to say how much I agree with Deva re: The Dark is Rising Sequence, and to note that there is now a great deal more fanfic including slash on fanfiction.net. Also, bizarrity of bizarrities, a crossover fic in which Will is transported into the world of Tortall from Tamora Pierce's Alanna series.

I still feel the odd pang over reading this stuff, you know. Pang of guilt, I mean, and not over fanfic but over the actual books... I am not sure quite why. Perhaps it feels like a betrayal of my younger self who would have loved some of this stuff - where I, being a bit sere and withered, and far more aware of its faults, don't get quite the same whooshy pleasure that you get from a really good old read? Also I am increasingly aware of YA fantasy as a genre in its own right which makes it harder to approach each book on its own terms. A pain, as I would like a good old uncomplicated read.

rising and revolving

17:21 / 08.06.04

A couple of additions. Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle which I've not read in many years, but I remember very fondly indeed. Definately my introduction to the concept of a tesseract, as well as a multitude of other wonders.

Also, The Phantom Tollbooth by Norman Juster, which is filled with wonderous characters and puns galore.

Ex

18:58 / 09.06.04

where I, being a bit sere and withered, and far more aware of its faults, don't get quite the same whooshy pleasure that you get from a really good old read?

I found the reverse. When I was clear away from the reality of being a kid/YA myself I was less concerned about the representation of people those ages in the books, which makes them much more fun for me now. For example, I started off at 8 with The Dark is Rising finding Will (at 11) a bit old to identify with, and returned to them at 13 thinking him ridiculously juvenile to be entrusted with such dangers. Now I don't give a tuppeny stuff, and can concentrate on the emotion/ritual/plot of the books.
Reread them a couple of months ago and had back chills at every other line. Also cried on train at Grey King. Maybe I was susceptible, and on a bad day I would suspect Susan Cooper of laying it on with a trowel, but I do like the way small doors open and expose worlds in those novels, and quite slight words have these eerie resonances of import.

10:23 / 14.06.04

So, Deva, did you ever go back and re-read them? I did - well, the first one, and I thought it was amazing. Not so much as a read, but more as what it said about children and how things have changed.

I started a thread in fact here which you're all welcome to go and contribute to.