Comments on: Goodnight Moon

By: RP

RP — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 02:10:21 +0000

Thanks, dude. But I might have trouble claiming my rightful Internets from that hamster who plays the piano on Youtube.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 18:36:08 +0000

RP, you just won the internets.
I’m not sure what that gets you, but I just wanted to let you know that no amount of politeness can repay you for the work you have done here!

By: RP

RP — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 03:39:58 +0000

Unfortunately, the only book criticism I read to my child is the NYT Sunday Book Review. Bookgasm is, unfortunately, not up to her literary tastes.

By: S Stephens

S Stephens — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 03:25:23 +0000

If you think this is so great, read it to your kid every night. You could wake up with a serial killer in your family. Psychosis is not cool!

By: R

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 23:43:23 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6cxNR9ML8k

By: CA

CA — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:23:38 +0000

Humor
-noun
the faculty of perceiving what is amusing or comical: ‘He is completely without humor. ‘

By: Coyote

Coyote — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:45:06 +0000

I’m not entirely sure I find stories where humanity has been devoured by whatever race comes after as terribly horrifying. The novel (not the Will Smith Movie) “I Am Legend” never struck me as particularly scary.

I mean, really, have you _seen_ what humanity has done the to the planet?

I’d be willing to give their children a chance to do better!

I’ve seen a lot of horrible parents, with children who eventually make something decent of themselves, despite the shortcomings of their progenitors – sometimes, because they’ve learned by observing the terrible behavior of said progenitors.

Do you _honestly_ think that human beings are doing such an amazing job of handling things that we should be horrified that something they create ends up overcoming them, putting them aside, and continuing in their absence?

Okay, perhaps I’m just being mean.

By: RP

RP — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 05:26:01 +0000

Thanks, guys.

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 05:22:14 +0000

Exactly what I was thinking, brilliant.

By: Freya

Freya — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 02:23:17 +0000

No, send it to him! I’m about your son’s age, and this was my favorite book as a child, and I still thought the review was hilarious!

By: RP

RP — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 04:37:29 +0000

No no, thank you! I knew I was forgetting something, but your insightful comment has provided a wonderful and timely reminder: It’s time to reset my cuckoo clock.

By: Admonit

Admonit — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 04:26:17 +0000

Thank you very much for simultaneously destroying lots of cozy childhood memories AND confirming my new directions in literary theory! Hooray for the geniuses who discover the malevolent codes hidden under superficially benign children’s story books. I wonder how any of us survive our first ten years on this planet? Well, if we do, the trauma of narrative leads us to become twisted literary critics….

By: JohnR

JohnR — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 04:26:06 +0000

WAY! Way to expose the fey Foucaultian peace in the story. Its coziness belies “the rise of industrialism, capitalism, secularization, the nation-state, and its constituent forms of surveillance.” Jacques Derrida would be proud that you ‘killed’ his nemesis, his former teacher and father of “Structuralism” who turned out to be “Horrors!” gay while Jacques created “Deconstructivism” and was not only a prolific and “dominant French philosopher but also a womanizer .

By: Cesca

Cesca — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 22:27:41 +0000

I read this book to my son when he was young – am torn as to whether to send him the link to your review… as a 24-year-old he will find it hilarious… but it ain’t half gonna ruin some sweet childhood memories.

Decision made. I can’t inflict this on him. (But I hope someone else will.)

By: RP

RP — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:45:57 +0000

Weird!

By: sara

sara — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:56:54 +0000

this is crazy…cause right now I am re-building the goodnight moon bedroom in an installation of the apocalypse…..in chicago. This world is too weird to be true.

By: RP

RP — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:26:19 +0000

The first one is the best. I’ve always wanted to say “disjunctive” and “scrim” in the same breath.

By: RP

RP — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:24:47 +0000

I haven’t read it, but it sounds vaguely Communist.

By: RP

RP — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:23:54 +0000

How it came to me too, basically.

By: marianariabibliotecaria

marianariabibliotecaria — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:24:16 +0000

I think all you would need to show academic gravitas at MLA (surely that’s not an oxymoron?) would be black slacks and a black turtleneck, with appropriate button with slogan.

