That's Irony, Disney-style

Irony is one of those words that people find difficult to define. Usually it's easier to give an example. And, when I come across a good example of irony, I like to make note of it.

In this case, this example of irony comes from a side bar in a travel book for, of all places, Walt Disney World in Florida...

Fascinating Fact

Natural pest management is used throughout Walt Disney World. Disney releases 250,000 warrior insects--they get rid of harmful pests--each year, and even allows guests to take part via the Ladybug Release at Epcot. Interestingly enough, feral cats also roam Disney property, working hard to keep the rodent population down. Look out, Mickey!

Image that; having to keep the rodent population at bay in a place that owes its fame and very existence to a... mouse.

Taken from:
Veness, Susan. The Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World (2009), p. 78.

Tea Time with Mma Ramotswe

Here is an exchange between Mma Makutsi and Mma Ramotswe about tea pots. It's a passage like this one that makes me want to make my own pot of tea...

Mma Makutsi put on the kettle, her accustomed task, and lined up the two teapots at the ready.

"Be sure to use the big one for the ordinary tea," said Mma Ramotswe from the other side of the room. "That would be best."

Mma Makutsi hesitated. "But it is the one you have always used," she ventured. "I do not want to change things..."

Mma Ramotswe was insistent. "No, Mma. We have already discussed this. I am happy with that small teapot for my red bush tea. I am happy to change."

Taken from:
McCall Smith, Alexander. The Double Comfort Safari Club (2010), p. 200.

Well Known Character Traits

Alexander McCall Smith delights us with his latest installment of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. (And by latest, I don't mean it's dead!)

Whether we have known Mma Ramotswe for ten books prior to this one, or are a newcomer to the series, these two selections can be enjoyed... not just for an insight into Mma Ramotswe's character, but for pure literary enjoyment...

Let's begin with the opening chapter of the book. Oddly enough, Mma Ramotswe doesn't even make a physical appearance in this chapter. And yet, she is present, even if just in the thoughts of her husband, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni...

He had very few criticisms to make of Precious Ramotswe, his wife and founder of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, but if one were to make a list of her faults--which would be a minuscule document, barely visible, indeed, to the naked eye--one would perhaps have to include a tendency (only a slight tendency, of course) to claim that things that she happened to believe were well known. This phrase gave these beliefs a sort of unassailable authority, the status that went with facts that all right-thinking people would readily acknowledge--such as the fact that the sun rose in the east, over the undulating canopy of acacia that stretched along Botswana's border, over the waters of the great Limpopo River itself that now, at the height of the rainy season, flowed deep and fast towards the ocean half a continent away... All these facts were indeed both incontestable and well known; whereas Mma Ramotswe's pronouncements, to which she attributed the special status of being well known, were often, rather, statements of opinion. There was a difference, thought Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, but it was not one he was planning to point out; there were some things, after all, that it was not helpful for a husband to say to his wife, and that, he thought, was probably one of them.

We get a demonstration of this later in Chapter 14. Not from Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni's point of view this time, but from that of Mma Makutsi.

[Mma Makutsi] also navigated--which was not an exacting task given that the road to Francistown, which marked the end of the first leg of the journey, ran straight and true from Gaborone northwards and neither meandered nor diverted. "You go straight here, Mma," said Mma Makutsi. "That sign over there says Francistown. That is the route to take." Mma Ramotswe nodded. "Yes," she said. "These are good signs, don't you think Mma? They make it quite clear which way you should go."

Mma Makutsi, interpreting this as veiled criticism of her navigating, searched for an objection to this remark. "But what if there is a blind person?" she challenged. "What use would they be then?

"But a blind person shouldn't be driving," said Mma Ramotswe. And added, as if the matter required further resolution, "That is well known, Mma."

There could be no answer to that, and the subject was closed.

Taken from:
McCall Smith, Alexander. The Double Comfort Safari Club (2010), pp. 3-4; 156.

How did I rate this book? Another satisfying read from The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency!

Narration Interrupted

In third-person narration, sometimes you get a narrator with a distinct personality, even if the narrator is not really a character in the book.

As is the case with The Wonderful Garden by E. Nesbit. The narrator (or perhaps the author herself?) pops her head in every now and again to give her two cents.

In the two selections below, the narrator's intrusion primarily helps us with characterization... particularly of two minor characters.

In the first selection, Caroline (one of the children) is trying work through a dilemma. She approaches the vicar of the church: a Mr. Penfold. You'll see the narrator pop in near the end of this verbal exchange, just to let us know that Mr. Penfold is going to be one of the good guys in the story.

"You're a clergyman, and so I suppose you know all about right and wrong?"

"I do my best to know," he said. "Well?"

"Well, aren't there some secrets you ought to keep, even if you know that some people would say you oughtn't to if they were to know you were keeping them--only of course they don't?"

I think it was rather clever of Mr. Penfold to understand this; but he did.

From good guys to bad guys now. The next selection is where the children are trying to speak with Lord Andore, but they are rebuffed at the door...

And then the cap disappeared only to reappear a moment later at the lodge door, on the head of a very angry old lady with a very sharp long nose, who might have been Mrs. Wilmington's grandmother.

"Out you go, the way you came," she said; "that's the order. What do you want, anyhow?"

"We've got a bouquet for Lord Andore," said Caroline, showing it.

"Keep it till the fifteenth," said the woman; a silly thing to say, for no bouquet will keep a fortnight. "No village people admitted till the gala and fete when his lordship comes of age. You can come then. Out you go. I've no patience," she added; and it was quite plain that she had not.

Taken from:
E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden (1911), pp. 153, 259-60.

What did I think of this book? Not bad. Certainly not my favourite book by Nesbit, but it was amusing in its own way.