Might I suggest some titles for your presentation:

Plain sight re-viewing: text and illustration in graphic novels — disjunctive symbiosis or theatrical scrim?

Teasing text from pictures: an illustrative re-creation of a misperceived narrative.

Good night and Good Luck: a post-war narrative reconstructed.

By: Pat

Pat — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:41:33 +0000

I’d love to see your take on Scuppers the Sailor Dog.

By: Kaethe

Kaethe — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:35:21 +0000

Thank you so much. I fortunately missed this book as a child, but was forced to read it to my first born. I could never explain my unease; I thought it was just the disturbing lack of symmetry in the text. But an elegy for vanquished humanity makes so much more sense.

By: Allysson

Allysson — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:10:38 +0000

I always wondered why he says “Goodnight nobody”.

By: RP

RP — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 03:10:52 +0000

No MA, but we could still totally crash it if we invest some cash in elbow-patched sport coats and turtlenecks.

By: John M.

John M. — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 03:03:54 +0000

Where did you get your English M.A.? If you expand it into a paper you can present it at the next MLA conference.

By: RP

RP — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 03:01:24 +0000

I derive no happiness from your pain, but it does make me invulnerable to bullets.

By: RP

RP — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:16:27 +0000

that’s more like it.

By: Struck

Struck — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:16:15 +0000

Wow. Way to totally ruin one of my favorite childhood books. Hopefully I can forget this soon. (But I bet that makes you happy)

By: Paisley

Paisley — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:03:30 +0000

You have ENTIRELY too much time on your hands…

By: scyllacat

scyllacat — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:18:50 +0000

Wholly enlightening and purposeful. Your insight has afforded me great understanding.

By: John A. Karr

John A. Karr — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 02:38:30 +0000

Was expecting Dr. Seuss but Animal Farm meets I Am Legend. Cool.

By: RP

RP — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:38:54 +0000

Josh, I’m no professor, but I think you might be better off using sources a bit more authoritative than a Web site named “Bookgasm.” Nonetheless, I appreciate it.

By: RP

RP — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:36:31 +0000

That’s really nice of you. I am, however, dismayed by the state of anonymous Internet commenting. You folks are altogether too polite.

By: Michelle

Michelle — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:24:41 +0000

Stunning. I really enjoyed it. Looking forward to your next review!

By: Josh

Josh — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 07:48:09 +0000

This is brilliant stuff! Your article helped me complete an undergrad assignment dealing with literary reading. I agree with some of the above comments: this should be a feature with other books. You’d certainly attract a lot of readers with it!

By: Rex

Rex — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 06:33:35 +0000

/wrists

brilliant. will be sharing with my daughters posthaste.

Whatever the hell that means.

<3 Halloween.

By: Jon Ball

Jon Ball — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 04:45:25 +0000

Wow–put one of my favorite books in a whole new light. I’ll never read it the same way.

By: Darrell Patterson

Darrell Patterson — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 03:26:16 +0000

And to think…I was just about to buy this for my granddaughter. Back to “Where the Wild Things Are.”

By: RP

RP — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 01:17:55 +0000

Thanks! You’re only the second person to ever say that to me. Unfortunately, the first person to say that to me beat you by a couple of years.

By: RP

RP — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 01:14:06 +0000

Thanks, although that’s just a bit more dense than my normal density.

By: Joel Derfner

Joel Derfner — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 23:23:36 +0000

I love you and want to have your babies.

By: R

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:59:24 +0000

Okay, that’s it. I just deleted this site from my Bookgasm bookmark.

Seriously, though, great concept and execution. I’d suggest making this a regular column. Something like “Book Reviews by the Particularly Dense” or something.

By: Bridget Conley

Bridget Conley — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:59:21 +0000

This is priceless.

By: Tim Schmelter

Tim Schmelter — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:33:48 +0000

Brilliant!

By: Rick Ollerman

Rick Ollerman — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:49:52 +0000

This review is hilarious. I think.